What Sovereign Grace Looks Like in Practice

I heard garbled on Redeemer Broadcasting that the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries had stepped down. I had listened to and read books by C.J. Mahaney, even given one out to high school grads, and most recently heard him speak at a CCEF convention. It was refreshing to remember that, although we had disagreements in theology, we were in agreement on the inerrancy of God's Word, Who God is, why we needed saving, Who Jesus was and what He did. This was a brother in arms. What had happened? Sexual immorality? Financial deceit? As common in the world of politics as the church, it seems. Not walking the talk. Having just preached on psalm 32 and David's repentance, my wife and I wondered, grieved. Then I went to the church site and found his blog where he explained why. It wasn't what we feared, but it was what we had hoped. His sin was real and serious and he admits it, without question. BUT His letter is the stuff, the reality, of Psalm 32. There are no heroes among us. There is only one Hero. C.J.'s response shows what genuine repentance and restoration ought to look like. As was, at least to some degree, Jonathan Edwards'. Without question Edwards failed in shepherding as we would see it, preferring to spend all day studying in his office than visiting people unless they were sick or in another emergency (THOUGH he was a devoted and loving husband and father). He failed in being wise about the way he pursued those teens caught up in the distribution of a book on midwivery, calling both the guilty and the innocent to account in a way that made all look guilty. (Here is a great and level blog on the subject if you'd like to read more.) But, it is how both of these responded at the moment when they were brought to account that shows what really matters about His Church. To pretend we are perfect and have it all together, is to lie about the continuing effects of remaining sin in us (Romans 7). To attend to what God says: self-examination, repentance, and requesting forgiveness, to seek the wise counsel of others, to pray for change, to not strike back; well, this is the stuff for which Christ lived and died and to which He calls us. Read C.J.'s response to see the practical outworking of what we read in psalms 51, 32. and 38, and see the reality of what it means that we are, until He calls us home and we see Him face to face and are like Him, deeply flawed clay pots who every day stand in need of His grace that lifts the burden of sin from our shoulders by carrying it, His blood that covers our brokenness as the infractions of the broken law in the ark of the covenant were covered by blood on the mercy seat and not "seen" by the Manifested Presence between the wings of the cherubim above, as our sin is written in the ledger book of Jesus and He is considered in default for us, and His perfect life is written into our accounts and we are solvent for no reason but being united with Him. This is the center of the gospel, not hanging on to our pride, and illusions of grandeur, but agreeing with what He says and seeing ourselves as He sees us now in Christ. We are free to admit who we are and compelled to confess the glory of all that He is.