Salvation and Discipline are inseparable
“Another truth we see in Titus 2:11-12 is that salvation and spiritual discipline are inseparable.?? The grace that brings salvation to us also disciplines us.?? It does not do the one without the other.?? That is, God never saves people and leaves them alone to continue in their immaturity and sinful lifestyle.?? Those whom He saves, He disciplines.?? Paul said it another way in Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in you will carry it through on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
This thought is both encouraging and sobering.?? It is encouraging because it assures us that our spiritual growth is not left to our initiative, nor is it dependent upon our wisdom to know in which areas and in which direction we need to grow.?? Rather, it is God Himself who initiates and superintends our spiritual growth.?? This is not to say that we have no responsibility to respond to God’s spiritual-child training in our lives, but it is to say that He is the one in charge of our training.” (82)
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“At the same time this inseparability of God’s grace and spiritual discipline is a sobering truth.?? One has only to look around at Christendom, particularly in the United States, to see that there is a vast multitude of people who claim to have trusted in Christ at some time but do not seem to have experienced any of the discipline of grace.?? They may have walked an isle, signed a card, or even prayed a prayer, but grace is not teaching them to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, let alone to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.?? Essentially, their lives are no different today than they were before they professed to have trusted Christ.” (83)
–Jerry Bridges, in “The Discipline of Grace”, ch.4 ‘Disciplined By Grace’
In my humble opinion, the most powerful force in the world is forgiveness.?? It is the one and only??thing that saves us, cleanses us and washes us clean, reconciles us, and sets us free to live a life of love, faith and hope.
But when I read the above… I couldn’t help but feel saddened by the numerous people–many of whom are friends–who are going through the exact thing that’s been mentioned–basically living as if they have never been forgiven by Christ.?? I’ve seen people in my life who go to fellowship on Wednesdays, attend Sunday Service regularly, and even serve on worship team… but way too often, Friday/Saturday nights are filled with drunken debauchery, indulging activities that include grinding their body with another person’s to the beat of the latest hip-hop or techno tune.?? Moreover, sometimes these extra-curricular indulgences of bar hopping and clubbing are done with fellow Christians and even fellow fellowship/church leader friends.
How many times have you heard a pastor preach that “you are forgiven” and yet you are still willingly by your own choosing failing in your battle against sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, idolatry, materialism…day in and day out, week after week??? I know some people who live such a so-called Christian life, as if sin’s dominion still reigned over their lives even though they think profess that they are a followers of Jesus Christ and maybe even are baptized.?? I’m not seeking to criticize anybody at all, but just agreeing with Bridges’ description of this problem that is so widespread in western evangelicals, including here in Canada.
I am often frustrated by the spiritual state of some Christians I know.?? They seem to be saved by grace, and yet I am stuck seeing little if any fruit of a disciplined spiritual life.?? As for those who seem to have been walking in line with Christ, it is as if God would frown at them for having fun and so they live a life of discipline that suggests restraint, legalism, rules and regulations… these people are constantly struggling with balancing discipline and grace, thinking that grace means freedom from rules, unhindered spontaneous living and that God loves us unconditionally in spite of our continuous sinful behavior.
11??For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12??training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13??waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14??who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Titus 2:11-14, ESV
I think many of us have misunderstood what it means to pursue holiness and to live a godly life.?? Our understanding is that our relationship with God is dependent on our??”spiritual” performance (daily Bible reading, quiet time, praying, evangelizing), that whether or not God smiles or frowns on us depends on our doing the right things and not doing the wrong things.?? If this is what we think about the meaning of following Jesus, we’ll end up being disciplined by legalism, becoming rigid in our adherence to the rules from fearing God’s punishment.
We need to fix this misunderstanding by grasping a firm understanding of what Paul meant in Titus 2:11-12… to see that the grace of God in Christ that brings about salvation in our lives is the very same grace that trains us to live to live upright and godly lives.?? Grace, God’s unconditional and undeserved favor towards us,??is the foundation for all of God’s disciplinary processes–not legalism or party-pooping rule-following.?? Discipline is not God giving us rules, regulations??and standards of performance…but it is grace, stemming from His firm and loving care for our souls.
Sustaining grace instructs us with all reproof and correction, to put off the desires of this world and to put on Godly passions… all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praise worthy (Philippians 4:8).?? Even “all the providentially directed hardships in our lives that are aimed at cultivating spiritual growth and godly character” (80) stem from God’s disciplining grace.?? We must no longer think that discipline is only reserved for young, infant Christians… spiritually we must continually remain under the Father’s disciplining grace as old Christians, even until the day we die.
May we all pray for each other to live lives of grace that teaches us to say no sin and yes to obedience, reminding us that we are dead to sin and alive to God.?? And may all our responses to God’s dealings with us and all our practice of the spiritual disciplines be based on the understanding that God is dealing with us in grace.?? You and I both need continually to decisively break away from those practices and attitudes of ungodliness, putting to death the misdeeds of the body.?? And consequently,??we must??have an increasingly high “regard of God’s glory and will for every aspect of our lives, doing everything out of reverence and love for Him.” (88)
-SDG
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