I love it when an author or speaker says something that challenges the way that I think about a core tenant of our faith. Something that makes me stop and reconsider something that I might otherwise gloss over as a known, a basic understanding that I take for granted. That happened this morning in my devotions.
The author is Paul David Tripp and he writes:
”Justification is the only foundation for personal transformation. Personal transformation never results in justification”
That hit me, how many times do I forget that we don’t come to God as morally good people looking to be perfected, we come to Him as broken sinful people needing justification and grace. For those of us who are believers and who have a solid faith in Christ I think we run the risk of sometimes forgetting that we are still broken. We take solace in what risks becoming a mundane life of relationship with Christ, forgetting just how amazing it is that the God of the universe cares so much about his creation that He gave his life for us.
Tripp references Titus 2:11-14, which in itself is a call to remembrance. Such powerful lessons from the Apostle Paul in this letter that many times is missed in the shadow of the larger epistles and books of larger notoriety. But here in Titus 2:12, Paul simply writes this about the grace of God:
It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
And it doesn’t stop there, in verse 13 he continues by saying, “while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” That small clause is so easy to miss and gloss over, “while we wait”, the justification and perfection that God is working on in us isn’t a moment in time, it’s a process that we must go through patiently; waiting for the One who justifies us to come back and claim us as his own.
So what is the core tenant that we can so easily dismiss? We cannot transform ourselves on our own to a place where we can be justified to Christ; it’s only through His ongoing sanctifying grace that we can be transformed.
An Ordinary Methodist 