Branch Sins & Root Sins

In his little book on repentance, Jack Miller distinguishes between two kinds of sins: “branch sins” and “root sins.”

“Branch-sins are those faults which others most quickly see in us. They are the sins which most obviously get in the way of relationships with others. They are branch-sins, however, not because they are little sins—but because they are more observable than roots, and because branches derive life and strength from hidden roots.”

— Jack Miller, Repentance, Page 33-34

The easier part of repentance is identifying and turning from the out-there-for-everyone-to-see branch sins in our lives. The harder part is identifying and turning from the root sins that give life to the branch sins, but are less obvious to others and ourselves.

My mind immediately goes to James 4:1-2, where James basically asks, “Do you want to know why you are always angry and willing to duke it out all the time (branch sins)?” His answer points to the root sin of self-worship, bowing to ourselves and serving our wants: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1-2).

Tree roots are a pain to dig out. They’re stubborn and always more widespread than you anticipate. But there’s a twofold beauty in spending time focusing on root sins in the heart: 1. Killing the root sucks life out of the branches 2. Root removal creates fresh space for God to come in and fill with his grace and presence.

Can you think of any root sins God might be nudging you to investigate?

How Can I Find More Joy and Peace in My Life?

I recently picked up Christopher Wright’s new book Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness. If you’re anything like me, always needing a little extra help to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in my life, I recommend getting your hands on this book.

At one point Wright says that “joy” and “peace” are like twins in Scripture because they frequently show up together and are related to each other. Here’s an example: “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him…” (Romans 15:13).

Maybe joy and peace are twins in Scripture, but are they twins in our lives? If you’re asking me, it depends on when you ask. What does my bank account look like? Are there any relational conflicts in my life? What’s the state of my health and the health of those I love? Am I getting the things I want in my marriage and my job? Maybe joy and peace will be present together, but probably just one, or neither.

Wright points out that joy and peace show up when we’re trusting and depending on the God who has given us peace and gives us joy, rather than on ourselves and our ever-changing circumstances.

“Christians will be noticed (and often asked questions) if they have the kind of joy that is not affected by the moods of cynical despair and negativity that can easily dominate groups of people thrown together by their work. But equally, their joy doesn’t come from getting swept up in the occasional crazy bouts of drinking and gluttony. Rather, they have a quality of inner joy that can be sensed even in times of pain, or loss, or suffering; an underlying joy that is not dependent on alcohol, sex, or money.

Similarly, Christians with peace, who are not racked by anxiety or driven by ruthless ambition, who are not devastated by failing to get promoted, or in despair because of the threat or reality of losing their job, but who rather have an inner peace that flows from trusting God—such people are bearing silent witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are being like Christ in trusting their heavenly Father in the midst of whatever life brings—even the tough things.”

— Wright, page 59

I needed to be reminded of that this week. What we bank our lives on will determine how much peace and joy we experience. Trusting in other people, things (even good things!), and ourselves will drown us in anxiety (the opposite of peace) and sorrow (the opposite of joy) because they’ll always disappoint.

As we daily choose to trust and depend on God and his promises to us—things that never disappoint—these twins will become more and more present in our day-to-day lives. And let’s be honest: who doesn’t want to experience more of the inner joy and inner peace Christ gives us? I know I do.

Being Interrupted by God

God has graciously transplanted each of us into the one body of Christ. We’re a family now. Like it works in any family, we have responsibilities to one another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer identifies one of them as active helpfulness:

“This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.”

Here’s the difficulty, though: active helpfulness is taxing on our time and resources. That’s hard for even the most sanctified among us! But check out the way Bonhoeffer links this challenging call with how God wants to shape our lives around the cross and work out his purposes in us:

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks… When we do that we pass the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart in our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done. It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them…

They do not want a life that is crossed and balked. But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”

Allowing ourselves to be expended for one another has a benefit that works in two directions: it blesses those in need and works Christ-like humility in those who help.

You Can't Count Jesus' Blessings on One Hand

As many of you know, I’ve spent the last several weeks studying for ordination exams. As I was studying, I was struck by one of the questions and answers in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

Question 36: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

Answer:…. Assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

I think this Q &A shows us at least two things:

1. The benefits Jesus gives us can never be counted on one hand. Justification (I’m forgiven, accepted, and have Christ’s righteousness credited to my account), adoption (I’m part of God’s family and an heir of the promises), and sanctification (God is transforming me) are incredible truths. But they’re just the entrance into a mansion full of benefits. They’re the top of the iceberg.

2. The blessings we get from Christ are never supposed to just swim around in our heads, leaving our hearts unaffected. The content of these doctrines are deeply personal and life-altering. They’re bursting with encouragement and are supposed to penetrate our hearts and bring comfort.

Here’s my attempt at fleshing out each part of the answer to question 36. I hope it encourages you.

• In a world where we love imperfectly and we’re loved imperfectly, God loves us perfectly and wants us to be assured of that.
• Our consciences are often burdened with guilt and shame, but from God’s vantage point there is nothing but peace between Him and us.
• Life is hard and sometimes disappointing, leaving us frustrated and even miserable. But we’re not alone—Jesus is present with us by the Spirit, shaping us through trials, and leading us to New Creation. We can have joy in His presence and purposes for us.
• Our sin is often like a house that was smoked in for fifty years—no matter what you do, the smell lingers and never seems to go away. We feel helpless and wonder if God’s really working in us. But God hasn’t abandoned us or stopped the flow of grace in our direction. He’s in the middle of a remodeling project with each of us.
• We fail people and people fail us everyday, but God will never fail us. He has us in his grip and will hold us until he brings us into glory.

Jesus Has It All

At least for most things in life, moving on to new and better things is good. A high-school student graduates and goes on to college. A long-time employee gets promoted to a new position with higher pay and better hours. Couples become parents, then empty-nesters, and then grandparents, and all of the sudden the family has doubled in size and joy!

But is there any equivalent to this in the Christian life this side of glory? Do we ever move on from the basics of trusting in and receiving from Jesus? Do we ever get to graduate from Jesus-dependence to self-dependence, taking off the spiritual “training wheels” as it were?

In his Institutes, John Calvin has an incredible section teasing out the reality that our entire salvation—every single part of it—is found in Jesus:

When we see salvation whole—its every single part is found in Christ, we must beware lest we derive the smallest drop from somewhere else.

If we seek salvation, the very name of Jesus teaches us that he possesses it.

Redemption when we seek it, is in his passion found; acquittal—in his condemnation lies; and freedom from the curse—in his cross known.

If satisfaction for our sins we seek—we’ll find it in his sacrifice.

There’s cleansing in his blood. And if it’s reconciliation that we need, for it he entered Hades; if mortification of our flesh—then in his tomb it’s laid.

And newness of our life—his resurrection brings and and immortality as well come also with that gift.

And if we long to find that heaven’s kingdom’s our inheritance, His entry there secures into with our protection, safety too, and blessings that abound —all flowing from his kingly reign.

The sum of all for those who seek such treasure-trove of blessings, These blessings of all kings, is this: from nowhere else than him can they be drawn; For they are ours in Christ alone.

(Institutes 2.16.19, taken from Sinclair Ferguson’s The Whole Christ, 55-56)

So rather than moving on from Jesus, we continue to grow further into our union with Jesus. Instead of looking elsewhere for something different (or better) than Jesus, Jesus invites us to continue exploring and discovering all that He is for us in the gospel. And what we’ll find is the more we explore, the more we’ll discover that Jesus is better, grander, and more sufficient than we originally thought.

Reading Scripture Slowly

Every Christian knows that engaging with Scripture is an important part of life with God. For some people, reading a few chapters has become a daily habit while, for others, it remains an unmet goal that can leave them feeling guilty.

However much you read, and whether that reading comes easily or through much struggle, the temptation for all of us is moving too quickly over the words of Scripture. (Ironically, those who try to read regularly through the Bible might be the most prone to this temptation.)

I came across a quote that pinpoints how we can make the most of our time in the Scripture, and the answer—perhaps to your surprise—isn’t more volume. It’s pace.

“If there is a secret to getting involved with God through the pages of Scripture, then perhaps it’s this: turn the pages slowly… Many of us have to read for our jobs, and we pride ourselves on how rapidly we can move through vast quantities of print. But the Bible discourages us from making mileage a measure of success. In many cases, its riches are perceptible only to those who move slowly, like mushroom hunters, peering closely where at first there appears to be nothing at all to see.”

Maybe rather than striving for mileage and volume we can slow down and linger long enough in the Word to discover the deep riches of God’s grace.

Blind Spots

Have you ever started to change lanes only to discover — at the blaring of a horn — that someone was in your blind spot?

Blind spots are scary. While a car has two blind spots, one on each side, fallen people have many more. It is humbling to recognize that we can love the Lord yet fail to see many things about ourselves that are probably clear to others around us.

What is our biggest blind spot? Sins like anger, covetousness, and lust affect us all, but tend to be like semi-trucks driving right beside us that aren’t hard to spot. Jack Miller suggests that our biggest blind spot is something that most of us probably don’t even think about: self-dependence.

Miller writes:

God’s work begins when ours comes to its end. Sometimes His presence is not felt with power through our methods however useful they may be, especially when we are confident we have the right approach and insights. God has a way of wanting to be God and refusing to get too involved where we have our own wisdom and strength. Then when we run out of wisdom and strength, He is suddenly present…

I think He wants our confidence to be exclusively in Him, and when we lose our self-confidence then He moves in to show what He can do. Perhaps self-dependence — and forgetting the strength to be found in Christ-dependence — is always our biggest blind spot.

I know that when I am ministering out of my own strength and wisdom, I am relying on the wrong person to do ministry: myself. I need to turn from self-dependence to Christ-dependence.

Is it possible that some of the frustrating circumstances and trials in our lives are like the horn exposing self-dependence in our blind spot? Or are there places where, despite our confidence that we have everything under control, we need to come to the end of our own work so that God’s work can begin?

Jesus calls us away from self-dependence to live in dependence on him. He promises, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

The above quote comes from Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller, pp. 201-202.

Doing Life With Each Other

Grandma said you didn’t live with a man like Grandpa; you live around him.  And that was pretty much the way things were between them.  Grandpa didn’t feel at home in the house, and when he wasn’t at work he spent most of his time at the barn.  When he was in the house they lived around each other (quote taken from Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter, pg 35)

I’ve never really stopped to consider the difference between living with and around someone.  People live with each other when they inhabit the same world and share in life’s ups and downs together.  People live around each other when they occupy the same space but inhabit different worlds.  It’s like the difference between good friends and family sharing a nice holiday meal and twenty business people sitting side-by-side on a public transit bus as they travel silently to their individual destinations.

I found this to be a good reminder of the kind of life Jesus envisions for his people.  We’re not merely a bunch of individuals independently heading in the same general direction.  We’re a divinely created family unit that shares in the same life with God.  In fact, the deep Spiritual bond Jesus establishes between himself and us also binds us to one another.  Together we compose “one body” (Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 12:27; Col 3:25) united to the same head, Jesus Christ (Eph 4:15-16). 

Paul points not to himself but ultimately to Jesus’ own heart when he says, “I want you to know how great a struggle I have…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love” (Col 2:2).  By his Spirit, Jesus is at work knitting our hearts together so we can live life together.  This deep Spiritual (and mysterious) bond we share with each other in Jesus means we get to do life with rather than around each other.

What a great reminder to let our individual lives converge with the lives of other believers God has placed in our midst.  Since we inhabit the same life in Jesus, we get to walk alongside each other through thick-and-thin.  We get to be involved in each other’s lives.  We get to encourage one another.  We get to bear one another’s burdens.

As we pursue life with others we’ll quickly recognize that it is eminently more encouraging and life-giving than living the Christian life by ourselves merely around other Christians.

Blessings,

Adam