Being hung up on personal spiritual progress is a problem. Why? Because it’s an indication that somehow, we are holding on to/out for some type of self-salvation project that needs to be drowned in order that we might be raised to new life. Says Forde on page 51 of Justification by Faith–A Matter Of Death And Life:
The “progress” of the Christian therefore, is the progress of one who has constantly to get used to the fact that we are justified totally by faith, constantly has somehow to “recover,” so to speak, from that death blow to pride and presumption–or better, is constantly being raised from the tomb of all pious ambition to something quite new. The believer has to be renewed daily in that. The Old Being is to be daily drowned in repentance and raised in faith. The progress of the Christian life is not our movement toward the goal: it is the movement of the goal in upon us.
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2 responses to “Forde Friday: In Defense of Daily Personal Drownings”
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Nice one!
Yes, Forde is (was) right.
If people could just get it through their thick craniums that their best is not good enough, either…then maybe they’d get down ogg that ladder and live in repentance and forgiveness…and the freedom of the gospel.
[…] and turn them into methods for propelling ourselves toward God. From the perspective of Christian anthropology, the psychic response to certain Reformation doctrines should be exactly what Weber thought it […]