Belief & Behavior

If you walk with God long enough you will discover your actions don’t always reflect what you claim to believe. Our actions often betray our confession of faith. Shouldn’t our behavior always perfectly mirror our theology? Why is it that sometimes—even if we consider ourselves to be spiritually mature—our hearts betray us?

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The answer lies in the reality of the struggle between Christ and the nature of sin we all battle. Without the cleansing of the blood of Jesus and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, we are without hope, enslaved to the lusts of our flesh and the powers of darkness. We all have the capacity to commit heinous acts and vile sins. John Calvin wrote, “We have seen that the lordship of sin, having overcome the first man, made the whole of humanity its slaves.”[1] None of us can escape being included in Cavlin’s description of humanity. Without Jesus Christ, our fallen nature propels us toward a lifetime of disappointing behavior, with eternal damnation as the only justified penalty for our sin. And while believers have the power to live above sin, the reality is we still possess a sinful nature that we will battle until we die.

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The apostle Paul examined himself and declared, “I know that nothing good dwells in me” (Romans 7:18). He then says he has the desire to do what is right but lacks the ability to accomplish it. This is the quandary in the lives of millions of people. This is why it’s possible to believe something and it still doesn’t affect your behavior. You don’t have the ability to do what you believe. The will exists inside of you, but the power does not.

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We don’t have to look far to see examples of people’s lifestyles not matching their beliefs. People know eating poorly will likely result in serious health issues, and yet they still make unhealthy choices. Breaking the speed limit may result in a ticket, and yet people exceed the limit without giving it any thought. We are irrational creatures, servants to our emotions and impulses to a much greater degree than we want to admit. The market is full of self-help books and seminars designed to guide us to a place of discipline and order, and yet people remain in chaos and disorder. These tools have their place in our lives and may sometimes help, but nothing can create true, lasting change like the transforming power of the gospel.

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One of the saddest observations in my ministry has been watching people walk away from God and the church. They know the road they’re traveling will lead to heartache in this life and damnation in eternity, yet they continue to stumble toward destruction, aware of the consequences that await them. Shouldn’t this knowledge change their behavior? Isn’t the idea of spending eternity in a place of torment enough to change their ways? The truth, as I have witnessed in countless lives, is that simply having a belief about something is not enough to produce change. People believe in hell and still rebel against God.

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As a young man, I watched my pastor many times stand in the pulpit and put his fingers on both sides of his head. He would say, “The greatest battle you will ever fight is between these two points,” illustrating the battlefield of the mind is where the war is won or lost. We are our own worst enemy, reverting to self-destructive habits as a coping mechanism to deal with the battles of life. We often do the exact opposite of what is good for us. The person that takes their first hit of crack cocaine does so knowing it is the first step down a slippery slope of destruction and despair, yet they do it anyway. It sounds stupid, ignorant, and foolish, and it is. We are all held captive by the stupidity of sin. Our default position in this world is bondage.

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Pulpits across America are neglecting several doctrines, including the doctrine of sin. The self-destructive cancer of sin embedded deep in our spiritual DNA is destroying countless lives and families. We can’t help ourselves. We are slaves to our own nature. This is the tone of Romans 7, where at the end of the chapter, Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). We must confess like Paul we too are sinful, hopeless people without Jesus Christ.

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A beam of light breaks through the darkness in the opening words of the next chapter as Paul exhorts, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1). This freedom is found only through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection rescue us from the brutal condemnation of Satan and our own conscience. Only through the cross of Christ are we made righteous. We are hopeless without Jesus, but through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross and through the justification we receive by faith in Christ, we can live free from guilt and condemnation as we continue to grow in our faith.

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[1] John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. Robert White, 1541st edition. (Banner of Truth, 2014), 38.

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The Beauty of Holiness

Imagine living in a world without the curse of sin, sickness, and death—a place without hospitals, nursing homes, funeral homes, cemeteries, doctors, or prisons. Seldom do we stop and realize the effect the fall of man has had on our lives and society because we are immersed in a world full of darkness and despair.

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve in his image (Genesis 1:27). They lived in a world free from the curse of sin. While the Bible offers few details about their environment, we can imagine it as a place of beauty and perfection, a place where God gave them dominion over every living thing on the earth (Genesis 1:28). Here, the holiness of God was on display in full glory.

Holiness is the nature of God. It is who and what he is. His holiness is a description of his absolute perfection. When we say he is a holy God, we acknowledge his qualification to be Lord of the universe and the Master of our lives. When Adam and Eve sinned, they brought the curse of sickness and death into the world. The authors of Scripture reference this throughout the Bible. When David wrote he was born in sin (Psalm 51:5), he was writing of the curse of sin that continues today. The apostle Paul writes,

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19–23)

God’s redemptive plan brings his creation back into a right relationship with him. It starts with his redemption of mankind through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It finishes with him presenting the redeemed with a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). The Bible opens and closes with a universe without sin, saturated in God's holiness.

Even in a world full of sin, God requires holiness of his people. God’s desire for us to be holy is both a calling and a command. There is constant tension in the life of every believer caused by us striving to live a sinless life while living in a body that has a sinful nature. This is the tone of Romans 7, when the apostle Paul cries out,

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24–25)

Holiness in the Covenants

In the Old Testament, the tone of God’s desire for his people to be holy came in the form of a command.[1] This was achieved through the sacrifice of animals and ceremonial cleansing commanded by the Levitical Law. The standard of holiness in the Old Testament dealt primarily with how the Israelites lived, addressing little regarding the condition of their heart. In the New Testament, the standard evolved not to exclude the outward man, but to include the condition of the heart and mind. Inward transformation was now possible because of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. People could be holy for the first time in God’s redemptive plan because they had the Spirit of God living inside them. New Covenant holiness is the result of God’s Spirit transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Holiness moved from ritualistic cleansing to inward purity with the dawn of the New Covenant. The Mosaic Law was fulfilled in Christ and the “record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). The New Covenant did not abolish the eternal moral law of God, but rather instituted a new expression of his moral law through the law of Christ:

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire. (Matthew 5:21–22)

God’s moral law evolved to cover not only the prohibition of outward sinful acts but also the condition of the heart. The call to holiness is now for our thoughts, motives, drives, desires, and deeds to conform with the will and purpose of God. This cannot be achieved through mere discipline alone. We all have a poor track record of doing what we know is right by sheer force of will. To be holy is to be dead to our carnal desires and to be alive in Christ.

[1] Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:26.