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DAY NINE
I really struggled with this Chapter. On the one hand, I certainly do not want to “displease” God, but on the other hand, Warren’s treatment of “pleasing” God failed to be centered in Christ Crucified. I found the distinction between Warren’s treatment of making God smile and the Scripture’s focus upon the Person and work of Christ Jesus to be rather subtle, but serious.
This Chapter begins with a reference to Numbers 6:25 from the NLT. The portion quoted from the NLT should be compared to the entire Aaronic benediction in other translations, such as the NASB or NIV, for example. The text emphasizes that it is the LORD speaking. As is true of most English versions of the Bible, “LORD” is used in regard to the Tetragrammaton, the divine name YHWH, the Name whereby God reveals himself as the Covenant Savior God, the God who works the salvation of man according to His grace alone. Accordingly, this passage sets forth the gracious work of God poured out upon undeserving man according to God’s grace and grasped through faith alone. Sinful man can not make God smile upon him, whether by his own will, efforts, works or merits.
Psalm 119 sets forth in a beautiful poetic manner the various ways God employs to communicate His will, His work, and His teaching for the benefit of man, all according to God’s gracious purpose that man might flee from God’s Throne of Righteousness to God’s Throne of Grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and with the Word. There is a lot more to Psalm 119 than just God’s Law.
Warren begins the actual discussion with “the smile of God is the goal of your life” (page 69). What Warren fails to adequately present in this Chapter is that I am wholly incapable of pleasing God out of my own human nature, my own merit, or my own works or potential for works. God is pleased with a believer solely on account of the obedience of Christ, the suffering and death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the ascension of Christ. This work of Christ is imputed or credited to a believer only through faith in God’s promises, and particularly the promise of Christ’s substitutional atonement on our behalf. He is pleased with a believer because when He looks upon a believer He sees that imputed perfect obedience, blamelessness, purity, and complete reconciliation to Him, but again, solely on account of His Son. My sinfulness, including my original sin and my actual sins, were imputed to Christ, and through faith, are no longer mine. Therefore, saving faith in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus is the most important content and object of my life.
Warren’s entire discussion concerning Noah should be laid against a fair translation of Hebrews 11:7. The story of Noah, and particularly the exposition of that story in Hebrews 11:7, makes it very clear that Noah did not please God by his works, but according to his faith. Noah remained a sinner throughout his entire life on earth. Only by God’s gracious forgiveness received through faith was any act of Noah acceptable to God. Even after our justification or conversion, we remain sinful beings wherein the Holy Spirit wars against Satan and sin. Noah’s obedience was pleasing to God because it proceeded out of Noah’s faith as a Word and Spirit wrought response to God’s gracious promise to save mankind from sin, Satan and death in Christ Jesus.
The distortion of the account of Noah actually given in the Scriptures becomes all the more apparent when Warren presents his “second reason Noah pleased God”, page 70. He says that the second reason was that Noah “trusted God”, page 70, then goes on to use a paraphrase of Hebrews 11:7 which distorts the text’s emphasis on Noah’s faith. Faith is the only means by which we are put into the objective reconciliation worked by Christ, and no act of any man, save the God-man Christ Jesus, causes intimacy with God. Our acts are a Word and Spirit worked response to that work of our salvation done solely by Christ Jesus. Our best acts remain damnable under God’s Law since they remain tainted by our sin, and are pleasing to God only because of the forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life we are given in Christ Jesus through faith. Faith is trusting God’s promises, and particularly His promise of the vicarious atonement worked by Christ Jesus, and the personal appropriation of those promises by the individual. Warren’s statement, on page 71, that “Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life” denies Christ Crucified His rightful place. As to Warren’s statement, page 71, that “trusting is an act of worship”, true worship flows out of faith and faith is not just some part of worship.
Warren’s statement that “God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly”, page 71, should leave us in great fear if we truly examine our hearts, minds, thoughts, words and actions under God’s Law. Sin corrupts everything we do and as long as we remain sinner and saint, we will never have obeyed God wholeheartedly under the perfect standards of His Law. Warren’s statement should leave anyone who has encountered the Law with its perfect righteousness demands in great fear of eternal life. Warren’s focus on our actions rather than God’s sacramental work is all the more apparent on page 72, where Warren states “Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions…Obedience unlocks understanding.” That denies God’s use of His Word, whether preached, taught, read, meditated upon, or in, with and under the elements of the sacraments, its rightful place as the means whereby God’s grace works salvation in man. In fact, Scriptures say that God takes us through adversity so that we will grow stronger in faith. As to the rest of the discussion, it is true that true saving faith does respond to God’s grace by joyful and voluntary submission to His use of us as His instruments of service to others. We are to examine our faith by testing, under God’s Law, the works proceeding therefrom, as a function of Law, so that we can see if we are succumbing to the ways and thinking of the world rather than His Word.
Praise and thanksgiving are also responses worked by Word and Spirit within us to what God has done, is doing, and will do solely for the sake of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus remains our Joy.
As to the use of our abilities, God does use each and every Christian in his God given vocations as God’s instruments to bring the Gospel of Christ Jesus to this world by word and deed. Warren again emphasizes doing things to the glory of God rather than living under, in, and through the cross of Christ Jesus. Holding on, through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the free gifts received in Christ Jesus must remain the deepest desire of every believer and the core of every believer’s definition of himself and his life.
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COMMENT TO READERS:
In that I derive no personal pleasure from commenting on The Purpose Driven Life, further discussions of the remainder of this book will be undertaken by this author only if the posted discussions on the forum indicate a real and beneficial purpose in so doing. It is my hope that my comments to this point have been sufficient to assist others in testing this book against the Scriptures and particularly in discerning the serious confusion of Law and Gospel that underlies and fills this book. I remain hopeful that this forum site will be used by others to continue a discussion of a right understanding of the sound teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
LDH
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