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