For those of you who are interested, the next Ecclesia gathering will be February 3rd at noon. We are reading and discussing Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace, and we’ll be covering chapters 4-5. The discussion will be most beneficial if we’ve all read the book up through chapter 5, so stop by the Book Parlor and pick up a copy today!
For those of you who missed the discussion last week, I thought I’d post a brief synopsis. Lovelace’s stated goal: “To seek the fullest possible current understanding of these principles of revitalization [in the church], using biblical and historical resources, in order to restore the Evangelical movement and the whole church of Christ to a level of reformation appropriate to a new and continuing empowering of the Spirit.” (p.53)
From there, he traces historical and biblical renewal movements, and begins to talk about the various elements involved. He breaks these elements into Pre-conditions, Primary Elements, and Secondary Elements, and then goes on to apply each of these to the local congregation. Our discussion centered around chapter 3, the Pre-Conditions. He argues (from a reformed perspective, though it was debated among us how influenced he was by this) that the pre-conditions for renewal are the same for initial conversion: “Acceptance of Christ and appropriation of every element in redemption is conditional upon an awareness of God’s holiness and conviction of the depth of our sin.” (p.81) Apart from really seeing and “tasting” both of these elements, the good news has little transformative power in the life of a believer: “Most congregations of professing Christians today are saturated with a kind of dead goodness, an ethical respectability which has its motivational roots in the flesh rather than in the illuminating and enlivening control of the Holy Spirit.” (p.92)
We discussed whether or not the issue in dead goodness is really a “justification” issue (ie, people don’t know deeply the magnitude of the cross) or a sanctification issue (ie, people don’t know that they should be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ). Lovelace argues it is the first because the second is nothing more than a fuller application of grace: “The root behind all other manifestations of sin is compulsive unbelief – our voluntary darkness concerning God, ourselves, his relationship to the fallen world and his redemptive purposes. For this reason the entrance and growth of new spiritual life involves the shattering of our sphere of darkness by repentant faith in redemptive truth.” (p. 90, emphasis added)
A ruthless conviction, not so much to Christ (as in my commitment to him), but toward walking in the light and constantly appropriating his gracious acceptance of me (that is, his commitment to me), is one of the primary ways we talked about this working out. If we and our churches deeply believed in the gospel of justification by faith we’d be both humble and courageous, winsome and bold, accepting of all and committed to truth, and fully committed to a discipleship lifestyle that magnifies the lordship of Christ while fully displaying his gracious acceptance of sinners.
