Positive and Negative Steps in the Christian Walk

This week’s theme on Things Unseen has been the grammar of the gospel. And we’ve been thinking that it’s helpful to understand the New Testament’s teaching of the gospel in terms of verbal moods and tenses—indicative and imperative moods, and past and present and future tenses. And today, we’re coming to another grammar lesson in the school of the Lord Jesus.

When we use verbs, we employ them in both positive and negative senses. We do some things, but there are other things we don’t do. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul several times describes the Christian life as a walk: we’re to walk in a manner worthy of our calling; we’re to walk in love; we’re to walk as children of light; we’re to walk as wise people. But Paul teaches us that walking worthy in this way means we don’t walk in ways that are unworthy of Christ.

Walking in love means we don’t walk in sexual immorality or impurity. Walking wisely means we don’t walk in foolish ignorance of God’s will. We don’t walk like drunk men controlled by wine, but as people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and who walk in ways that encourage each other and are marked by thankful hearts. There’s always both positive and negative, and the gospel produces both in us. And it’s really important to see that and to look out for it when you’re reading the Scriptures because, once you begin to notice it, you’ll find this all over the place. And if you’ve never noticed it before, you’ll wonder how you could actually have missed it.

So, let me add a couple of comments. The first is that I think most of us, by nature, tend to emphasize one or the other—the positive or the negative. Some of us do something like that physically when we walk, don’t we? The stress goes out on our lead foot, and it takes more pressure than the other one. And in the same way, some of us are naturally drawn to stressing the positive aspects of spiritual growth—love and joy and peace and so on—while others of us have a kind of natural tendency to be drawn more to focus on how we can deal with our sin. None of us is as yet perfectly balanced. So, we need to be conscious of the particular ways in which, individually, we tend to lose our balance.

Today, you’ve probably noticed that what people call negativity is out and positivity is in. But if our lives are going to give expression to the gospel—if we’re going to be able to speak the gospel’s grammar—then we need both. Living the Christian life on only positives is never going to work. Trying to live it only on negatives, well, that’s going to lead us to confuse dealing with sin with the whole reality of sanctification. Saying no to sin is essential, but it’s only one element in sanctification. There also needs to be the other, the positive, the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ, and positively growing to be like Him, and walking as He walked.

Now, there are some passages in Scripture that I think really help us towards this balanced Christian lifestyle and help us to grasp the marvels of gospel grammar. The most extensive is probably Colossians 3:1–17 because, in this passage, Paul seems to combine several elements of gospel grammar. The indicatives and the imperatives are there, and the already and the not yets are there, and also the negatives and the positives are there.

First, he presents us with glorious indicatives. He reminds us of our new identity in Christ: we’ve died with Him, been raised with Him. In fact, our lives are hidden with Christ in the presence of God. That’s all true already. And then comes the not yet: when Christ appears, we are actually going to appear with Him in glory.

After those already and not yet indicatives comes a flood of powerful imperatives in verses 5–17. And not only so, but they come first of all in a series of negatives in verses 5–11, where Paul tells us what we need to put to death, what we need to put off, what, in the old language, we need to mortify. And then there’s an equally vigorous series of positives in verses 12–17, what we need to put on, and they’re all the beautiful characteristics that the Lord Jesus manifested.

So, there’s a beautiful harmony here in the picture that Paul paints of the Christian life. It’s as though he’s saying, “Here is what it means to be able to live according to the grammar of the gospel and for our lives to speak clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ—indicatives and imperatives, alreadys and not yets, negatives and positives.”

So, as we begin to look forwards to the weekend, if you’re wondering what you might do in a little spare time, let me commend reading and reflecting on Colossians 3:1–17. It’s a marvelous crash course in using the grammar of the gospel. Well, tomorrow is Friday again, and I hope you’ll join us for one more day in the gospel grammar school.