I Can't! He Can! So, Let Him!

                I read a quote recently from Tullian Tchividjian, “Believing that simply telling sinners to ‘stop it’ … carries the power to exact lasting change is silly and unrealistic.” He’s right, of course. It’s true, people can’t just stop doing wrong things.

            And, it is also true that it is silly and unrealistic to tell sinners to “just do it” when it comes to the good things God requires. I can no more, in any long-term sense, do what is right on my own than I can not do things that are wrong.

Moral Inability

            I think about this a lot, about moral inability. I really resonate with what Paul wrote in Romans 7:15, 18 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

            I’ve been particularly thinking about moral inability in regards to things I wrote a couple of weeks ago about love. Jesus said, “Love God and love others.” It’s the sum of all God’s Law. In fact, Jesus said, the One Thing, that will show others that you belong to him is the way you love one another. Elsewhere, in Romans, Paul wrote that the One Thing, the only thing, we ought to owe others is love (Romans 13:8 – 10).

            I read what Jesus and Paul said ought to be the One Thing, the most important thing, that I do with my life and I think “But, I can’t!” And, I’m right. I can’t. That’s why I need the gospel.

The Gospel

            The gospel is not just that Jesus died for my sins and has given me salvation. The gospel says that apart from the power of Jesus dwelling in me I can’t live a moral life. I no more have the power to do what is right, or not do what is wrong, than I have the power to save myself from my sins.

           

            In another place Tchividjian related Eugene Peterson’s observation about Augustine, Pelagius and Christian practice.

“Eugene Peterson draws a contrast between Augustine and Pelagius, two fourth-century theological opponents. Pelagius was urbane, courteous, convincing, and liked by everyone. Augustine squandered away his youth in immorality, had a strange relationship with his mother, and made many enemies. Yet Augustine started from God’s grace and got it right, whereas Pelagius started from human effort and got it wrong. Augustine passionately pursued God; Pelagius methodically worked to please God. Peterson goes on to say that Christians tend to be Augustinian in theory but Pelagian in practice. They work obsessively to please other people and even God.”

http://www.pastortullian.com/2015/03/25/march-madness-and-the-mathematics-of-grace-2/

            I add that Christians tend to be Augustinian when we think about salvation – which we know is by grace alone through faith alone. But, we tend to be Pelagian about the Christian life. We think we get better by trying harder. We try harder to stop doing wrong things. We try harder to do right things. We live as though the way to love God and love others is to just work at. Buckle down. Give it more effort.

I Can’t! But He Can!

            But I’ve tried. I really have. For years. And, I finally came to the conclusion, I can’t.

            A number of years ago I a heard a pastor say that the whole teaching of the Bible can be summarized by “I can’t. God can. So let him.” So simple. So profound. It reminds me of another favorite passage:

            “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

            It is only when I admit that I am weak, it is only when I admit that I can’t, I can’t love God and I can’t love others, at least not like I ought, and embrace Jesus in the midst of that weakness, that his grace then makes me able to love.

If I depend on my own ability to love I fail every time. When I admit I can’t and flee to Jesus, and trust in him, trust in his grace, then and only then, do I begin to authentically love.

I can’t. He can. So, let him. That’s the gospel, and that’s what I need.   

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