Extravagant Grace - a review (part 4)

(Just joining us? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Finally, on Matthew 11:28-30, a lengthy excerpt, but I think I need to quote all of it: 

For as long as you remain in your body of flesh, living on earth, you are called to do two things, neither of which you can do in your own strength. You are called to run the race like a champion athlete (1 Cor 9:24), and you are called to rest in Christ (Matt 11:28-30). These are not two separate but equal callings, as if we must constantly try to strive and rest at the same time. On that approach, all our striving will consume our resting and we will live our lives in a swirl of ceaseless activity, perpetual service to God, and countless self-salvation strategies. Rather, resting must be primary, for according to the author of Hebrews it is the goal of our striving.

He says, "So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." (Heb 4:9-11)

In Matthew 11 Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Rest must be the primary paradigm, for even if we strive with all our might for obedience we will always need the righteousness of Christ to stand in our place. No goodness of our own will ever be good enough; even in our best moments our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isa 64:6). If we are to stand before God we must be constantly hidden in the royal robes of his goodness.

We know this for sure because, although we will be busy in heaven, it is portrayed for us as the Sabbath rest that never ends. Our chief theme for all eternity will be rest and delight in our Savior, so as we seek to enjoy a foretaste of heaven on earth now our primary goal should be to understand what it means to rest and delight in the finished work of Christ. What better way to get the courage and strength to keep running the difficult race than to rest supremely in Christ even as we set about the serious work of obedience? (225-6)

As I read and re-read this passage, I’ve finally come to this question: how does Duguid believe that Jesus would define “rest” in Matthew 11? Based on the comment that “on that approach [viewing striving and resting as equal callings], all our striving will consume our resting and we will live our lives in a swirl of ceaseless activity, perpetual service to God, and countless self-salvation strategies,” it seems that she views “rest” as antithetical to “striving.” I find this curious given that her “rest” passage, Matthew 11, combines the notion of rest with taking Christ’s yoke upon us. It is precisely in the work of being yoked to Christ (we don’t need to argue that this is “striving” language, do we?) that we will find rest for weary souls. Obedience apart from Christ’s rest produces “a swirl of ceaseless activity, perpetual service to God, and countless self-salvation strategies.” As Duguid says, these are “not two separate but equal callings.” In the totally unexpected way that Christ’s brings his grace to us, obedience and rest are the same calling, and this is how Christ can say that we will only find rest for our weary souls by taking his yoke upon us.

I’ll be very honest here: it disturbs me that this book has gotten such resounding endorsements given that Duguid seems to misunderstand the relationship between obedience and rest in Christ’s economy. I spent the last several years studying the book of Romans, and so when I started finding this bifurcation throughout the book, the phrase “the obedience of faith” kept coming to mind. Paul uses this same phrase in Romans 1:5 and in Romans 16:26 (verse 27 is a doxology that closes the book). So in his greatest of theological treatises, the apostle Paul uses the phrase “the obedience of faith” as bookends, drawing together 11 chapters of indicative and five chapters of imperative into one inseparable phrase. True obedience only comes from faith, and truth faith always and inevitably produces obedience. Duguid’s separation of “striving” and “resting” seems to indicate that we alternate obedience and faith, and even though she returns at the end of this quoted passage to refer to “[resting] supremely in Christ even as we set about the serious work of obedience,” the fact remains that she has fundamentally separated the two from the outset.

As an aside, I think one big danger in this bifurcation is that Duguid’s core audience, those who are weary and heavy laden by guilt and by seemingly fruitless efforts at obedience, will seize upon the encouragement to rest from their striving toward holiness and let down their guard. “I’ve been working so hard to be holy, I’m now going to take my Sabbath rest and quit trying so hard for a bit.” This is when we the weary will be at our most vulnerable, because it is then that our “rest” idolatries that can be the most seductive (sloth, gluttony, addictions). I believe that a truly Gospel-centered approach to sanctification must seamlessly bring together the finished work of Christ and his ongoing work in our hearts, beginning at the deepest levels where we aren’t even aware of the depth of our sin, and showing us not only Christ’s sufficiency but also his incomparable beauty in such a way that we want for nothing else, and our behavior can’t help but follow our heart’s desires. This, my friends, is what it means to be transformed (and transfixed) by God’s extravagant grace.

Here’s the thing: I desperately need the message that is the purpose of this book, that when I am at my worst (not to mention what I perceive to be my best), God is at his best. By “at his best,” I mean the character traits that make our Yahweh God unique, above anything mankind could possibly invent, and as he revealed himself to Moses after the golden calf fiasco: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Ex 34:6-7). As I write this, I’ve just totally lost it on my husband and kids, so much that he invented an excuse to get them out of the house so that I could cool off a bit. I am in constant, desperate need of a Savior who will save me from the flames of hell, as well as the way that hell still grasps for control of my angry, selfish, self-sufficient heart. “Oh, wretched woman that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7)

The heart cry of this book echoes that “Thanks be to God!” I’d love to see a re-written version in a couple of years that maintains Duguid’s trademark vulnerability, compassion and insight into life in this body of death, but with the pendulum swings modulated into a theologically balanced as well as deeply encouraging work.