I don’t like to read what friends have written. Understandably,
they would like some feedback and a favorable review, and I tend to be highly
critical. However, my friend Douglas Knox has written a book, From Mourning to Praise: A Biblical Guide through Grief and Loss, (Westbow
Press) which I can wholeheartedly endorse.
Doug knows grief, and now he is learning about praise, but
it has been a process. Along the way, he had taken umbrage at the churches’
present emphasis on the praise choruses. Now he argues that grief is necessary
to shepherd us to praise:
·
We need to understand the bipolar nature of mourning
and praise from a biblical perspective. In physics, we cannot have a magnetic
north without a corresponding magnetic south. Nor can we have a biblical
understanding of praise without an understanding of it opposite pole, grief…Praise
draws its deepest meaning as an expression of deliverance from situations that
formerly called for lament. (47)
In support, Doug quotes Old Testament scholar Claus
Westermann:
·
But there is also no praise that was fully
separated from the experience of God’s wonderful intervention in the time of
need, none that had become a mere stereotyped liturgy. (48)
Problems lead to deliverance and deliverance to praise. They
are a package deal. This is the lesson of the Psalms. They teach us to praise
God not only for who He is but also for what He has done for us. Doug adds:
·
Praise in the Psalms never exists for itself…but
these reflect these reflect the experiential journey from mourning to praise…In
a real way, the Psalms of lament are letters from the front, sent back home in
the hope that we ultimately may return with songs of deliverance. (48)
Without God’s deliverance from grief, fear, and depression,
praise remains a mechanical and laborious duty. Therefore, suffering should be
understood as a necessary invitation to praise and even a wholehearted dependence
upon our Savior.
Now I want to apply this principle to what some pejoratively
call “sin consciousness.” Pastor and universalist Carlton Pearson denounced
this preoccupation:
·
"Sin consciousness, something Jesus never
taught or encouraged, both prohibits and prevents self-love, something we must
learn and re-learn to do, especially when we're brought up in a kind of
"hate yourself" religious climate as many were and continue to be,
whether, Christian, Jewish or Islamic."
Instead, I have found that awareness of my sin has deepened
my praise and adoration for my Savior, who has saved this unworthy person and
will not let go of me. Consequently, although I continue to mourn over my sins
(Matthew 5:3-4), I have grown in gratefulness for Jesus, who has forgiven and
cleansed me of them (1 John 1:9), even as I continue to struggle against them.
Contrary to Pearson’s assessment, Jesus stated: “Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), proving
that He too is very preoccupied with sin, along with the rest of the Bible (1
Peter 1:15-16).
Closer to home, a Christian brother recently criticized me
for being too preoccupied with sin. He explained that the sin message is
unnecessary in view of our incredible Gospel gift and message of forgiveness,
love, and eternal hope.
I want to explain to him what Doug had explained about praise
and its dependence upon God’s deliverance from threat and suffering. As there
can be no deep and genuine praise with without an appreciation of how our
Savior has delivered us from suffering and threat, there can only be a diminished
appreciation of His salvation without our continual awareness of what we had
been saved from. Paul therefore counseled Titus to remind his flock of their past
sins:
·
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient,
led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in
malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness
and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of
works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:3-5 ESV; 1
Corinthians 6:11)
He then argued that gratitude, resulting from our
deliverance from sin, should lead the Christian into obedience (Titus 3:8).
“Sin consciousness” is a gift when it leads us into
confession and repentance, which result in forgiveness and cleansing from sin
(1 John 1:9). It is also a gift when it leads us to examine ourselves for sin,
whatever might alienate us from God and His mercy:
·
Let a person examine himself…But if we judged
ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we
are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1
Corinthians 11:28-32; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 6:4 )
Paul was also sin-conscious and examined himself, knowing
the deceptive power of sin:
·
But I discipline my body and keep it under
control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1
Corinthians 9:27; Romans 8:5-8)
In fact, the entire Bible warns us against sin. Consequently,
this warning is not unusual:
·
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace
of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many
become defiled; (Hebrews 12:15)
None of us are above sin. Consequently, we are also taught
to be alert to the sins of our children, our associations, and even to those
within our churches, correcting and disciplining as necessary.
God can remove our temptations to sin in a moment – and eventually,
He will. However, He has purposely left us with our humbling temptations. Why?
To teach us to abide in His Word:
·
And you shall remember the whole way that the
LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might
humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep
his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with
manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make
you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word
that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3; Matthew 4:4)
I am sure that I would never have learned about God, abided
in His Word, and served Him gratefully without that humbling yoke of sins’
temptations, exposing my inadequacies. Instead, I would have convinced myself
that “I got what it takes.” Rather, sin has taught me that I don‘t have what it
takes, but my Savior does. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!
Salvation becomes a stale promise without the awareness of
sin and what we have been saved from.
No comments:
Post a Comment