The Path To Obedience

I’m rereading Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson’s “Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ.” It is a book that hardwires the gospel to the struggles of our lives. In our effort to live righteously we can spend huge amounts of time critiquing our personal performance. Rather than “forgetting what lies behind” (Php 3:13) we fixate on it. Our motives might be good but in the end this obsession with performance does us no good. In fact, it might be damaging. Here is a snippet from “Counsel” dealing with this issue:

If we focus too narrowly on our failures and never take our eyes off ourselves, we can become mired in endless navel-gazing, and, even as Christians, simply looking at ourselves doesn’t have the power to transform us. If we keep our eyes riveted on ourselves, even as we routinely practice confession and repentance, we will stay bogged down with the same old sins. We need to set our eyes on something beyond ourselves or our failures. We need to glimpse something that is more powerful. We need to see Jesus Christ and the transforming glory of God.

What we need is the truth of 2Cor. 3:18, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” It is fixation on Jesus and His gospel that is ultimately transforming.