When Preaching the Gospel to Yourself Becomes Like Brushing Your Teeth with Your Finger

“Preach the gospel to yourself.”

You’ve likely heard that phrase. You’ve maybe even said it. I know I have, and I’ll continue to say it. I believe the discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself is a tremendous discipline and benefit to the Christian life.

But I do hope that when we say this what we mean is also “preach to yourself of your constant need of repentance” and that we do not mean only “apply the benefits of the gospel to yourself”. Because I’m convinced to do this is about as effective as brushing your teeth with your finger.

You’ve done that haven’t you? Went on a trip, realized you forgot to pack the toothbrush until it’s too late, and rather than get back in the car and go to the gas station or pay an exorbitant amount at the hotel for a new one, you decide to go primitive and brush your teeth with your finger. If you are really good at it…and make sure to wash your finger first…you can do a somewhat decent job. Or at least make yourself think that you’ve done a decent job covering up your stank. But it doesn’t take long for the deficiency of fingerbrush to manifest.

Maybe I’m just terrible at using my finger as a toothbrush. (After all, I’m sure my extremely sensitive gag reflex doesn’t help my cause). For me, the impact of finger brush wears off in about two hours. It cannot withstand the onslaught of my McDonalds breakfast. Usually by 10 am, I realize that it’s as if I had never even brushed my teeth.

Quickly applying the benefits of the gospel to yourself apart from thorough and actual repentance is about the same way. I’ll be honest, at times when I’m preaching the gospel to myself I get so excited about applying the benefits of the gospel to weary and insecure soul that I run through that part about repentance. Much like morning breath, my feelings of guilt make me aware that something needs to be done. I’m desperate to apply the remedy but I don’t actually use the right tool to see real lasting change take place.

To put this bluntly I’m not sure that we are ever given the right in the Bible to apply the benefits of the gospel to ourselves apart from repentance. And I’m also saying there is a difference between us taking truths in the Bible and applying them to ourselves and the Spirit taking truths from Scripture and applying the balm of the Christ’s work to our heart. One is to put a bit of toothpaste on our finger and mechanically shove it in our mouths and hope that does the trick. The other is for the Spirit to actually do thorough cleansing and accurately apply the remedy to our sin-entranced hearts.

Do we have room in our “preach the gospel to yourself” for Micah 7:8-9 where we join with the prophet in “bearing the indignation of the Lord”? Look at Micah 7:8-9 again and notice how the prophet waits for the Lord to plead his cause:

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:8-9 ESV)

Precious truths which come from the character of God cause Micah to have great hope even in the midst of this season of discipline. But he knows that he isn’t sovereign over the matter and that he’d only further confirm his obstinacy if he runs from the rod to apply his own balm. He must let the Lord do the work of putting him through the fire (bearing the indignation) and wait upon the Lord to apply the healing.

Real gospel repentance gets at the very heart of things. It goes all the way down into my desires. It’s not as simple as “I used to do that thing and now I don’t anymore”. Real repentance is more like, “I used to long for that thing and now I don’t”. This is what God is doing with us.

This is why I say I sure hope that when we say “Preach the gospel to yourself” we aren’t neglecting the role of thorough repentance. Otherwise we’ll be guilty of proclaiming “grace, grace” or “peace, peace” but all we’ve really done is tried to cover up our stank with a shoddy fingerbrush.

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