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Pastor Jay's Blog

Sense And Sensibility And A Sensible Faith

 

One of the difficulties of raising little children is that reasoning with them is not an option very often. A two year old just doesn’t have the faculties or the experience to follow a train of thought of any length. While we understand this, it is still difficult to deal with a kid who likes cheese and likes ham, but refuses to try them together. But as children grow, we begin to expect sensibility. And the Scripture expects sensibility of God’s children as well.

We don’t usually associate being sensible with spirituality. In fact, many unbelievers and even some religious people would argue that faith and reason are actually incompatible. But Scripture is clear that being sensible is one of the clearest marks of godliness.

Paul’s letter to Titus contains five different calls to be sensible (NASB). Other translations have “self-controlled” and there is some overlap with that meaning. However, the word translated “sensible” by the NASB is normally used in places where the reasoning faculties are emphasized. In Titus, each of the following people are called to be sensible; Elders (1:8), older men (2:2), older women (2:5), and young men (2:6). In 2:11-12 Paul mentions a particular feature that creates sensibility, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age…”

This is remarkable! Far from being opposed to one another, spirituality and sensibility, or faith and reason, are linked together by the grace of God.

This means that faith isn’t just reasonable. Faith is actually the justification for reason. The only way a person can truly be reasonable and live sensibly is if, by the grace of God, they trust in the God who has created all things and speaks what is true about them. The immaterial world of logic and morality can only be what it is because there is an immaterial God who is logical and morally perfect. The material world that operates by fixed laws and is perceived by our senses can only be relied upon if God tells us our senses are true and that tomorrow will be like today. For these reasons, sensibility is acknowledging that it is all from God and humbly submitting our life to this all-powerful God. We will only do that if God frees us from our slavery to sin. That is a work of grace, and we are sensible because of that alone.

Remember that Romans 1:18 says unbelievers “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” This is the reason unbelieving minds will never be truly sensible. They will always live in their own self-deceived world where sin is “ok” at some level. They are slaves to sin, and so they will forever suppress the truth of what sin truly is and what God truly is. For that reason they will never be truly sensible. Now, without doubt they can have a degree of reason, and even do incredible things with that reason; such as scientific endeavors and amazing feats of creative production. How is this possible? The grace of God. God has restrained their self-deception and their sin through common grace. Otherwise, they would quickly descend into irrational chaos and self-destruction. By God’s grace, they are inconsistent with their own worldview and thereby retain some rationality.

God’s call is to be sensible. We are to trust him in times of confusion, put sin to death, live in light of the coming resurrection, walk as strangers in this world, understand why persecution happens, be fearless in the face of opposition, know there are spiritual forces working against us, and many other biblical realities that affect how we think, pray, work, give, and witness. To live in light of all of this is sensible. We need God’s grace to do this. Therefore, the most sensible thing you can do right now is to cast yourself fully upon all that God will be for you in Christ.

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