The Point of Reality and the Finished Work of Christ

The gospel is not only for the unbeliever; it is for the believer as well, even as we press on to live for the Savior in this fallen world. In this battle-royale that is the Christian life we must preach the gospel to ourselves each and every day----we never escape our need for it.

Some thoughts, then, to encourage us in the battle and to help us preach the gospel to ourselves, from one of my mentors in the faith:

Let us say now that I have been living in the light of what God has been giving us for the present life. As a born-again child of God, I have been practicing the reality of true spirituality, as Christ has purchased it for us. As such, I have been walking according to the biblical commands. And then sin reenters. For some reason my moment-by-moment belief in God falters; a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the Trinity. The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly slips from me. I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night--and something is gone, something I have known; my quietness and my peace are gone. It is not that I am lost again, because justification is once for all. But as far as man can see, or even I myself, at this point there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross. Looking at me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God’s creation of moral, rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists. Because God still holds me fast I do not have the separation of lostness, but I do have the separation from my Father in the parent-child relationship. And I remember what I had.

At this point a question must arise: is there a way back? Or is it like a fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped to a tile floor so that it is smashed beyond repair?

Thank God, the gospel includes this. The Bible is always realistic: it is not romantic, but deals with realism--with what I am. There is a way back, and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us. The basis is again the blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once-for-all, completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history....

I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on the basis of Christ’s finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, “Down! Be still!” I am to believe God and be quiet, in my practice and experience. My fellowship with God has been supernaturally restored. I am cleansed, ready again to resume the spiritual life, ready again to be used by the Spirit for warfare in the external world. I cannot be ready until I am cleansed; but when I am cleansed, then I am ready. And I may come back for cleansing as many times as I need, on this basis.

This is for many Christians the point of reality in their Christian lives. All of us battle with this problem of reality. Men go to strange extremes to touch reality, but here is the point of it: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” So naturally the call is not to sin. “And if any man sin, we (including John himself, who puts himself in this category) have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

This is the point of reality for me personally. If I lay hold upon the blood of Christ in faith, reality rests here--not in trying to live as though the Bible teaches perfectionism. That is no basis for reality; that is only a basis either for subterfuge or despair. But there is a reality here: the reality of sins forgiven; the reality of a certainty that when a specific sin is brought under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is forgiven. This is the reality of restored relationship. Reality is not meant to be only creedal, though the creeds are important. Reality is to be experienced on the basis of a restored relationship with God through that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. (The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Crossway Books, 1982, pg. 291, 297-298)