Heart Idolatry
You gotta get this. Unless you understand heart idols and how they drive all the surface sins in your life, your spiritual formation will be stunted and you will be frustrated and joyless.
This morning, I quoted from Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC) on the issue of heart idolatry. Keller is a brilliant man, but as you'll see below, he's simply paraphrasing Martin Luther. This idea that every sin starts with idolatry is old, not new. It goes all the way back to the dawn of the Reformation. For more, here's a lengthy quote from Keller:
Underneath our behavioral sins lies a fundamental refusal to rest in Christ's salvation and the drive instead to find our own. Martin Luther says the same. Here is an excerpt from Martin Luther's Treatise Concerning Good Works (1520):
"All those who do not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in God's favor, grace and
good-will, but rather seek His favor in other things or in themselves, do not keep the [First] Commandment, and practice real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, fasting, obedience, patience, chastity, and innocence of all the saints combined."
Comment: Luther says if you look to your moral performance as the basis of your relationship with God, then you are breaking the first of the Ten Commandments: "Have no other gods before me." If you fail to grasp and believe the gospel of free justification through Christ's work you violate the first command. How could this be? Again from Luther:
"If we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious and pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him through our works, then all [our compliance with the law] is pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false savior. Note for yourself, then, how far apart these two are: keeping the First Commandment with outward works only, and keeping it with inward [justifying faith]. For this last makes true, living children of God, the other only makes worse idolatry and the most mischievous hypocrites on earth..."
Comment: Luther says that if we obey God's law without a belief that we are already accepted and loved in Christ, then in all our 'doing-good', we are really looking to something more than Jesus as the real source of our meaning, and happiness. We are trusting in our being a good parent, or being a good spouse, or our moral uprightness, or our spiritual performance, or our service to other people as our real "Saviors". If we aren't sure God already loves us in Christ, we will be looking to something else as our foundational significance and worth. This is why Luther says that we are committing idolatry (breaking the First commandment) if we don't thoroughly trust in Christ for our acceptability, even if we are otherwise totally moral and obedient to God.
...All people sin in general because we are sinners, but why do we sin in any particular instance? Luther indicates the first commandment is foundational to all the others. Why? Because we will not break commandment 2-10 unless we are in some way breaking commandment One and serving some idol. Every sin is rooted in the inordinate lust for something which comes because we are trusting in that thing rather than in Christ for our righteousness or salvation. At the moment we sin it is because we are looking to something to give us what only Jesus can give us. Beneath any particular sin is the general sin of rejecting Christ-salvation and indulging in self-salvation.
See also the articles How To Disciple a Transsexual and The Transforming Power of the Gospel over on the Resources page for more on how the gospel frees us from heart idolatry.
How is the concept of heart idolatry causing you to think differently about your own spiritual formation? Let the Comments roll...
This morning, I quoted from Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC) on the issue of heart idolatry. Keller is a brilliant man, but as you'll see below, he's simply paraphrasing Martin Luther. This idea that every sin starts with idolatry is old, not new. It goes all the way back to the dawn of the Reformation. For more, here's a lengthy quote from Keller:Underneath our behavioral sins lies a fundamental refusal to rest in Christ's salvation and the drive instead to find our own. Martin Luther says the same. Here is an excerpt from Martin Luther's Treatise Concerning Good Works (1520):
"All those who do not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in God's favor, grace and
good-will, but rather seek His favor in other things or in themselves, do not keep the [First] Commandment, and practice real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, fasting, obedience, patience, chastity, and innocence of all the saints combined." Comment: Luther says if you look to your moral performance as the basis of your relationship with God, then you are breaking the first of the Ten Commandments: "Have no other gods before me." If you fail to grasp and believe the gospel of free justification through Christ's work you violate the first command. How could this be? Again from Luther:
"If we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious and pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him through our works, then all [our compliance with the law] is pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false savior. Note for yourself, then, how far apart these two are: keeping the First Commandment with outward works only, and keeping it with inward [justifying faith]. For this last makes true, living children of God, the other only makes worse idolatry and the most mischievous hypocrites on earth..."
Comment: Luther says that if we obey God's law without a belief that we are already accepted and loved in Christ, then in all our 'doing-good', we are really looking to something more than Jesus as the real source of our meaning, and happiness. We are trusting in our being a good parent, or being a good spouse, or our moral uprightness, or our spiritual performance, or our service to other people as our real "Saviors". If we aren't sure God already loves us in Christ, we will be looking to something else as our foundational significance and worth. This is why Luther says that we are committing idolatry (breaking the First commandment) if we don't thoroughly trust in Christ for our acceptability, even if we are otherwise totally moral and obedient to God.
...All people sin in general because we are sinners, but why do we sin in any particular instance? Luther indicates the first commandment is foundational to all the others. Why? Because we will not break commandment 2-10 unless we are in some way breaking commandment One and serving some idol. Every sin is rooted in the inordinate lust for something which comes because we are trusting in that thing rather than in Christ for our righteousness or salvation. At the moment we sin it is because we are looking to something to give us what only Jesus can give us. Beneath any particular sin is the general sin of rejecting Christ-salvation and indulging in self-salvation.
See also the articles How To Disciple a Transsexual and The Transforming Power of the Gospel over on the Resources page for more on how the gospel frees us from heart idolatry.
How is the concept of heart idolatry causing you to think differently about your own spiritual formation? Let the Comments roll...
posted by Bob | 7:41 AM
6 Comments:
My view of sin has changed dramatically since Bob first shared the idea of heart idols this summer. I have spent time processing through my behaviors/sins and trying to think through the heart idols behind them, especially since Bob challenged us to spend time thinking through our own character. I struggle though getting to the real heart idol... For example, I have caught myself being cranky and angry at "stupid" drivers lately (even though I catch myself being one of them often). So, I have been asking myself, why do I struggle with this? I say not very nice things about these drivers aloud to myself in the car. Then I think...well, maybe it's impatience or thinking I'm better than others, but I don't really think that's the heart of it. This may sound silly, but I'd love a list of "typical" heart idols so I can think through them. I tend to think through the same few ones over and over like "pride," "control," "selfishness," etc. What am I missing? :)
Great Question! (I generally defer to Allison on this question, because she has deeply internalized the concept of heart idols and is great at helping people identify them.) But here is a definition given in the Gospel Transformation discipleship notebook:
"An idol is anything we believe we need apart from Jesus to make us happy, satisfied, or fulfilled." Later on, the GT writers offer a partial list:
Reputation Idols (wanting to be known as a "good something-or-other")
Control Idols
Lordship Idols (wanting people to serve me)
Money Idols
Sex Idols
Health Idols
Victim Idols (clinging to my problems so people will focus on me)
Pleasure Idols
Fear Idols
Giftedness Idols (taking pleasure in the things I'm good at)
I think this is only a partial list. Remember that what drives idolatry is our desire for RIGHTEOUSNESS or value or redemption. We want to feel valued. When we are not finding our life and identity in Christ, we will turn to whatever else gives us a sense of right-ness.
The main idol, of course, is SELF. That's why Jesus said a disciple must "deny himself." The solution to all idolatry is delighting in Christ and letting Him be Lord instead of myself.
The last few words of this post are totally amazing: "Beneath any particular sin is the GENERAL SIN of rejecting Christ-salvation and indulging in self-salvation."
Oh how I have so much of this GENERAL sin and BLANKET sin and UMBRELLA sin in my life. Me and not Christ is why I get into so much mischief.
Certainly one way this concept has been beneficial for my own spiritual formation is the realization that heart idols can look different than I might think. Being fortunate enough to have heard Keller on many occassions, there is a concept expressed in the post which seemed to come across on many occassions. Keller says, "We are trusting in our being a good parent, or being a good spouse, or our moral uprightness, or our spiritual performance, or our service to other people as our real "Saviors"." It has been important for me to realize in my transformation that things I think of as "good" such as being a good uncle or student or husband are really taking the place of Christ and preventing me from experiencing my sonship.
One other thought, as previously mentioned I think it is at times hard to figure out what my heart idols are. One way Keller often spoke of to recognize these things was to note the situations when we really feel as though our sense of value or worth is damaged. Often in these situations it can be found that whatever heart idol I have placed my significance in has let me down and thus my self worth suffers. I feel terrible when I feel I have let someone down or do not live up to their expectations. When this happens I quickly awaken to the fact that I have again committed idolatry.
I confess I was a bit nervous to post anything for the first time, so thanks for responding to my "anonymous" post. Thanks for the list, Bob...I think it is already clarifying some of the fuzziness I was experiencing in my thoughts about my heart idols. I also appreciated what Tommy said about recognizing the situations when we feel our sense of value/worth is damaged. I can think of plenty of times when I have beat myself up about things, and I can already see them pointing to my idolatry. I think these things will help me sort out and better define what I have been seeing in myself.
Bob,
God has had a hold of my heart on this issue for a while now. I've been reading Willard’s "renovation," and it has been causing me to wrestle with my own heart idols (your "partial list" feels like a "checklist" of which I'm almost completely guilty). I remember at 808 a couple years ago, you talked about the way we hide or manage our sin, and I'm finally understanding how seriously that affects my life. I don't want anyone--even my wife--to know the things I'm struggling with. This is my scariest heart idol, because it puts me in the ring with my sin with no help from friend or God...self-as-savior.
I desperately want my heart to be formed after my God. What breaks my current heart the quickest is admitting my own immense hypocrisy and realizing that the Creator of the Universe still loves me anyway. Once my heart is broken, the only place to turn is to Jesus.
For anyone struggling with this, I suggest listening to Bob's October 09 message on the resources page. I just listened to it yesterday on a whim, and it deeply affected my soul.
Post a Comment
<< Home