Before I went on vacation a couple weeks ago I linked to what I considered to be a terrific article by Jen Wilkin entitled Failure Is Not a Virtue. In this article she notes how failure seems to have gotten a makeover in recent years. Rather than being broken by our failures, celebratory failurism is “the idea that believers cannot obey the Law and will fail at every attempt. Furthermore, our failure is ultimately cause to celebrate because it makes grace all the more beautiful”.
To this excellent article Tullian Tchividjian wrote a post in response and after his post came a firestorm of articles from both sides of the issue. The whole thing culminated in Tchividjian being removed from The Gospel Coalition.
One of the things that Tchividjian noted was that he’d “never encountered a Christian who ‘celebrates failure’.” Perhaps he is correct and “celebrates” isn’t quite the correct word. But I’ve heard something similar to “My life strategy for today: fail, repent, repeat.” Jen Wilkin isn’t just pulling these statements out of a hat.
One particular instance was a comment left on Tim Challies’ blog when we launched the 31 Days of Purity. One commenter said,
I’m shooting for 365 days of purity. But…so far, I can’t seem to get past 31 minutes (before a bad thought pops into my head). Oh well…I thank the Lord that He has decided to love me and save me…in spite of my best efforts…not because of them.
The commenter clarified that it doesn’t mean that he’s not sorry for his sin, or that he doesn’t turn to Christ. But I still cannot wrap my mind around every having an “oh well” response to sin. This is what I believe Jen is referencing in her article.
Now, I don’t write this post to enter this debate or to even discuss anything related to Tullian. My concern is with the local church (which by the way is why I appreciate this from Carl Trueman so much). My concern is that if celebratory failurism wins the day, then we’ll end up eventually losing the gospel. Allow me to explain with a little help from Richard Sibbes.
The Problem We Wish To Confront
I believe underneath all of these debates is a genuine concern to help people. We look across the landscape of our churches and we see many people who are cold in their affections towards Christ. We serve in churches filled with professors of Christ that seem to be producing far too little fruit. Many are worried and anxious and fearful in their relationship with Christ and we want to see them passionately living for Christ and enjoying His grace.
That’s what we hope to confront. The difference lies in the way in which we see the Scriptures teach such a passionate enjoyment of grace comes about.
Help From Sibbes
Early on in The Bruised Reed, Sibbes discusses the bruising that happens in the life of an unbeliever before conversion. It is whenever a person is in misery and has been brought to see sin as the cause of it. Such a one “sees no help in himself” and is “carried with restless desire to have supply from another”.
Such a bruising, notes Sibbes, causes us to “set a high price upon Christ”. In such a case:
Then the gospel becomes the gospel indeed; then the fig-leaves of morality will do us no good. And it makes us more thankful, and, from thankfulness, more fruitful in our lives; for what makes many so cold and barren, but that bruising for sin never endeared God’s grace to them?
We live in a day and age in which many of our gospel presentations have no place for such a time of bruising. Our culture is fixated on comfort and has made itself foolishly convinced that any suffering must come from the hand of the enemy and therefore must be fought at all costs. Today, we medicate, psychologize, spiritualize, or wordsmith away such bruising.
Do you want to know why there is such coldness and barrenness in our churches? It’s because we no longer believe that godly sorrow is a necessary component of the repentance that is necessary for salvation.
My Problem With Celebratory Failurism
And here is one problem that I have with such celebratory failurism: I don’t think it’s real failure that is being celebrated. It’s only a truncated “failure” that gives a hat tip to our dastardly sin nature, but not a true failure that is wrecked and bruised and battered by a real sin, with a real name, that makes you want to vomit because you can’t believe you foolishly submitted to its reign once again.
If it’s really sin that you are dealing with then you can’t give a flippant, “oh well” when you blow it in your battle for purity. You won’t be able to say things like, “My life strategy for today: fail, repent, repeat.” You say stuff like that whenever sin is just a concept. But when it’s something that you can name—something that causes you to hold your sobbing child as she is broken by your angry tirade—then you know what it is to be bruised. Then you know what it is to be forgiven.
And because the sin isn’t real the grace isn’t real either. We end up celebrating the fictitious victory of a fictitious grace prevailing over a fictitious sin. And we do this because we’ve lost the chutzpah to believe in a radical grace that conquers real sin in the here and now through our real blood-bought and Spirit-empowered obedience.
Christ is powerful enough to not only forgive our very real failures he is powerful enough to transform us and give us real victory over real sin. That, my friends, is something to celebrate!
