What if your heart is no longer 'prone to wander?' What if God is more interested in releasing a noble goodness He's already placed within you, rather than pressuring you to be more 'holy?' Discover the book by Jim Robbins.
The idea that we have a good and noble heart now because of Christ's work in us comes from the classic Christian doctrine called, "regeneration." It was even forecast in the Old Testament when God declared:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you." [Ezekiel 36:26]
This is not a new teaching; but rather, one we've largely ignored in contemporary Christianity.
J.I. Packer, whom Time magazine listed as one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America, describes our regeneration as, “the spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which his/her inherently sinful nature is changed so that he/she can respond to God in Faith, and live in accordance with His will (Matt. 19:28; John 3:3,5,7; Titus 3:5). It extends to the whole nature of man, altering his governing disposition, illuminating his mind, freeing his will, and renewing his nature.”
He goes on to say that, “The regenerate man has forever ceased to be the man he was; his old life is over and a new life has begun; he is a new creature in Christ, buried with him out of reach of condemnation and raised with him into a new life of righteousness.” (See Rom. 6:3-11; II Cor. 5:17; Col. 3:9-11)
[In my book, Recover Your Good Heart, you can read quotes from preachers of old such as Jonathan Edwards, Andrew Murray and Martin Luther who also confirm the supernatural goodness of our new nature.]
We were handed the wrong lens: You will read Scripture through whatever lens you’ve been given. For decades, I mis-read the Scriptures as a way to behave better so that I could act like a good Christian. Others I know have been mislead as well. In fact, one man I know told me, “The four Gospels are about how we behave.”
Is that what Jesus came for? —“I have come that you might behave.”?
The commands of Jesus as well as Paul’s strong guidance to young churches felt heavy and wearisome to me. The commands became admonitions to avoid certain behaviors and take on other ones, lest God be displeased.
I was never told Jesus had given me a new and pure heart or the supernatural power for good that comes with it. I was left reading the New Covenant through an Old Covenant mentality [ a distorted lens]. After a while, one begins to resent God and despise the Christian life for requiring something, without providing the power to carry it out.
And that's the point: the new heart Jesus gave you, tended by the Holy Spirit, gives you the power to change, to live well and to relate well. As long as you believe your heart remains 'wicked' and 'prone to wander,' your healing will be sabotaged and the work of Jesus will be short-circuited.
History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is is thought to be essentially concerned only with how to deal with sin: with wrong-doing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally. -- Dallas Willard, 'The Divine Conspiracy'
The Gospel is not primarily about rescue from sin. It is a rescue from death:
Rescued from deadness of heart [spirit/will],
Rescued from deadness of disconnection,
Rescued from deadness of disorientation,
Rescued from deadly and demeaning desires that are less than us.
The Gospel is about a life-giving-life:
A life-giving heart,
A life-giving connection with God and others,
A life-giving re-orientation around the Incarnate Life himself
A new set of life-giving desires.
Jesus' primary offer is not forgiveness of sins [although he does forgive our sins]. Rather, his offer is a great restoration: returning to us the things that Death has stolen from us.
"For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity.” - C.S. Lewis
“I will give you a new heart…” – Ezekiel 36:26
Therefore, Christ’s work, of necessity, must deal with the heart, the “inside of the cup.” As Dallas Willard rightly states:
“If we would walk with him, we must walk with him at that interior level [the level of the heart].… He saves us by realistic restoration of our heart to God and then by dwelling there with his Father through the distinctively divine Spirit. The heart thus renovated and inhabited is the only real hope of humanity on earth.”
Notice that salvation is a rescuing of the heart, for when you rescue the heart you rescue the person.
Parents often get their young families to go 'back to church' in order to give their children a proper moral upbringing. Adults often look to Christianity to provide a higher moral compass. But Jesus never intended that to be the thrust of the new way of life he was offering.
To be clear, the new-hearted love he was offering does, in fact, produce a responsible, moral person who cares about how their actions affects others; but this was not of primary importance. As N.T. Wright suggests:
Christians from quite early in the church's life have allowed themselves to see this [way of Jesus] as a new rule book, as though his intention was simply to offer a new code of morality ... Jesus' contemporaries already had a standard of morality to rival any and to outstrip most." [from The Challenge of Jesus, N.T. Wright]
If morality was the central point of Christianity, Jesus would have simply re-instituted the moral code the Jews already had in place. Thankfully, Jesus' righteousness [goodness] surpassed the moral code of the day by being rooted in God's faithfullness, and his capacity to produce his righteousness within us. The same faithful goodness Jesus possessed is now rooted within your new heart.
IDENTITY REFORMATION - Living our new identity is a new Facebook Page I created to showcase authors/bloggers/publishers who support the good and noble heart message. Here you will find resources and content from people like:
Current Contributors: Jim Robbins, Gary Barkalow, Kevin Miles, Joel Brueseke, Bob Regnerus, Matt Gillogly, Andrew Farley.
Have you ever spent time with Christians who still feel like they owe God something? What you'll feel is a sense of pressure. You'll pick up on phrases like:
"We really need to get more serious about God."
"Lord, I just want to more faithfully serve you. I really should volunteer at that homeless shelter."
"After all God's done, I need to step it up and do my part."
Are all these activities noble and worthy of our effort? Yes. But the motivation is misguided. This is not a contract.
We owe God nothing. [Wasn't that the point of the Gospel?] It's because we owe God nothing that we're glad to give, glad to serve.
Reciprocity and the Gospel cannot co-exist: Why? Because reciprocity says, "You've done something for me, now I'm obligated to do something for you. [I owe you.]" Reciprocity works like this:
My co-worker unexpectedly bought me a Christmas gift: Now I have to get her one. [Dang]
My friend helped me pack for the move: Now I owe him a favor.
You paid for lunch last time: So it's my turn.
The Gospel doesn't work like this. Rather, God says,
"I've lifted the burden of obligation from your shoulders. You wouldn't have been able to bear it anyways; and you weren't meant to. Your part is to receive."
Receivers who understand this are naturally grateful and make the best givers. We give because the pressure's off. This relationship is founded on God's faithfulness: Not ours. It always has been.
God is not nearly as interested in pointing out our sin as we think he is. Of course he may occassionaly have to redirect us or expose something unhealthy.
However, there is a difference between accusation and conviction. Accusation assumes the Christian’s very heart is still misguided and corrupted by bad motives. Accusation is a destructive posture that proceeds from Old Covenant thinking: “You’re sinning because you really are that kind of person.”
The opposite of accusation is conviction. Conviction is exposure without condemnation: “Yes, I know you did that, but I am not ashamed of you or disappointed in you. You will always be my delight.”
God’s convicting work is now embedded within a wholly new set of assumptions about us. God assumes there is a new vitality and purity about us, because he gave us his own goodness-of-heart by disabling our corrupt and former nature [heart] and replacing what was diseased with the very goodness of Jesus. We now live with hearts fully-alive, knowing that goodness is now our first nature.
Therefore, whenever God convicts, he exposes something that prevents us from experiencing the thrill of our new regal goodness.
I wrote this for pastors and teachers in the area of Southern New Hampshire where I live; but the core idea holds true for churches across the country. Feel free to share this.
Sherpa carrying load photo: Courtesy of PaulPrescott: paulprescott.com/
Update on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 4:18PM by
Jim Robbins
Note: Once you download the e-book, or open it in your reader, the clarity improves quite a bit. What you see on screen here is the preview version, which lacks a bit of sharpness.
The files and artwork have been sent off to the CD duplicator. The audio book CD sets should be shipping to me at the end of the week, and I'll make them available on the blog next week. [CD sets and MP3 download.]
Much of what passes for the “gospel” these days is a message of exhortation without regeneration—preaching that excludes the New Covenant reality of a transformed heart. (Or more accurately, preaching that is grossly unaware of this transformation having already occurred.)
The message of exhortation translated today says, “You’re not doing enough of this; or you’re doing too much of that:” “You’re too selfish, not committed to your marriage, not serving enough …”
Exhortation becomes an attempt to manage (or manipulate) people’s behavior by pressure and guilt, rather than urging them to release the good stored up in their heart through Christ’s work in them. Exhortation leans toward the 'not-enough' and 'not yet' rather than relentlessly pursuing the supernaturally-pure heart Jesus has already given usat our conversion.
How can Christians be bothalready good, and becoming good? Here are two verses that lay this out for us:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17) (Here, there’s a sense of finality. Our goodness is a settled fact.)
But Scripture also show us the ever-increasing process of becoming good …
“ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge...and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 4-8)
(In this verse, we have a sense of Christ’s character developing in us with growing measure, over time.)
As I learn to live from my new and supernaturally-good heart, I mature in the goodness that God has already given me. That goodness may be as yet not expressed, but nevertheless still present in me. Discipleship is the process by which I enjoy and continue to express an already-present holiness and wholeness within me.
"Christianity is not about how good we are, but how good God is."
Are we sure about that? [Even raising the question sounds heretical, doesn't it?] As my friend Mike cautions, "Don't poke the bear..." But what if the answer to the question is: It depends on who the "we" is, in that statement.
Part of the problem with preaching today is that it often has to be addressed to a large, diverse crowd, some of whom buy into the teaching of Jesus and some who are cautiously investigating. The speaker/preacher ends up delivering a broad, cast-a-wide-net message that isn't oriented to any particular segment of the crowd [and ends up confusing everybody], or ends up covertly addressing the "unbeliever" in an attempt to evangelize them, though he appears to be addressing everybody. [I used to be in that very position, so I understand the complexities.]
However, to preach or teach and not be clear with the crowd exactly to whom you are speaking [especially when making a statement like the one above] can have a bewildering and injurious effect.
For example, the above claim that: "Christianity is not about how good we are, but about how good God is" is true, but requires a clear caveat. If you're a Christian who hears that statement, you might assume that your heart [your true nature] remains selfish and sinful --because it's not about "how good we are," according to that statement.
This would in fact, be untrue and unbiblical for the Christian to believe. The idea that the human heart is desperately wicked is true -- prior to a person entering the 'in-Christ' life. After Jesus enters the person, he or she has a supernaturally and thoroughly-pure heart [true nature]. This is the classic notion of regeneration.
You can image the confusion many Christians have felt when hearing statements that are non-specific and unclarified like this. The affect of such an unthoughtul approach to preaching (and a misunderstanding of Jesus' rescuing of the heart] leaves many who are technically free, but functionally bound, like Lazarus: Invited into life, but unable to live freely, under the 'easy yoke.' They don't know they've been made radically good; and their spirits break under the weight of poor preaching.
Can you think of other apparently 'Christian' statements that really need clarifying and a deeper undertanding?
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Update on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 3:05PM by
Jim Robbins
If someone were to read only this post and be unaware of my full perspective, they could conclude that I think we ought to condemn the person who has yet to follow Christ, or that Jesus himself approaches people through condemnation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus didn't approach people this way, nor do I. However, neither can we ignore the conclusion that the heart [prior to Christ's rescuing work] is just as scripture describes -- in ruins, bent inward, unable to love and receive at the level Jesus loves and receives. [ -- what Scripture describes as 'deceitfully wicked.'] As an aside, "deceitfully wicked" doesn't have to look like rape or genocide. It's often much more subtle. -- Remember, Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees is that their righteousness didn't go far enough.]
Just because we want to think all people are basically good [whether Christian or not] doesn't make it so. It's easy to understand how we, in our attempt to make sense of troubling issues, can draw conclusions based upon what we wish was true. But this doesn't get us closer to what is real.
Many Christians are living under very damaging assumptions about their heart. I wrote the book to expose those assumptions and to help readers believe that their heart is now truly good and noble.
My book, Recover Your Good Heart is available in E-book format below. You can also find it in print on Amazon.
I've put together a quick quiz to find out what people know (or what they are convinced they know about 'grace.') I've used SurveyMonkey.com to create this short quiz.
The answers to the quiz may be quite surprising to some - even for those who have been walking in grace for years.
The quiz is short - only seven true/false questions.
I'll be revealing the answers this weekend here on the blog.
Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel, joined me again to talk about the misleading catch-phrases Christians use that end up leading them away from their new and good hearts.
We also address that sticky passage in the Lord's Prayer that says, "If you don't forgive others...neither will your Father forgive you." But wait a minute, aren't we already and fully forgiven? How do we reconcile other passages on our completed forgiveness with this passage that follows the Lord's Prayer?
Listen 'live' today as special guest Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel, joins Jim again. This time they'll talk about the misleading catch-phrases Christians often use -- spiritual language that ends up separating us further from our new hearts and restored identities.
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:21AM 
classic Christian doctrine called, "regeneration." It was even forecast in the Old Testament when God declared:
