Grace-Driven Effort!

July 20th, 2008 · 4 Comments

“PEOPLE DO NOT drift toward holiness.

Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness,

prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;

we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;

we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;

we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking

we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness

and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

-D. A. Carson, For the Love of God

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4 responses so far ↓

1 Russell // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:46 pm

Very pithy commentary on the prevailing climate within our culture and church abroad; at least in the Western world. Carson astutely elaborates on the distinction between what our sinful proclivity manifests apart from the role of God’s grace in our lives.
This is especially evinced in the political front that insidiously attempts to legislate and glorify the negatives in Carson’s article.
2 Alan Smith // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:39 am

Great quote here. In my view, it seems such drifting is actually supported by those whose theological framework emphasizes God’s sovereignty to the exclusion of man’s free will. Responsibility is therefore undermined and a “whatever will be will be” attitude emergese.

I believe that we cannot do what only God can do. I also believe that God will not do that which He has assigned for me to do, at least not very often!

This is the only model in which a “grace -driven effort” make any sense. If God’s grace is irresistable, and if grace is designed to produce effort, then the effort is inevitable and for those not giving the effort but rather “drifting”, then clearly there must not be any grace operating. I have a hard time buying that.
3 RG Hanner // Jul 23, 2008 at 9:12 am

Wow!
That is excellent “critical thinking” skills as well as application to extreme -Calvinism my friend.
RGH
4 Clay W. // Jul 25, 2008 at 11:13 pm

Great quote! Don Carson is one of my favorite authors! He seems to have a good handle on the difference between justification and sanctification. It would seem we are a culture of extremes. We either eliminate God from an active role in saving faith or we say that man has no responsibility in his walk with the Lord.