“The church is not a voting bloc in the dangerous game of identity politics. What at least some evangelical leaders apparently don’t recognize is that we lose everything not when we are fed to lions but when we preach another gospel. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt 16:26). We should not be surprised when a politician appeals to our fears; what should alarm us is when this appeal succeeds among those who profess faith in Christ. ”
Excerpt From
Recovering Our Sanity
Michael Horton
“Despair is another common response to the problems we see either in ourselves or in the world. Some of us assume that although I am a relatively good person, there are too many people who are not—and there’s no way that I can change them. Again, this is fed by hours spent in our preferred silo of so-called “news” and social media instead of actually rubbing shoulders with neighbors.”
Excerpt From
Recovering Our Sanity
Michael Horton
https://books.apple.com/us/book/recovering-our-sanity/id1574132636
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Karl Barth’s description of sin as, more than anything else, sloth. Most of our sins are in the “left undone” category I just mentioned. We’re lazy. Apart from God’s grace, we are not inclined to care about God or our neighbor. We don’t even really care about ourselves—at least not about our most important needs. We just want to have fun, make a splash, let a few people know we were here, and . . . whatever. Most of us are not even brave enough to be truly awful; mostly, we’re just indolent.
“In Psalm 2, then, God laughs at the pretension of the would-be autonomous self. The powerful ones of this age are not living with the grain of reality. Insanity has gripped them. It just does not make sense that they would not acknowledge the Messiah as their lawful sovereign. It may seem a little off-putting that God’s response to all of this vaunted show of autonomy is to laugh. Once more we meet a God who is not necessarily the familiar one in our culture today. Yet his response makes perfect sense. Here are rebels God created in his image and still loves, running around on the ground like ants and spoiling their realms and natural resources. They think that they’re free and can make their own choices, but they don’t realize that only God’s fetters can liberate them”
“Like our first parents, we quickly realize that our prized autonomy is just a dream—a nightmare, in fact. It is not consistent with reality. We can declare our independence, but that does not mean that we have succeeded in gaining it. We may cry out in elation, “I am free!”, but we are actually in bondage to lords which cannot liberate but merely seek to pull us deeper into their deathly depths”
“God’s laughing is not the sardonic cackle of a tyrant, but the head-shaking amazement of a liberating King at just how deluded we are as we seek to “burst [his] bonds apart.” We cannot actually do this, because we cannot choose or unchoose to be God’s creatures. But we try, however feebly, to resist anyone or anything that exposes our charade of autonomy. This is not power, but impotence; not freedom, but bondage; not authenticity, but vanity; not intelligence, but foolishness. Why would anyone want to cast off the bonds of this king, who said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28–30)?”
“We’re all afraid of being unrighteous. Self-justification is our default setting. And that is because we know deep down exactly what we are: the “ungodly.” We know what God requires of us and what it means to be righteous, to be godly, and to be responsible, loving, and just human beings. But often we do not do what we know is right when we’re up to bat. We’re afraid of losing something if we do the right thing. In other words, we’re selfish. We don’t love God and our neighbor, and we show it not only by what we do but by what we fail to do.”
“When we try to justify ourselves, nobody wins. God is offended that we think we can do better than the gift he has offered through his Son’s righteous life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection.”
Jesus is also a true and faithful human, the Last Adam, who is exactly the sort of person we were all created to be, God’s faithful covenant partner. And the evidence of his Spirit-endowed wisdom was the fear of God.
Fear is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. If you come to know God, the true and living God, your first response will be fear. You are astonished at how unlike anyone or anything he is. You do not have the intellectual, psychological, moral, or emotional equipment to handle, much less explain, it. You are not in charge. You realize that you have not discovered God; he has discovered you. He knows you inside and out. You now know, not just intellectually but deep in your heart, that you are a sinner in the presence of the holy God. It’s disorienting because it’s not what your “little voice within” would ever tell you” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton
“In sharp contrast with other religions (which sometimes even wear the Christian label), God does not frighten us into submission. Instead, he draws us by cords of love. Godly fear, in fact, turns out to be synonymous with love, as the first fruit of faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness: “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you” (Ps 5:7, emphasis mine); “but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps 147:11, emphasis mine). Through faith in Christ we no longer fear God’s anger, so that we can begin to “fear him” for his unchangeable and merciful promises, clinging to him alone and looking for no other savior. This is true worship and, with it, true sanity.” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton
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“But the highest wisdom comes not from “looking around” or “looking within,” but from being driven outside of ourselves—what we feel, assume, imagine, or do—by just hearing God’s Word, especially his gospel. Here there is no speculation—no more chattering within ourselves about what we might believe. The gospel is a strange announcement of news brought from a herald. It’s based not on timeless principles but on the resurrection of the God-Man in history. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). It is not something you ascend to attain or descend to bring up from the dead (vv. 3–16). Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton
“The slightest brush with God’s majesty fills us with dread, and this is the beginning of all wisdom. Then God condescends to reveal his favor—his gospel—and this is the consummation of all wisdom. Christ is the cleft of the rock in whom we are hidden to behold God’s grace in the preaching of the gospel. Veiling his glory in the humility of our flesh, he made it possible for people to see, hear, touch, and be touched by God himself.
“God does not exist for my happiness, but I exist for his glory. And when I am glorifying God, I am also enjoying him. Worshiping God is the flourishing of ourselves and those around us. So it is only in communion with him that I find genuine satisfaction which can weather unhappy circumstances. I don’t naturally know this because I’m a sinner. Rather, I have to be confronted with God in his holiness and majesty, accept that I am the problem, and then flee to his mercy in his Son. And then he unites us also to each other as members of his body—gifts instead of threats. That is what Christians should be saying. Maybe I’m living on an island, but I just don’t hear enough of this” - Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton
“However, my thesis is that the fear of God drives out the fear of everything else. And, to begin, we will turn to God’s Word for wisdom. We do not have a stern Father who just tells us to brush off our wounds and move on. He binds our wounds—even ones he inflicts—to save us, like a doctor who cuts out a malignant tumor.” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton
“I want to help us shift our whole focus from a human-centered obsession with saving ourselves through false securities and promises of immediate gratification to the “solid joys and lasting treasure [that] none but Zion’s children know.”23 From that perspective, we can be joyful even when we are unhappy, hopeful even when the hype fails us, and persevering and growing even in and through fearful trials.”
“The antidote to our fears is the fear of God. The proper fear of God leads us to Christ, our only mediator, so that the improper fear of God—anxiety about whether he is our terrifying Judge or merciful Father—can be settled once and for all.”
I have written elsewhere at length about how a human-centered society turns God into a supporting actor for our life movie. Whether as a personal therapist, life coach, entertainer, manager, or mascot in the culture wars, God exists for us.”
“Fear really is worship—we fear what we believe is ultimate, what we think has the last word over our lives.”
“Even in many churches, the biggest problem seems to be peace of mind or with ourselves, perhaps even with each other, rather than peace with God. When our greatest fear is subjective shame rather than objective guilt before God, or threats to a long life instead of everlasting life, we live in a flat world.”
“Our corrupt heart guides us to use our reason and sense observation for weaving webs of half-truths, distorted truths, and untruths. So we do not start with ignorance and come to truth, but begin with truth and, as Calvin put it, “deliberately befuddle ourselves.”3”
“Think of the top ten worst sins in today’s world that come to your mind. Like me, you probably picked symptoms, not the root illness. In the Bible, the worst thing that can be said about a people is that they “did not fear God” (Deut 25:18). Active rebellion against God is not the root but the fruit of failing to take God seriously: “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps 36:1, emphasis mine). “There is no fear of God before their eyes,” Paul repeats in his diagnosis of the human condition (Rom 3:18). Did you know that it’s possible to live an outwardly pious life, thanking God that you’re not like the godless secular humanists, without any genuine fear of God in you?”
“In the political sphere, false prophets profane God’s name by using it as a credit card for whatever policy, candidate, or party they believe best contributes to human flourishing. Yet the entire system is human-centered, using God to accomplish our own agenda. Here’s the key: The fear of God is not a means to an end, but the end itself. We don’t use the “fear of God” as a slogan for national revival, personal well-being (even spirituality), moral crusades, or social justice. We don’t use God to make a point—God is the point.”
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