While the making and breaking of New Year’s Resolutions can be the epitome of vanity and meaninglessness, and even though most resolutions are typically temporal and banal, I think there is something constructive for Christians in considering the progress of their faith and then making commitments to pursue Christ in specific ways.
Spiritual transformation and progress is essential — not optional — for Christ followers. Therefore it is not only beneficial to consider our failures, weaknesses, and sin and address them, it is NEEDFUL! And it is needful not only on a yearly basis, but on a weekly basis, a daily basis, and even an hourly or moment-by-moment basis. Examining our lives once a year is like examining our course from 30,000 feet — we get a good view but we’re too far away to change much. Of course from the 5 foot view we can deal with a lot of things but we can’t always recognize past patterns and potential pitfalls.
Even Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living for man.” This is more so for believers since we are called to examine our lives, our fruit, and our affections. We ought to do so daily in our meditation, weekly in our corporate worship and time around the Lord’s Table, and I think it is also beneficial for many to make a bird’s eye assessment here at the end of the year.
Christians ought to be growing in Christlikeness. We should be more like Christ today than December 31, 2005. And so, am I? Are you? If yes, we’ve got reason to celebrate in His grace to us and we ought to do so. But if not, and even if we simply have not arrived yet, we’ve got reason to consider what He would have us do, in light of our responsibility, to be further conformed into the image of His Son.
I’ve already listed some results of breaking resolutions and I shared a brief review of my 2006 resolutions. And though I do intend to share some of my new resolutions for 2007, perhaps it would be beneficial to consider the characteristics of godly or spiritual commitments in general. Let me offer Four Identifiers of Christlike Resolutions:
1. They deal with sin.
This is the starting point of the Christian life, let alone a new year. While certainly not every problem under the sun comes from sin, most of them do. Sin is our dominant problem, not a personality flaw, not a genetic defect, not an adolescent hormone, not a faulty environment. Simply ignoring sin won’t make it go away. Rationalizing sin won’t overcome it. Medicating sin won’t pacify it. Repenting from it is the only proper course of treatment.
The fact that sin is our problem turns out to be good news in a way. This is because if sin isn’t the problem then we are really stuck. There is NO hope if the diagnosis is something other than spiritual. Why? Because God doesn’t make any guarantees about getting us out of a particular situation, or helping us to get organized, or helping us to get physically fit, or increasing our metabolism, or changing our academic ability, or even altering our emotional or mental make-up per se.
But He does have good news if the problem is sin. There is a Substitute Sacrifice who takes the guilt of our sin. There is a Spirit who conquers the strong sway of sin. There are promises revealed in His Book about the impotence of sin for those in Christ along with detailed instructions on killing remaining sin.
We can make all the resolutions we want, but unless those resolutions tackle our sin problem we are going to be fighting the wrong front. Let us categorize and classify our resolutions to deal with sin. Once we find it, we must confess it and repent from it if we want your resolutions to be Christlike.
2. They depend on the cross.
Though the problem is inside us the solution is outside of us. There is a great danger, even for those who recognize their sin as the culprit, to hold the culprit accountable with the wrong tactics.
Resolutions that depend on our resolve in and of itself will not succeed. We cannot successfully fight the sin of the flesh in the flesh. Instead we must look only to Christ and boast in the cross.
What an odd statement. Even the line “I will glory in my Redeemer” can be difficult to appreciate for those who like to shine the trophies of self. The concept of “boasting in the cross” is even more awkward, to celebrate in the instrument of our death in Christ. Actually this is impossible to appreciate and celebrate without the work of the Holy Spirit.
But the cross is the basis of our hope. It was at the cross that our greatest problem — sin — was defeated and destroyed. Our sin no longer holds us captive, either to punishment in the next world or to misery and frustration in this one. Consider the hope and the confidence of the realities expressed in Romans 6:
Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 17 Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Let us look to the cross and forget our man-made rules. We must not depend on our self-sufficient strategies, otherwise our fight will be futile AND He won’t get the glory. So may we remember Jesus Christ and let the Gospel’s revelation of the cross and the righteousness of God bring power to us to live for Christ. A Christlike resolution depends on the cross.
3. They demand living by faith.
Our connection to the cross is by faith, and it is no surprise that our eyes our drawn away from the cross when we are living by sight and not by faith.
It is so tempting to live according to what is the “seen.” In many ways it is not just distracting, but it is easier to order our lives according to the values and philosophy and programs under the sun. It hardly ever seems efficient or effective to do something “by faith”; to spend serious time praying (what good is that going to do?) or waiting on the Lord (what is waiting?)
We love to walk by sight, on the clearly lit, nicely paved path. But if we want something otherworldly we can only connect to that by faith. “The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
For example, do we believe, do we have faith enough to turn off the music and get satisfied with God in the silence? Do we have faith that talking with Him is sweeter than securing more minutes for our cell phones or that lingering in His presence for an extra 10 minutes is better fellowship than tracking the newest comment thread on our MySpace page?
Too many of us are plugged into our earbuds and missing the real music heard (and seen) by faith alone.
4. They are directed by the Book.
If Christlike resolutions are identified by the things that help us be Christlike then Scripture intake is decisive. How are we transformed? By the renewing of our minds. And what does the renewing? It is the Spirit of God washing and rinsing us through cycles of the Word of God.
Or to consider another analogy, how much food have we eaten the last couple weeks? The last month? Probably more than a few of us have some extra pounds to shed from our feasting at the table (and in between times at the table). But have we been feasting at the spiritual table on spiritual food as well? Are we nourished and strengthened in our resolve for Christ by the words of Christ? Our resolutions will be aimless (if not misguided entirely) unless they are directed by the Book.
No doubt some need to resolve to be more in the Book. This is as good a time as any to decide on a Bible reading/study plan. There are so many available avenues to choose from, most of which take only 10-15 minutes of reading a day to finish the whole book in a year.
I was thinking back to some time I spent with Cary Green this past summer. I remember his childlike excitement about his Bible intake! He and his ministry partner had committed to read the Bible four times through in the year. And though he said it was about an hour of straight reading everyday of the week, there was no hint of frustration or burden, only uncontainable zeal and joy.
As I mentioned yesterday, I totally blew my intended Bible intake plan last year. I didn’t make it more than maybe two months. I ended up retreating back to an easier plan. But let us do better now!
I actually started my 2007 reading plan a couple weeks ago. In fact, my reading yesterday is what pushed me over the edge to preach a sermon on resolutions rather than continue in Ecclesiastes. What really capsized my Ecclesiastical efforts was a verse in Acts 6. After the apostles assigned men to take care of the daily food distribution to the widows they made the following resolution in verse 4:
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
I fell in love with the word “devote,” προσκαρτερέω. This Greek word means “to stick by or be close at hand, attach oneself to” along with the idea “to persist in something, busy oneself with, be busily engaged in, be devoted to.”
I was trying to think of an example of devotion and the story of King David and his mighty men came to mind. In 2 Samuel 23:13-17 David was in a cave while the Philistines had control of Bethlehem. Then David said longingly, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” And three of his mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well and carried the water back to David. Of course, he didn’t even drink it. Instead he said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?”
But here were three men devoted to their king. They were consumed with a desire to serve him and take care of whatever he might want, even to the extent that it might cost them their lives. That is devotion; willingness to attach themselves to the cause of another.
Back in Acts the apostles were resolved to devote themselves, to attach themselves, to busily engage themselves with prayer and the ministry of the word. And just in case we think, “That’s for the apostles and maybe for preachers too, but not for us,” we’re wrong.
In Acts 2:42 we get a glimpse into the devotion of the early Christians, not just the leaders, namely that “they devoted (προσκαρτερέω) themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Their days were consumed with and defined by Scripture and ministry and prayer.
προσκαρτερέω is used a few other places in the NT and also in reference to every Christian.
Romans 12:12 be devoted to prayer (NAS) [be constant in prayer (ESV)]
Colossians 4:2 devote yourselves to prayer (NAS) [continue steadfastly in prayer (ESV)]
So our resolutions ought to be toward devotion (Resolutions Toward Devotion), especially to the Bible and prayer. We ought to be known by our devotions [and of course that is an intentional play on words, as we commonly call our time with God daily “devotions”]. But this is no legalistic ritual, it is heart longing and eager desire for the reading of Scripture and prayer.
Why? Is it because something magical or mystical happens when we read our Bibles or because praying cranks God’s wheel and gets Him to do nice things for us? No! It is because the pages of Scripture are filled with God Himself. It is His personal revelation. When we are in the Bible we are with Him. The case is no different with prayer. Prayer can be so much more than a to-do list of requests for God. It is lingering (hopefully undisturbed) in His presence in order that we might enjoy His company. In effect, our being devoted to the Word and to prayer is really just the means of enjoying and increasing our devotion to God.
This is the banner over every other identifier of Christlike resolutions, that they increase not just our spiritual disciplines, but our spiritual devotion.
And that is where I find myself at the beginning of a new year, looking back at what was certainly growth in my affections and more drinking from the Living Fountain than maybe ever before. At the same time I know that there is more. I may be looking only to Christ for my salvation and even looking only to Him regarding my sanctification, but I cannot say with confidence that I am looking only to Christ for my satisfaction. But I want to be able to say this, and my resolutions are intended to point me in the devotion direction.
[…] A friend of mine, Sean Higgins, has entered a post entitled, “Four Identifiers of Christ-like Resolutions“, which also is quite helpful even in bullet form. 1. They Deal with Sin […]