A wonderfully constructive and pastoral exhortation from Terry Johnson, who encourages us to remember the four central aspects of a Christian identity: sons, saints, servants, sinners; and how our identity can become dysfunctional when any of these emphasised at the expense of the others.
Surely as we attend corporate Christian worship each facet of identity is affirmed and nourished, but not by denying or ignoring the others.
Some have made “sons” and “saints” the message of the gospel and have neglected the categories of “servant” and “sinner.” The result has been a strong emphasis on our unchanging security as children of God and our safe status as “holy ones,” righteous in Christ. Many hurting souls have derived great comfort from this constant refrain. Those of “tender conscience,” to use the Puritan term, have found deep consolation in regular reminders of sonship and sainthood.
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However, in the absence of an ongoing emphasis on “servant” and “sinner” the result too often has been complacency about duty, service, responsibility, and even about sin.
Err in one direction and I may end up in Vanity Fair with those who are “at ease in Zion” (Am 6:1). If all I hear is that I am a son and a saint, I may become flippant about sin and negligent of duty. However, if I err in the other direction, I may sink into the Slough of Despond. If all I hear is that I am a miserable wretch of a sinner, then I am unlikely to experience the joy of forgiveness: justification, adoption, and the certainty of eternal life. If all I hear is that I am a servant, then God may become to me an oppressive taskmaster, whose presence is avoided because an awareness of God means still another task added to my already overburdened job description.
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