We can see from Scripture that:
1. The things that happen to us are being used by God to draw us closer to Him (Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:12-14; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). To see a myriad of examples of this one only needs to read the works of Luke. Through Luke and Acts we see Jesus dragging his followers through circumstance after circumstance, some of which were commonplace, and some of which were not—all of which worked to break down walls of pride, hatred, and self-reliance. Thus they were drawn closer to Jesus.
2. This is the work of God, rather than a result of our own craftiness. Spiritual growth and activity is always a result of God’s working. In the second half of Galatians 5 we see that the Christian virtues we need to see exhibited in our lives are the fruit the Holy Spirit, not our works. Philippians 1:11 further cements this idea, stating that "the fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God."
3. God purposely calls different people to different things—using different circumstances to work in their lives. We see great diversity among the people called into Christ throughout Acts from various backgrounds and cultures. We see in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 that they are not expected to shed these backgrounds in order to serve Christ. God continues to work through the events of their lives through the power of his spirit within their disparate cultures. Later in chapter 12 we learn that not only their backgrounds but also their gifts and positions in the church are purposeful and individualized.
The logical result of all of this is that we should expect to see people from different backgrounds living through different circumstances, all being worked on by God by means of their differing life experiences. And that is exactly what we see when we look at the Church globally. Our response to this should be thankfulness and rejoicing at the diversity of God's working in our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Our Flawed Thinking: The Search for Self-Causation
Since the days of Job (who predates the Pentateuch), people have been assuming that a person's growth in righteousness was a product of their life choices. God was seen as simply responding to this appropriately. The problem both then and now is that God—and the universe carrying out his will—is constantly proving this idea bogus. In other words, people desperately want credit for their own religious progress. People don't want to acknowledge that even the good deeds they are banking on fall short (Isaiah 64:6), or that justification and righteousness are of God, and given to us who are wholly undeserving (Jonah 2:9, Ephesians 2, Romans 5:8).
During Jesus' time the Pharisees were teaching that those with physical infirmities deserved them (John 9:2). The Jewish teaching of the day was that health and prosperity came to those whom God blessed, and that God blessed people who did the right things. This was the perspective of Job's friends. Your righteousness was believed to be the product of having every "I" dotted and every "T" crossed. This is the very heart of the Pharisaical prayer in Luke 18:9-14. He was arrogant before God because he felt sure he was awesome, and that his awesomeness was due to his own lifestyle decisions. He was also very certain that the publican was not awesome, and that the publican's non-awesomeness was due to his lifestyle decisions.
God is working in the lives of those he has redeemed through circumstances he has orchestrated. This is intended to be for his glory (to his credit) not ours (Ephesians 1). Yet we are constantly seeking to find ways our own decisions have resulted in our progress. We want to be self-made. This brings the credit upon us and the wisdom of our own decisions, rather than upon the surpassing wisdom of God who is working in us in spite of ourselves.
There is a symptom of this unbiblical self-made righteousness I see frequently among believers. Namely, our desire to find and label the means God has used in our own lives as the only true means to sanctification.
People take something God used in their lives to help them along in their walk with Him, and they mistakenly give all the credit to the means, or to themselves for discovering or using those means. For example, God uses hymns to bless people's lives. Some people respond to this by assuming that they are so very spiritual because they have discovered that "hymns are the only godly music" and anyone who listens to other Christian music has not attained the same degree of spirituality. The music we sing, the clothes we wear, the evangelism tactics we employ—these things must be why we're so awesome. Thank God we aren't like other people.
God genuinely uses hymns in people's lives; but God genuinely uses other Christian music too. The working medium is the Holy Spirit, not the music itself. Yet the tendency is to transfer causation from God to circumstances we can have more control over. Extra-biblical standards or traditions we can point to when taking some credit for our situation, or differentiating ourselves from other believers. But all such differentiation is unwise.
It is worth pointing out that this works the other way around as well. Many people who listen to modern hymns and worship music that is clearly honoring to God and effective in their lives for worship and edification, think of their newer traditions as better. They stereotype other faithful saints and being mired in dead legalism because they listen to hymns – when some of the old hymn-loving crowd are worshiping God just as sincerely.
Understand that the music issue has many arguments to it. I don’t mean to address the issue as a whole, merely to use it as an example within the current discussion. Almost any church or cultural tradition could be used as an example of this.
We have the tendency to presume upon God—and specifically assume that he will or even must work in other people the way he has chosen to work in us. This causes people on both sides of issues to ascribe conditions or results of sanctification that simply aren't there in the biblical description. We give commands to brothers and sisters that God did not give, and so presume to become their lords and judges. Yet God has accepted your brothers and sisters in Christ, and is working in their lives in the ways he has chosen. Just like he is with you and me.
Whatever circumstances God is using in our lives, let us (1) give thanks and glory to God for all he is doing in our lives, and (2) acknowledge that the Spirit is equally at work in other believer's lives through completely different circumstances. We do not have the right to judge their growth or journey in the Lord by any standard not found in Scripture. Nor do we have the right to impose our story onto them.
God has graciously worked in us through a variety of life events and circumstances. It is tempting to focus on those circumstances and want others to emulate them, thinking that only through those circumstances come godliness. We must always understand that only through God, and careful attention to his word, comes godliness. For he has already given us all we need for life and godliness—we don't have to invent more.
Under Grace,
John Fritz
John Fritz is the Volunteer Coordinator for Thoughtful Life Ministries and the primary author of the Thoughtful Life Journal, which is published weekly from March through September. The purpose of this blog is to challenge and encourage those who have a desire to cultivate a more meaningful walk with Christ. Visit our Homepage to learn more about the ministry and our annual two-week summer Discipleship Program for teens and young adults.