Comments on: For the Sake of My Family: Marriage – Piper and Taylor http://www.davidwesterfield.net/2009/10/for-the-sake-of-my-family-marriage-piper-and-taylor/ Theology, Culture, Politics, Technology, Reviews, and Other Commentary From a Reformed Evangelical Conservative Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:31:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robin Westerfield http://www.davidwesterfield.net/2009/10/for-the-sake-of-my-family-marriage-piper-and-taylor/comment-page-1/#comment-11775 Robin Westerfield Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:37:57 +0000 http://www.davidwesterfield.net/?p=2163#comment-11775 What an excellent real life application of Jesus' imputed righteousness that often seems to be future grace, not present reality, other than in a judicial sense. From your summary: "What happens if this doctrine so masters our souls that we begin to bend it from the vertical to the horizontal and apply it to our marriages?" How this heart knowledge of Jesus' righteousness given freely would change the tendency to return evil for evil with humility and gentleness, especially to our spouses! A recent article in Christianity Today quoted Chalmers (?), who said that in the past, people used to make much of Christ and not trust themselves. Now our culture minimizes God while exalting self. The author said we need to doubt ourselves while trusting Christ and what the Bible tells us is true of Him. Brings to mind the verse, "When we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we will see Him as He is." If there is shallow belief in God's work and promises such as imputed righteousness (as shown in our lives through the example of wrong marriage attitudes), that is our own futile thinking at work, not the trustworthiness of Christ and what He has done for us, and what He is now actively doing. Speaking of bending, the truth of imputed righteousness needs to straighten the crooked stick.... Thanks for the very good excerpt. What an excellent real life application of Jesus’ imputed righteousness that often seems to be future grace, not present reality, other than in a judicial sense. From your summary: “What happens if this doctrine so masters our souls that we begin to bend it from the vertical to the horizontal and apply it to our marriages?” How this heart knowledge of Jesus’ righteousness given freely would change the tendency to return evil for evil with humility and gentleness, especially to our spouses!

A recent article in Christianity Today quoted Chalmers (?), who said that in the past, people used to make much of Christ and not trust themselves. Now our culture minimizes God while exalting self. The author said we need to doubt ourselves while trusting Christ and what the Bible tells us is true of Him. Brings to mind the verse, “When we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.” If there is shallow belief in God’s work and promises such as imputed righteousness (as shown in our lives through the example of wrong marriage attitudes), that is our own futile thinking at work, not the trustworthiness of Christ and what He has done for us, and what He is now actively doing. Speaking of bending, the truth of imputed righteousness needs to straighten the crooked stick….

Thanks for the very good excerpt.

]]>