“The doctrine of justification by faith…has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved,” but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little” (pages 12 – 13).
What was Tozer thinking when he wrote these words in 1948? How might they relate to our own time? If Tozer was seeing the beginning of a problem in the way we think of justification by faith – or if he was seeing a problem that already had well – established roots - has that problem continued into our own time and what are its ongoing results?
Might Bonhoeffer have something to say to us when he writes, “Like ravens we have gathered around the carcass of cheap grace. From it we have imbibed the poison which has killed the following of Jesus among us”?
Tozer writes in the context of the pursuit of God, Bonhoeffer in the context of following Jesus in discipleship – both streams merging into the River of the Gospel.
On page 16 we read, “Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls.”
When Jesus calls us to discipleship, He does not call us to accept Him, but rather to follow Him, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, losing our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s, laying our lives down for Him and others, and not being ashamed of Him in witness (Mark 8:34 – 38: John 15:12 – 13).
Is this not a far cry from the passive acceptance that is marketed to us, in which we are asked to make a profession of faith without committing our lives to Jesus Christ in obedient discipleship?
Biblical repentance is NOT centered on asking forgiveness for sins, it IS centered on turning around from our own way of life to following Jesus the True Way. This turning, this repentance, does indeed involve confession of sins and seeking and accepting forgiveness, but that is NOT the Biblical focus, Jesus Christ is the focus, following Him is the focus, discipleship is the focus, koinonia in Christ is the focus.
We might say that we can have forgiveness of sins and yet have nothing, for if we do not have the life of Jesus Christ then we are still dead in our trespasses and sins – and dead is dead is dead. (Consider Ephesians 2:1 – 10; 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21).
Justification by faith is not, by itself, the Gospel. To teach only from Romans 1:1 to 5:11 is not to teach the Gospel, the Gospel includes all of Romans chapters 1 – 8…and beyond.
When Tozer writes that justification by faith can be interpreted in such a way as to bar people from the knowledge of God he means, at least in part – for he may mean more, that justification is presented in such a way as to create a barrier between the seeker and God. The seeker is told to get his or her passport to heaven stamped and then go his or her own way, as long as they show up for church things will be fine. They ought not to expect too much from this point on, all they need do is to believe they are going to heaven, no need to truly have a relationship with Jesus Christ in unfolding richness.
This is exquisitely diabolical when we consider that what Luther risked his life for, what others died for, has become a Nehustan when isolated from the Person of Jesus Christ and the full Gospel. To go through a wedding ceremony and to receive a signed marriage license from the officiant is not enough. The marriage must be consummated.
How many people are on church membership rolls; how many men, women, and young people attend Sunday gatherings, having gone through motions, having said words that amount to professions of faith or confirmation affirmations, and yet do not have consummated relationships with Jesus Christ…not to mention ongoing deep relationships with Him?
This, of course, ignores passages such as the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1 – 20) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18 – 20) with its command to “make disciples” by teaching them to “observe all that I commanded you.” There are many mysteries with the Gospel and the Kingdom, but one thing that ought not to be a mystery is that we are to enjoy deep unfolding relationships with Jesus Christ and with one another.
Are Tozer’s observations relevant for today?
Are we engaged in a “mechanical and spiritless” method of religious conversion?
(And this applies to our more emotional approaches too, we can be mechanical and spiritless while being emotional, let us not deceive ourselves – having a good time isn’t the equivalent of worshipping God in Spirit and in truth.)
A generation has passed (or is passing) since Tozer wrote The Pursuit of God, if what he wrote is true, then my generation has grown up in an environment that has substituted “receiving Jesus” for the call of Jesus Christ to follow Him in discipleship, in self-denial, in losing our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s, and in laying down our lives for others. We don’t know what we don’t know, and what we don’t know is the Gospel.
Is Jesus enough for us? Is devotion to Him enough? Are we pursuing Him as He pursues us?
Does a fish know that it lives in an aquarium?
Do we know that we are products of systems that have substitutes for the Person of Jesus Christ?
There are folks in our churches who think they have a life they simply do not have; and there are also folks who have a life of which they are unaware. If we preach and teach Jesus Christ then we can trust Him to do His work in both groups…but if we persist in substituting programs and self-help therapy and entertainment and our various Nehustan’s (which were at one time blessings!) then we will only strengthen the bars of our prisons.
And as Tozer has written, let us remember that the Bible is not an end in itself – the Bible is to lead us into the depths of Jesus Christ.
How is our relationship with Jesus Christ unfolding today?
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