1990 Issue 2 - Godliness Through Discipline - Counsel of Chalcedon

8/12/2019 1990 Issue 2 - Godliness Through Discipline - Counsel of Chalcedon

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The well-known writer reveals,

in

simple terms, ··

the secret

of

what every Christian must do to

live a holy life pleasing to God.

odliness

Through

rarely achieve it.Ofcourse, there may be

many reasons for this. At the bottom of it ·

a is sin. But here let us single out one

majot reason (perhaps the major reason)

why the gears don't seem tomesh as they

should. hat is the problem? You may

have sought and tried to obtain

instant

godliness. There is no such thing. Today

we haye instant pudding, instant coffee,

instant houses shipped on trucks, instant

everything. And we want instant godli-

D

you temember the last time

that you left a church senrice all

fired up to change? You were

detennined to

be

different. "This time," -

you said,

I

meanit; I am going to become

the person that God wants me to be " By

Tuesday the

fll'e

,had burned out.

The

last

time that you read an article like this you

may have decided: "From now on . "

but here you re today, pretty much the

·same

as

always. You mean well, but

nothing significant seems to happen;

}'0\1.

have been

trying

butnotreally making

l

There has been some change, some

growth, some blessing, but not the kind.

that you so earnestly would like

to

see.

Now that is the experienceofmany Chris

tian people; you are not alone in this

problem. Some have given up the

hope

of

ever becoming significantly different.

Perhaps you have too. ·nAnother article · .

full of impractical platitudes/' you MilY .

be

thinking, as you start to put down this

magazine. Don' t do it I promise you,

there is practical help inside. Read

on

;

and find out for yourself. After all, there

are Christian people whom you meet from

time to time whose lives are different.

Somehow they must have

founcl

the

an-

swer. You can too. You have the same

God the same Bible and the same power .

·available as they. Yet, there is one differ

ence between you and them.

. ness as well.We want somebody to give ·

usthreeeasysteps to godliness, and we'll

take them next Friday and be godly. The

W

hy is it tnat you have failed in

. your attempts? Why

is

it that

· you rarely succeed even in your

.determination to change in small ways?

There must be something wrong. You

want

to

do

the

right thing; yet you so

The Counsel

of

Chalcedon • March 1990 •

page

2

_trouble is, godliness doesn't come that

way.

· The Bible is very plain about .

how

godliness does come

.

Paul wrote about

godliness_oTimothy. In his first letter to

that budding young minister, he said, in

contrast to

all of the ways that will .fail

~ e n t i o n e d

in the first part of the verse),

. ~ t i m o t h y you must

discipline yoursel

for the purp<>se of godliness" (I Timothy

4:7). Discipline the secret ofgodliness.

T

he word discipline has disap

peared from our niinds, .our

· mouths, our pulpits;

aJ.ld

our cul

ture. We hardly know what

di

scipline

means in modem American society.Arid

yet..there is no other way to attain godli- .

ness; discipline is the path

to

godliness.

You must learn to discipline yourself for

the purpose of godliness.

· The ftrst thing to notice is that there

is

no option .about being godly. Paul's

words constitute a

divHte

command by

which God tells us to discipline ourselves

for that

u r p o s e ~

God intends for Hischi -



Discipline

by Jay E. Adams

dren to

be

godly. It s also

clear

that

He

wants them to

be

godly, since

He

orders

them to discipline themselves for godli-

ness.

In

other places

He

commands the

very same thing.

He

says, for example,

Be holy

as

I amholy,"

and

Bepedectas

I am pedect It is certain

that

we will

never reach pedection in this life

(I

ohn

1:8),

but pedect godliness is the goal

toward which every believer

must

disci-

pline himself and toward which he must

move every day. This means becoming

more like

God

Himself each day. The

godly man leads a life

that

reflects God

Godliness is the goal of he Christian life;

we must please

God by

being, thinking,

doing, saying and feeling

in

the

ways that

He

wants

us to.

N

wnoticethatGodsays weare

to

discipline ourselves

for

the

pwposeof

or, literal y,

toward

godliness."

The

original

means to

be

oriented toward godliness."

Your

whole

life ought

to

be disciplined (i.e., struc-

tured, set up, organized, and running day

by

day) toward the goal of godliness.

. Everything

that

happens

and

everylhing

that you

do

shouldcontribute something

toward reaching that goal. Monday

through Saturday, not only Sunday, you

must move toward the goal, one step,

or

two steps

or

ten steps further down the

road. You will become that much more

like

God

only because

of

what you have

done

and

hought

andsaideach

day. "But

that is exactly

the

sort

of

impractical

generalization that I thought you would

write Certainly I

know God

wants

me

to

be godly, but

that

is just the

problem

I

don't live a disciplined life each day,

and

you

haven't

told

me how I

can." Well, I

shall. But one thing

at

a time. f you are

going

to

learn discipline, you

must

first

learn patience.

We'

come

to that

in

due

time. Remember, godliness is not instant,

and

neither is the explanation of how to

tt in it

Let's get

back

to our

train of thought.

When

your life

is oriented toward (or

focused upon) godliness, the goal will

constantlycome nto your mind.

You

will

think

at

work,

at

home,

or

n school,

I

am

to reflect Him in this project." Isn't

that

what you want? f you believe in Jesus

Christ as

your

Savior, you mustw nt hat.

There are times,

of

course, when

you

are

discouraged or

that

you

get

tired or be-

come upset, when you lose sight

of

the

goal. You may even rebel against the

idea. But if you are a genuine believer in

Christ,

the

well never runs dry;

down

in

your heart the desire trickles back,

and

you find yourself saying, That is

what

I

want." It is true

that

you

hunger and

thirst after righteousness."

W

hen Paul writes,

You

are a

new

creature; all things have

become new," this is

what

he

has in mind:

the

Holy Spirit has oriented

you

toward

God

and His holiness, putting

anewfocus on all oflife. But hat

does

not

automatically make you godly. Because

of the work

of

Christ you

have been

counted pedect in God's sight, but in

actuality you are still far from

the

goal.

Yet,

your new

life

in

Christ is oriented

toward godliness; that is why

at

times

you ache for it.

The Counsel

of halcedon

• March 1990

·page

3



Theproblem is that although basically

your orientation is new, inany of your

day-by-day practices

re

not yet oriented

toward godliness. The "old man" (old

ways of living) is still your unwelcome

companion. So seldom do you see your

life practically oriented as it ought to

be

that perhaps you have despaired. You

must not. The reason why your

good resolves have not been ·

realized may be that you have

never earned how todiscipline

yourself for godliness.

f f H ow can

I

disci

pline myself.?"

you ask insis

tently. t is time to begin to

consider the answer to that

question.First you must recog

nize that the very word

discipline

makes it clear that

godliness cannot be zapped.

It

cannot be whipped up like in-

s.tant pudding. Godliness

doesn't come that way. Disci

pline means work; it means

sustained

d ily effort. The

word Paul used

is

the one from

which the English words"gym

nastics" and"gymnasium" have

been derived. I

is

a

term

clearly

related to athletics. An athlete

becomes an expertonly by years

of

hard practice. There are no

instant athletes. Do you

thii1k

that Brooks Robinson became

oneof he world's greatest third

basemen simply by appearing

at the stadium in Baltimore one

afternoon after he had decided

that morning that he was going to play

ball?Do you

thinkit

s only when there is

a game that he plays? You know other

wise. You know that.he has spent count

less hours practicing. When you watch

him in action, it is hard not

to

conclude

that he was born with a glove on his hand.

He must have teethed on a bat

It

takes

years of regular practice to achieve such

skill.

N.

weight lifter, for example, says,

"Here is a very heavy weight. I

never lifted weights before; but

that looks like the largest one. I ll try to

press it.';He is likely to breakhis back.He

can tdoitthatway.Hemuststartout with

a small weight the ftrst week, then gradu

ally over the months and years add heav

ier and heavier ones. He must workup to

the heaviest one. Nor does he decide,

"This week I llift weights for five hours

on Friday and then

I ll

forget about it for

the next six week

s.

" Athletes must prac

tice regularly, usually every day for at

least a short period of time. They work

daily, day after day, until what they are

doing is "natural" (i.e., second nature) to

them.

Thatis whatan athletedoes.Andthatis

exactly what is involved in the word that

Paul used here. Continued daily effort is

an essential element of Christian disci-

pline.

Discipline, so conceived, is something

that the Christian church lacks in our

time. It

is high time that we all recognize

that God requires us to discipline our·

selves by constant practice in obeying

His revealed will and thus exercise

(train)

ourselves toward godliness.

Practically speaking, what does this

The

Counsel

of Chalcedon • March, 1990 • page 4

involve? ln.Luke 9:23, Jesus commands

His disciples:"Take up your crossdaily,

denying

the self. He does not mean deny

ing yourselfsomething. There is no idea

of doing penance in this. "For Lent

I'll

stop chewing gum," says the penitent.

That is exactly

not

what

is

in view.

Rather, iesus insisted that Christians

must deny

the

self

within them.

By the self, He meant the old

desires, the old ways, the old

p r ~ t i e s the old habit patterns

that W ere acquired before can

version. They became so

much

a part of day-by-day practice

that

they

became second na

ture.

We

were born sinners, but

it took practice to develop our

particular styles of inriing, the

oldlife was disciplined toward

ungOdliness. That

is why

Paul

·says thatthebelievermustdaily

deny (literally say ''no

to)

the

self.

D

aily denial of the self

indicates the presence

of a day-by-day battle

insideoftheChristian.Hemust

"take up the cross"as an instru

ment of death upon which to

crucify the selfevery day.Tak

ing up the cross doesn' t mean

cairying someheaV) burden. It

is notendUring a trial ("I guess ·

my cross

s

that I must live the

restof my life with my wife").

No, thatisn'twbatis in view cu.

all. Taking up the cross means

going to the place of death. It

means putting to death

the

old

life patterns of the old

than.

But that is not enough. Whenever God

says "putoff He also says "put on." On

the positive side, each day one

alsO

must

seek to "follow" Jesus Christ That

is

what it means to i p l i n e oneself for

godliness. t means to continue to say

"no" to self and to say "yes"

to

Christ

every day until

One

by one a of the old

habitual ways are replaced bynew ones.

It means that by daily endeavor to follow

God's Son, one ftnds at length that doing

so is more "natural" than not doing so.

TheHoly Spirit thus enables a believer to

put off the old man arid put on the

new

man.

The new ways reflect the true right

eousness and holiness

that is

in JeSus



Christ. The image

of

God was ruined by

the fall, but

by

this process of sanctifica

tion itbegins to show up in the Christian's

life as it originally did

in

Adam's life.

That is what discipline toward godliness

is all about. Godliness in

the

final

analy

sis

is becoming, by grace,

lilce

God once

again.

W

en

a Christian daily orients

his life toward godliness

· through discipline, something

happens; something truly amazing takes

place. There was a time

in

the life

of

Brooks

o b i n ~ > o n

no doubt, that

he

sud

denly awakened tothefactthathewasn't

even thinking consciously anymore about

much ofwhathe was doing. It

was

just as

natural for him to scoop up

b<lSeballs

·

around third base as it is for Willie Mays

to climb a fence-without giving a sec

ond thought

to

it-in

order

to

pick offone

that really should have been a home run.

thad

ecomeas

natural

as

walking

down

the street That is

the

way that Godmade·

us.

G

od gave man a marvelous ca

pacitythatwecallhabit.

When-

ever we do something long

enough

it

becomes a part of

us.

For ex

ample, did you button your shirt up or

down today?

Ah, it

took you a minute to

answer that, didn't i t? Maybe

you don't

even know yet. You don't think about

where to begin any more;

you

just

do t

,

You don't consciously say to yourself,

"Now,

I'm

going

to

button my shirt this

mol" ling

; I shall begin at the top." You

don' t think about that

at

all. Youjustdoit

without thinking about it. That is the

capacity that

God

gave us . Take another

example: think

of the

firSt

time that you

sat behind

an

automobile wheel. What a

frightening experience that was . There

you sat, thinking, "Here

is

a wheel [it

looked about

ten

times bigger than it

was], and here is a gear shift, and here is

a complex instrument panel, and .foot

pedals down below. I have to learn how to

use and to coordinate all of hese And at

the same time I must look out for stripes

painted down the middleof he road, and

signs along

th

e roadway and pedestrians

and automobiles, and

. . . .How

will I ever

do it?'' Can you remember back to that

time?Butnow-nowwhatdoyoudo? At

midnight, on a moonless night, you slide

into the car seatas someone else slips into

the seat beside you. Deftly you insert

the

key into the slot without scarring the

dashboard, turn on the motor, shift the

gears, use that one pedal

(if

t's still there

on your car), back out of the driveway

into the streetand start down the road, all

the while arguing some abstruse point of

Calvinism What

an

amazing feat that

is

when

you think about

it

Well, just think

aboJlt t You have teamed to perform

highly complex behavior unconsciously.

Think of what Brooks Robinson and

Willie Mays have learned to do in the

same way.

How

do you learn?

How

did

they? By practice,

disciplined

practice.

You drove the car long enough that dtiv-

ing became a part of you.

t

became sec

ond

natUre

to you, J'hat is what Paul was

talldng to Timothy about.

T

he writer of Hebrews (Hebrews

5:13ff.) speaks clearly enough

about this matter. There he is

·upbraiding the Hebrew Christians be-

cause, although they h adrec.eived

so

tnllCh

teaching ofGod's Word, yet they had not

profited from it. The reason was that they

had not usedit.Consequently, when they

ought to have been teachers, they still

needed to be taught. He says that every

one "who partakes only

of

milk is not

ac-

customed to the word of righteousness,

for he

s

ababy"(verse 13). He continues:

"But solid food [meat and potatoes] is for

the mature

who because of

pra

ctice

[because they have done it so often]. have

their senses trained to discern between

goodandevil."Thereitis. Thepracticeof

godliness leads to the life of godliness. It

makes godliness "natural."

f

you

prac-

tice

what

God

tells you to do, the obedient

life will become a partofyou. There is no

simple, quick. easy

way

to instant godli

ness.

B

ut,"youprotest,

I

c

an

' t seem

to be able to do it." You

already have. You have

practiced

something;

you have developed

some unconscious patterns. As a sinful

human being bent toward sin, you have

practiced sinful practices so that they

have become a part of you, just as they

have become a partofall

of

us .There is no

question that

th

e habit capacity is there.

The problem is that has been used for

the wrong purposes.The capacity ofltabit

works both ways. It operates in either

direction. You can' t avoid habitual liv

ing, because this is the way God made

you. He gave you the ability to live a life

that does not demand conscious thought

about every action or response.

It is

a

great blessing that God made you this

way. It would be unbearable

if

every time

you did anything you found

it

necessary

to think consciously about it. Imagine

yourselfeach morning saying, "Now, let's

see, how do I brush my teeth? First, I have

to get the toothpaste tube and roll i t from

the bottom, etc., etc." It is a great benefit

that you don't have to consciously think

about everything that you do; or you

probably would not get to breakfast by

midnight.

B

t practice itself is indifferent; it

can work either as a blessing or

as

a curse,depending upon

what

you

have practiced.

It

is what you feed into

your life that matters-just like the data

fe(l into a computer. A computer is no

better than the data with which it oper

ates. The end product

is

good or bad

according to the raw material provided

for i t That is just like habit capability. In

T

Peter 2:14, Peter speaks about people

whose hearts are

trained

in greed."

Trained is

the

same word that Paul used

gymna

z

),

the word from which

gym-

nastics comes. A heart that has been

e

xercised

in

greed is one that has faith

fully practiced greed so that greediness

has become natural. Without consciously

thinking about it, such a person "auto

matically" behaves greedily in various

situations where the temptation is pres

ent.

S

nce

God

has made you this

way,

with the capacity for living ac

cording to habit, you must con

sciously take a hard ook at your life. You

must make conscious-and carefully

examine your unconsciou

responses.

You must become aware

of

your pat

te

rns

and evaluate them by the Word of God.

What you learned to do as a child you

may be continuing to do as an adult.

Pattern by pattern you must analyze and

determine whether it has developed from

practice

in

doing God' s will orwhetherit

has developed as a sinful response. There

is only one way

to

become a godly person,

to orient one's life toward godliness, and

that means, pattern by pattem The old

The Counsel of Chalcedon • March, 1990 • page 5



sinful ways, as they are discovered, must

be replaced by new patterns from God's

Word. That

s

the meaning of disciplined

living. Discipline first requires self-ex

amination, then i t means crucifixion of

the old sinful ways (saying "no" daily),

and lastly, practice in following Jesus

Christ in new ways by the guidance and

strength that the Holy Spirit provides

through His Word. The biblical way to

godliness is not easy or simple, but it is

the solid way.

A

counselee wondered-as per

haps you are

wondering

whether this sortof change

were

possible.He asked, "Cana fifty-year-old

man change his ways?" He was deadly

serious. There I sat, a forty-two-year-old

counselor thinking,"Willit be only eight

more years before they can and refriger

ate me? " So I told him about yo-yos.

Recently the yo-yo craze returned.

As

a

forty-two-year-old I vividly remember

the original glorious age

of the

yo-yo

frommy boyhood. Back in those days the

Duncan Yo-Yo Company had a much

better advertising campaign and, inci

dentally, a much better yo-yo. Today,

theyoffer aplastic model withametal rod

in the center. The steel rod does not pro

vide enough friction for the string, and

causes slippage. The old yo-yos had a

woodenrodandwere wooden themselves.

Duncan also used to sponsor comer drug

store yo-yocontests.

Down

toeverydrug

store came a factory representative. He

showed you all ofthelatest tricks: around

the world, eating spaghetti, rocking

the

baby in the cradle, walking the dog, etc.

If

you practiced hard enough, you could

learn to throw the yo-yo out or down, or

up or around; you couldspin it over your

heaci, under one leg-almost anywhere

you wished.

I

had forgotten all about yo-yos

until about a year ago, when one

day my children came home with

yo-yos. But they didn't know what

to

do

with them Here was my son operating a

yo-yo like f girl "Horrors " I thought;

"He doesn' t know what to do with a yo

yo. There are no factory representatives

any more; there is nobody to teacl;t him. I

can't have him doing that

to

a yo-yo; I

guess I ll have to show him myself."

Now, I hadn' t touched a yo-yo for a

hundred arid fifty years at least. So I

picked up the thing and showedhim

how

to tie a slip knot that would stay

on

the

finger. (Hedidn'tevenknowwhatfinger

to put it on.) So I put it on, and after

hefting it a time or two spunit downward

with force . . . . andit slept. Well,

his

eyes

grew

as

large

as

dinner plates. He

didn .t

even know

it

could sleep. I practiced

several times to get the feel of this new

inferior plastic and metal product. Soon

the old patterns began to comeback.Even

with that inferior prod'uct

it

wasn't long

before I was doing all of the old tricks that ·

1used to beable to do. I grew ten feet tall

with the kids Ittookonly afewattempts,

and

all

of he old acquired skills returned.

H

ow

can a ftfty-year-old man

change? Can this really be

or

you Can

you

really be differ

ent? Can you

at this late date in life

make

a change and start to live a life that really

will be godly? Positively That is

what

I

told my counselee. I continued, ''When I

was ten years old I learned how to yo-yo,

and now many years later I was able to

pick up ayo-yo, and now many years later

I was able to pick up ayo-yo and find that

the old skills were still with

me.

The

question is

not

whether a ftfty-year-old

man can change; the real question

is

can

anybodychangeoncehehaslearnedsome•

thing? When was only ten years old, I

learned a skill

than

haven't forgotten,

eventhoughihaven'tusedayo-yosince."

Pethaps you haven' t ridden a bike for

years, yetyou know you could do so. It

probably wouldn't take you five minutes

to "get the feel ofit" again.It wouldcome

right back to you The question, then, is

not whether aftfty-year-oldman can earn;

the question

is

can

anyone even

a

ten-

year-old-once he

has

learned a

wrong

practice? When apractice has become

so

much a part

of

a child that

it

asts without

reinforcement for over thirty years,

c n

even

he

change?Theanswerisyes;by

the

grace

of

God he can change.

W

.

en you discipline yourself

for righteousness, you don't

havetodo it alone.

It

s

God

who works in you" (Philippians 2:13).

All holiness, all righteousness, all godli

ness is

the

"fruit

of

he Spirit" (Galatians

5:22,23). It

talces

nothing less than

the

power

of

the Spirit to replace sinful

The

Counsel

of

Chalcedon •

March 1990 •

page

6

habits withrlghteous ones, for t e n ~ y e u -

old or a ifty"year-old. add never said

that once a person reaches

f1fty oi

forty

or eighty he is'incapable of

chartge.

Look

at what Abraham didas an oldman. Look

at the tremendous changes that God de-

mandedofhimin·old age. The Holy Spirit

can change any Christian, and

does.

As

Christians we should never fear

change.

We

must believe

iri

change so

long as it s cliange oriented toward

god-

liness.

he

Christian life

is

a life of con

tinual change;

In

he Scriptures

it s

called

a "walk}' not arest We can never say (in

this life), '

1

I have finally made it.''' we

cannot say, 'There is nothing more to

learn from God's Word, nothing

m ore

to

put into practice tomorrow, no more

skillS

todevelop, no more sins to be deait

with." When Christ said, "Take up your

cross daily

and

follow

ine,"

He put

an

end to all such thinking.

lie

represented

the Christian life as a daily struggle to

change.

You

can change

if

the Spirit of

God dwells within you.

Of

course,

i f

He

does not, there

is

no such hope.

T

omanyChristiansgiveup.They

want

the

change soon.

w_Itat

they really want

ts

change

wtth-

out the daily struggle. ·Sometimes

they·

give up when they are on the very thresh-

old of success. They stop before receiv-·

ing.

t

usually takes at least

tht

weeks

of

proper

druly

effort or one to feel com

fortable in performing a new practice.

And it

take8

about · hree more

weeks

to

make the practice part of oneself. But

many Christians don't contmue even for

three days.

f hey de)not receive instant

success, they get discouraged. They want

what they want now, and If hey don't get

it now, they quit:

Think about this problem for a

mo-

ment. Rememberwhen

you

learned how

to ice skate?Whathappened

the

first

time

you went outon the ice? You

know

what

happened. Zip bang You got a·wet bot-

tom. That's what happened ~ r y time

you got

up

and tried agairi. Nobody ever

learns

to

skatewithoutfallingatfirst.You

had a decision to

malce as

you sat there

freezing:"

Am

I going to cmitinue

this,

or

should I give tip the whole idea oflearn

ing to skatet Perhaps you did.quit after

the first or second failure and liave never

learned·since. A lot of people

inalce

that

decision right then and there. They do



not consider learning to skate worth the

embarrassment, awkwardness, trouble

and fear that it usually entails. Butothers

go on in spite of t

all

They

get

up, brush

off

and start out again; zip bang zip bang

zip bang then, . . . zzzzzzip bang. Some

thing has begun

to

happen. Before you

know it, you are going zzzzzzzzip bang,

zzzzzzzz7XZ:LZ zzipbang, and thenzzzzzzz

.

f

you practice long enough, you will

no longer have a problem with skating;

instead, youwillbe concerned about how

to

get

the puck into

the

net. There comes

a point

at

which activity begins to, and

then does become a

part

ofyou, but only

when you stay with it long enough.

P

rhaps you have been afraid to

talk to someone about Christ.

Maybe you tried it once or wice,

and as far as you are concerned you went

zip bang Let's supposeyou

did

get a wet

bottom. What

of

it? Is that so bad? Was

that a good reason to give up? Certainly

not; that

is

simply part

of

learning to

skate (or witness, or love). Suppose you

have found it difficult to read the Scrip

tures and pray daily; was that a good

reason for quitting? No Probably you

did not have short-term goals in view-

like, today I shall do this, then this

week, that, and then in three weeks, the

other.But fyou had skated every day

for

three weeks ina row, you wouldprobably

be a skater by now. f you really want to

be godly, you re going to have to stay

out on the ice. Don't

let

the wet bottoms

discourage you.

If

you are willing to

get

wet enough, the first thing you know

you're

going to get a

lot of

zzzzzzzzzips

and a lot less bangs sooner than you may

think.

In counseling, week after week, I con

tinually encounter one outstanding fail

ure among Christians: a lack of what the

Bible c lls "endurance"; they give up.

Perf1aps this is the key

to

godliness

through discipline. You wouldn't have

learned to skate, you wouldn' t have

learned to usea yo-yo, you wouldn' t have

learned to drive an automobile if you

hadn't

persisted long enough to do so.

You learned becauseyou endured n spite

of

failures, through the embarrassments,

until the desired behavior became a part

of

you. You trained yourself by practice

to do what youwanted to learn to do. God

says thatthesameis true aboutgodliness.

Scriptures that godly patterns are devel

opedandcome to be apart

of

us.Whenwe

readaboutthem

wemustthenask God by

His grace

to

help us live accordingly.He

has given the Holy Spirit to us for this

purpose.

The word grace

has several

meanings in the Bible, one

of

which is

"help." ·when we ask, "Lord, enable us,

through following Christ daily in His

Word, to

become

like Him," the Holy

Spirit helps us todo so. The Holy Spirit

gives help when His people

read

His

Word and then step

out

by faith to

do

as

He says.He doesnotpromise to strengthen

us unless we do so; thepoweroftencomes

in the doing.

In II Timothy 3:17,Paul mentions four

things that the Scriptures do for the be-

liever. First, they

teach

what God re

quires. Secondly, they convict of sin by

revealing how we have fallen short of

those requirements. Thirdly, they set us

up straight again." Lastly, they train or

discipline in

righteousness. This fourth

benefit

of

the Bible means a structured

training

in doing righteousness.

f

you

use the Bible every day, the Book will

discipline you. Disciplined, structured

living is what you need.

All

of

he stress that the Bible puts upon

human effort must not

be

misunderstOod;

we are talking about grace-motivated

effort, not the work of the flesh. It is

not

effort apart from the Holy Spirit that

produces godliness, as I said. Rather, it s

through the power of the Holy Spirit

alone that one can so endure. Of his own

effort, a man may persist in learning to

skate,

but

he will

not

persist

in

the pursuit

ofgodliness.A Christian does

good works

because the Spirit first works in him.

Now the workof he Spirit

s not

mystical.

The Holy Spirit's activity often has been

viewed in a confused and confusing

manner. There is no reasonfor such con

fusion. The Holy Spirit Himself has

plainly told us how He works. He says n

the Scriptures that

He

ordinarily works

through

the Scriptures. The Bible is the

Holy Spirit's Book. He inspired it. He

moved its authors to write every wonder

ful

word

that you may read there. This is

His book; the sharp tool by which

He

accomplishes His work. He did not give

us the Book, only tosay thatwe could lay

it

aside and forget it in the process

of

becoming godly.Godliness doesnotcome

by osmosis. Your own ideas and effort

will never produce it. There is no easier

path to godliness than the prayerful s ructure alone brings freedom. Dis-

study and obedient practice of the Word cipline brings liberty. Our whole

of

God. age has been brainwashed into

T

he Spirit took pains to raise up thinking the opposite. Today we are told

men and mold those men to fitly that we can

get

freedom

and

liberty only

write His Book. UnderHis good by throwing

over

structure and discipline.

providence they developed the vocabu-

But

suppose that I wanted to learn how to

aries and styles in the kinds of life situ- play the organ and I decided to forget all

ations that

He

required. Thus they could discipline and structure. I would ignore

write a Book of exactly th sort that He the laws

of

hann.ony

and

laugh at th

wanted tomeetourneeds. He wascareful chromaticscale.Callingdisciplined, struc-

to assure that not one word was penned tured practice nonsense, I might declare,

falsely;

in

His Book there are no errors. I want to play

fr

eely

so

I shall sit down

It is wholly true and inerrant;

it

is the de-

at

the organ and play." It might take the

nextfive minutes to discover how to turn

pendable Word

of

God. That is what the

Holy Spirit did.

Do

you think that after it on. Finally finding the switch, I pull

going to all of that trouble He now zaps out all sorts of stops, raise my hands, and

instant holiness into us apart from the godrummpgfh

Sheer

cacophony Noise

Bible? He doesn' t work that way. The My "freedom" from structure and disci-

Spirit ordinarily works through His pline has yielded only ear-shattering

Word; that is how He works. So

if

we shrieks and growls. I have

not

learned to

want to discipline ourselves toward god- play the instrument. I cannot makemusic

Iiness, a most essential factor is

theregu

- that

way

.

But

if I take the long

hard

road

Iarstudy

of

God's Wordinorderto make of do re mi fa sola ti do , day after day,

application of its principles to our prob- week after week, until finally the fingers

work properly and the toes become

lems.

It s by willing, prayerful and persistent nimble, and I learn what to pun out, when,

obedience to tl)e requirements

of

the (Continued

on

page 24)

The

Counsel

of Chalcedon

• Marcf1 1990

·page

7



Godliness

Through

Discipline

·Continued from page

7

where and how, .the first thing you know,

I

cart

play

f

I continue, the time may

come

when

l can throw away the

books .

and sheet music and write my own. Bu t

this canhappenonlyificome through the

hard route of s.tructure. The order i s -

first, structured discipline,

then

freedom; .

there is no other.

.

. .

. .

. .

L

.

berty comes th;rough law, not

. Non-ProfitOrg.

U.S. Postage

. PAiD .

BuLK

RATE

PermitNo. 1553

apart from it. When is a train

. . most free? Is it when it goes

bouncing across the field off the track?

No.

It

is free only when

it

is confined (if

you will) to the track. Then it runs

smoothly and efficiently, because that

was the way that its maker intended for

it

td run .

It

needs

to

be on the track, s t r u ~ -

tui'ed by the track, to run properly. You

too need

to

be

on

the

i:rack

God's track is

found

fu God's

Word. In God's round

world y·ou· can' t

lead

a quare life hap

pily; you always get thec;omers knqcked

.off. Thereis astructurenecessaryforlife;

f

he expiration code next

to

your name

is

•WlJ ·[March, '90]

.

or

lower,

t

i f here is rto code iildicated

f t e ~

your name,

we

would greatly appreciate a check from you

in

the amount

of

$25,0Q:to help us meet ou r expenses this year.

that structure js found in the Bible.

It

is

conforming to that structure by the grace

of

God that makes.men godly.

Here, then,

is

your answer: r:eglil arly

read the Scriptures, prayerfully

do

as

they say, according to schedule, regard

less

of

how you feel. That last pqint

perhaps points to the biggest problem of

all.

We give up because

wedon'tfeellike

·

doing something again. You probably

didn't

e e l l i l ~ e getting up this morning.

But you had to do so in spite

of

how you

felt. After you were up and around awhile

you began to feel different, and you were

glad that you acted against your feelings.

From that first decision on, the rest

of

he

day is filled with similar decisions·that

must

be

madeon the basisofobedience to

God rather than capitulation to contrary

feelings.

When man sinned hewas abandoning the

commandment-oriented life

of

love for

the feeling-oriented lifeof Iust There are

only·two kinds

of

life, the

e e l l i t g ~ m o t i -

vated lifeof sin oriented toward self, and

thecornmandrnent-inotivatedlifeofholi

ness oriented toward godliness. Living

according to feeling is the greatest hin-

drance godliness that we face. Godly,

coninianchnent-oriented living comes

only from biblical structure and d i s c i ~

pline.

T

here is much that we

don

' t feel

like doing. Tbere are only two

A

e you godly? If not, what are

ways to live. They reflect two you going to do about it? There

kinds

of

religion and two kinds

of

moral- is only one possible way to

be-

ity. One religion and life and morality come godly: you must be disciplined

says,

J

will live according to feeling." toward godliness until you do in fact

The other says, Iwill live as God says." become godly. But no one can be.disci-

It

all

goes back to the garden. God gave a plined by the Word toward godliness

commandment and required obedience. until ftrst he recognizes his sin against a

The devil appealed to desire: the lust of hqly God. f ydu·are truly sorry that you

the eyes, the lust

of

he flesh and he pride have ignored

Hiin

and lived in your own

of life cf. I John 2:16 and Gene ;is 3:6). ungodly way up until now, then

turn

to

The Col risel

of

Chalcedon March,

1990

·page

24

'

HisSon li falth arid besaved.Jesus Christ

·is the ortlyreallygod1y man. Butyour

will

be

·

rec1coned His.

'

and

His godliness

will

be rectconed yburs

if

you trust iri

death and resurrection for your salvation:

If

the Spirit

of

God has convictect you

of

yout sin and

of

your need for a Savior,

turn

toChrist now. Believe on Himas He

is offered in the good news: 'as the One

who took all of the punishment for His

people. Will you believe that

He

died for

you-in

your p l c ~ s u f f e r i n g God's

wrathforyour sin?

f

you do, you may be

saved. Then you may join the rest

of us

who by the grace of God have the un- ·

speakable privilege and peerless chal

lenge of disciplining ourselves toward

godliness-which is . to

say-toward

Christ Himself · ·

[11tis article is reprinte

d, llY

permission, .

rom

the

book1et, Qo dliness Through Disci-

pline

by Jay E.

Mams, Presl;lyterian

and

Reformed Pub lishing Company, 1972.) . Q

Documents

1990 Issue 2 - Godliness Through Discipline - Counsel of Chalcedon