Greg Cook's Explanation That

"Desire Distinguishes Biblical Christianity from False Christianity"

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

-Psalm 37:4

        American Evangelicalism seems to have lost touch with its heart.  We distrust our desires and believe following our heart will only lead us into sin.  This often leads to trying to kill off desires to make it easier to do things we find boring and distasteful in the name of glorifying God.  These beliefs are so well rooted in Evangelical culture that we do not stop to consider how blasphemous they are.

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature the rewards promised in the    Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased” (C. S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory).

        Desires, awake and alive, are fundamental to biblical Christianity.  A true Christian’s passions burn.  Anyone questioning this need only to read Jonathan Edward’s Treatise on Religious Affections.  Here is a taste of Edwards’ insight:

    “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God, in his Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be good in earnest, ‘fervent in spirit,’ and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion: Rom. 12:11, ‘Be ye fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.’ Deu. 10:12, ‘And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord the God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?’ and chap. 6:4, 5, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy might.’ It is such a fervent vigorous engagedness of the heart in religion, that is the fruit of a real circumcision of the heart, or true regeneration, and that has the promises of life; Deu. 30:6, ‘And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.’

If we be not in good earnest in religion, and our wills and inclinations be not strongly exercised, we are nothing. The things of religion are so great, that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts, to their nature and importance, unless they be lively and powerful. In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations so requisite, as in religion, and in nothing is lukewarmness so odious. True religion is evermore a powerful thing, and the power of it appears, in the first place in the inward exercises of it in the heart, where is the principal and original seat of it. Hence true religion is called the power of godliness, in distinction from the external appearances of it, that are the form of it, 2 Tim. 3:5, ‘Having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it.’ The Spirit of God, in those that have sound and solid religion, is a spirit of powerful holy affection, and therefore, God is said ‘to have given the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,’ (2 Tim. 1:7). And such, when they receive the Spirit of God, in his sanctifying and saving influences, are said to be ‘baptized with the Holy Ghost, and with fire;’ by reason of the power and fervor of those exercises the Spirit of God excites in their hearts, whereby their hearts, when grace is in exercise, may be said to burn within them. (Luke 24:32).”

        Our desires are good because the Bible demonstrates that a Christian is a fundamentally different person than a non-Christian.  The inner nature is changed.  Jesus said  "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33; see also John 3:3, Ezekiel 36:25-27, Deuteronomy 30:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Jeremiah 31:31-34).  Therefore, a Christian will behave according to his or her nature.  If the heart is truly transformed the heart is free to follow its desires for these desires will lead to righteousness.  Hold on though.  Is this going too far?  Indeed, “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)  Fourteen chapters later, however, God promises a new covenant that will transform the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  This has already occurred in a Christian.  The old man remains and wars against us but this is not our core self.

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:18-23).

Living according to desires brings two positive results.  First, truly converted Christians begin to live in freedom.  Jesus was the ultimate freedom fighter.  The word Gospel means “good news”.  What is so good about the message of most churches today?  The best that can be said is that it is an avoidance of a bad thing (Hell).  But who rejoices at the possibilities of following the guidance of America’s preachers?  Jesus came to bring abundant life, in this life and the next (John 10:10; Mark 10:29-30).  The true Gospel can only ever be rejected on the grounds that it is too good to be true and therefore cannot be.  “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  The gospel is beyond the imaginings and desires of anything that ever conceived in any human heart.  By following our purified desires, we enjoy God and life.  Our desires are in us because we were created in the image of God.  Our desires are there because they are in Him.  When we live in our desires, we live in God’s desires and reflect his character.  We are all individuals that form a part of the body of Christ.  Each of us has a unique set of desires and is therefore uniquely qualified to praise a specific aspect of God.  His glory is infinite.  It is only as each of us glorifies the aspects of God that we most delight in, do we as the church give full expression to the glory of God.  Regrettably, our church culture tries to stereotype what a good Christian is.  Because of this, people miss their real and unique callings for ones they do not enjoy but feel compelled to do.  This is a major reason that the evangelical church has so little impact in many areas of culture.  We try to turn our artists into small group Bible study leaders.  If we allow artists to be artists, they will come alive and express God’s glory in remarkable ways.  Instead, our message that fits all Christians into stereotypes actually feeds sin for the root of sin is unbelief.  When asked, "What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).  We have trained people that God’s wonderful plan has nothing to do with anything they would want to do.  They come to distrust God.  We sin not because of our desires but because we do not believe God will satisfy those desires and therefore try to satisfy them by our own feeble efforts.  We starve our souls until they are so desperate that the counterfeits look desirable.  Someone hungry enough will eat wallpaper.  The answer is not to tell him that wallpaper is not good for him, but to give him real food.  When the steak shows up, he will stop eating wallpaper.  Consider pornography.  Will giving desires freedom inflame illicit sexual behavior?  I think it is relatively plain that a male college student looking at Internet pornography is not indulging his desires but giving into hopelessness.  The true desire is for love, companionship, and validation.  A vixen on the screen is not capable of providing any of these.  She is a counterfeit that only teases.  When real love, companionship, and validation comes through the Gospel, these trivial, weak, and false versions of it will lose their grip on our souls. 

        The second positive effect of following our desires is the unmasking of how pathetic our obedience really is.  External obedience is an attempt to hoodwink God and ourselves.  In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus said that outward restraint is of no value because sins such as murder and adultery are sins of the heart.  Our souls are no better off because we did not act.  Likewise, Jesus said that outward obedience in areas of fasting, giving, or prayer is worthless if it does not come from love for God.  In these instances, we are no better off for having acted.  The question of whether we should do it anyway fails to take seriously the worthlessness of the effort.  We believe Jesus overstated the case, because he could not really mean that hatred is the same as murder, could he?  Should we do it anyway is the wrong question.  If our hearts are not in it, we should not strive for partial credit (I have already shown that none is given) but rather seek the transformation that will lead to true righteousness.  What can we do to build real righteousness is the proper question.

        The Bible tells us how we are supposed to act, but it also tells us that these actions are a result of grace and not a means of grace.  When I had science experiments in high school and college lab classes I often knew ahead of time the result I was supposed to come to.  This enabled me to manipulate the experiment to get the desired result, which hid my inner scientific failings.  When we do this in a spiritual realm, we are “whitewashed tombs”.  Inward holiness will lead to outward holiness, but outward holiness never transforms the heart. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25-28).

        The Bible says that outward and counterfeit righteousness is at best worthless, but usually soul killing.  Romans 8:3 says that commandments have no power to bring about obedience.  The failure to realize this condemns us to a fruitless life of endeavoring to, as Monty Python would say, “chop down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring”.  We do not have the means to obey the law by trying harder.  If, however, we cease our striving and follow our desires we, probably for the first time, will have to face the desperateness of our situation.  If it is indeed true that “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14) then we should be anxious to test whether our desires reflect a Godly heart or a worldly one.  Joseph Alleine wrote An Alarm to the Unconverted to shake the false hope of false Christians and described his task as “a surgeon when about to cut off a mortified limb from his beloved friend, which of necessity he must do, though with an aching heart.  But understand me, beloved, I am only taking down the ruinous house, which otherwise will speedily fall of itself and bury you in the ruins, that I may build it fair, strong, and firm for ever.”  God will test our works at the judgment.  He has given us a means to do that now.  True obedience comes from the heart.  That which is true obedience is a joy and we will continue to do it without compulsion.  That which is false will fail without external pressure.  When this happens, we have to face the terrifying deficiencies in our soul, which is the only hope for prostrating ourselves before God’s mercy seat.  In “Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer”, Jonathan Edwards made the case that a true Christian is one who prays because of desire.  He called those who have little desire to pray, “to throw away their hope. If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God. Probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this. It is hard for a man to let go a hope of heaven, on which he hath once allowed himself to lay hold, and which he hath retained for a considerable time. True conversion is a rare thing. But that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion — after they are once settled and established in it, and have continued in it for some time, is much more rare.”  That we would come to a true understanding of the state of our soul would be better for our souls than all the duty-induced good works of the world put together.  “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:36)  If our souls are in danger, it is very likely that our good works are masking the disease.  Seeing the true nature of our souls allows us to delight in the good God has worked in us and to have to face that which is wretched.  This self-awareness is necessary to worship and growth and can only be found by searching the heart.  The person who does not listen to desire but lives through duty has no basis to evaluate his or her life.

        What can we do?  The question at hand is how do we encourage ourselves, and each other, on to godliness.  How do we feed righteousness and crucify the flesh?  The Bible says that there are two ways people pursue righteousness.  One leads to death and one to life.  Galatians 3:1-5 puts it this way:

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain- if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?”

According to Galatians, trying harder in our own strength (flesh) leads to “idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21) while living by the Spirit results in “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).  It is an unquestioned belief natural to all humanity that trying harder in our own strength is the means of moral and religious achievement.  This is why Proverbs twice says “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25).  This is the same reason that Jesus said few find the path of life.  It does not look like the path of life.  The natural mind is corrupted.  “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled” (Titus 1:15).  That which seems logical is deadly. That which gives life looks ridiculous.  “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:18-20)  It is not too hard to see that this is antithetical to the Gospel.  The Gospel says that salvation comes to those who trust Christ.  Christ did not save us so that we could go back to trusting in ourselves.  The Christian life is one of complete dependence.  Even Jesus depended upon his Father and the Spirit for His righteousness.  Preachers who make appeals to their congregants to reform themselves through their own efforts feed sin and entangle their members more and more deeply in soul peril.  The only hope we have for righteousness is in the work of the Holy Spirit.  According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (WSC #35).  It is only the work of God that can change us, whether before conversion or after.  The means that the Spirit uses is enabling us to believe (faith) the Gospel (grace).  It is grace that changes us.  The message of grace is that nothing depends on us, but rather Christ accomplished all.  The great cosmic irony is that God enables us to obey him through the message that the task was finished once and for all in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Martin Luther posed the question “Do we then do nothing?  Do we do nothing at all for the obtaining of this righteousness?”  Certainly, this is dangerous, isn’t it?  This could lead to all sorts of licentiousness.  Here is Luther’s response to his own question:

“I answer, nothing at all.  For this is perfect righteousness, to do nothing, to hear nothing, to know nothing of the law, or of works, but to know and believe this only, that Christ is gone to the Father, and is not now seen; that He sits in heaven at the right hand of His Father, not as judge, but made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption—briefly, that He is our high priest entreating for us, and reigning over us, and in us, by grace. (Luther’s "Declaration")”

Those who believe this message will be righteous and live in obedience to God.  Those who do not believe will never be able to.  How can this be?  It is fitting to close with two sections of On Christian Liberty by Luther.  First:

“It is a further function of faith that it honors him whom it trust with the most reverent and highest regard since it considers him truthful and trustworthy.  There is no other honor equal to the estimate of truthfulness and righteousness with which we honor him whom we trust.  Could we ascribe to a man anything greater than truthfulness and righteousness and perfect goodness?  On the other hand, there is no way in which we can shower greater contempt for a man than to regard him as false and wicked and to be suspicious of him, as we do when we do not trust him.  So when the soul firmly trusts God’s promises, it regards him as truthful and righteous.  Nothing more excellent than this can be ascribed to God.  The very highest worship of God is this: that we ascribe to him truthfulness, righteousness and whatever else should be ascribed to one who is trusted.  When this is done, the soul consents to his will.  Then it hallows his name and allows itself to be treated according to God’s good pleasure, for, clinging to God’s promises, it does not doubt that he who is true, just, and wise will do, dispose, and provide all things well.”

Second:

“Much is ascribed to faith, namely, that it alone can fulfill the law and justify without works.  You see that the First Commandment, which says, ‘You shall worship one God,’ is fulfilled by faith alone.  Though you were nothing but good works from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, you would still not be righteous or worship God or fulfill the First Commandment, since God cannot be worshipped unless you ascribe to him the glory of truthfulness and all goodness which is due him.  This cannot be done by works but only by the faith of the heart.  Not by doing of works but by believing do we glorify God and acknowledge that he is truthful.  Therefore, faith alone is the righteousness of a Christian and the fulfilling of all the commandments, for he who fulfills the First Commandment has no difficulty in fulfilling the rest.

            But works, being inanimate things, cannot glorify God, although they can, if faith is present, be done to the glory of God.  Here, however, we are not inquiring what works and what kind of works are done, but who it is that does them, who glorifies God and brings forth the works.  This is done by faith which dwells in the heart and is the source and substance of all our righteousness.  Therefore, it is a blind and dangerous doctrine which teaches that the commandments must be fulfilled by works.  The commandments must be fulfilled before any works can be done, and the works proceed from the fulfillment of the commandments.”

Jesus said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:39-40)  Therefore, all the commandments are merely commentary on what it means to fulfill these two.  First John eloquently proves that loving neighbor flows from loving God.  All obedience that is true obedience comes out of love for God.  Our love for God is limited only by our faith in the Gospel.  Learn the freedom of the Gospel and righteousness will follow.