God's Solution

Tullian Tchividjian:

Preachers these days are expected to major in “Christian moral renovation.” They are expected to provide a practical “to-do” list, rather than announce, “It is finished.” They are expected to do something other than placarding before their congregations' eyes Christ’s finished work, preaching a full absolution solely on the basis of the complete righteousness of another. The irony is when preachers cave in to this pressure, moral renovation does not happen. To focus on how I’m doing more than on what Christ has done is Christian narcissism – the poison of self-absorption which undermines the power of the gospel in our lives. Martin Luther noted that “the sin underneath all our sins is the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and that we must take matters into our own hands.”

In the promise of the resurrection, death loses its power.

Moral renovation, in other words, is to refocus our eyes away from ourselves to that man’s obedience, to that man’s cross, to that man’s blood–to that man’s death and resurrection!

“In my place condemned he stood, and sealed my pardon with his blood–hallelujah, what a Savior!”

Learning daily to love this glorious exchange, to lean on its finishedness, and to live under its banner is what it means to be morally reformed!

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