Not Boasting In My Orthodoxy

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that while we want our doctrine to be biblical, doctrine isn’t what saves us from sin and misery.  We don’t have faith in our doctrine; the object of saving faith is Christ alone.  Unfortunately, even good doctrine can become an idol, as Lloyd-Jones notes here:

“Let me put it plainly, I will not make my boast, I will not glory, even in my orthodoxy, for even that can be a snare if I make a god of it.  I will glory only in that Blessed Person himself by whom this great thing has been done, with whom I died, with whom I have been buried, with whom I am dead to sin and alive unto God, with whom I have risen, with whom I am seated in the heavenly places, by whom and by whom alone the world is crucified unto me and I am crucified unto the world.  Anything that wants to come into the center instead of him, anything that wants to add itself on to him, I shall reject.  Knowing the apostolic message concerning Jesus Christ in all its directness, its simplicity and its glory, God forbid that any one of us should add anything to it.  Let us rejoice in him in all his fullness, and in him alone.

D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, p. 189.

shane lems