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But For the Grace of God: Tullian Tchividjian and a Better Gospel Through Guilt

But For the Grace of God: Tullian Tchividjian and a Better Gospel Through Guilt

Last updated on: August 16, 2018 at 2:21 pm by Zach Hoag

But For the Grace of God: Tullian Tchividjian and a Better Gospel Through Guilt 2018-08-16T14:21:39-05:00 Zach Hoag

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On Sunday night, Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian (mega-)Church, resigned because of a recent affair. In fact, he explained that his affair was a response of sorts to his wife’s previous affair, though I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that. In any case, Tullian is a famous pastor, author, and speaker who has devoted his public work to a single topic: Grace.

After his resignation Sunday, he tweeted this:

Welcome to the valley of the shadow of death…thank God grace reigns here.

— Tullian Tchividjian (@TullianT) June 21, 2015

Pastor Tullian is not entirely unique, though he is certainly influential. Over the last five years or so, there has been a growing wave of Grace-centric preaching and teaching in the American church, coming from a variety of movements and denominations. That wave has risen to the heights of Christian culture and celebrity, embodied in charismatic mega-pastors who hang out with the rich and famous, mainline and emergent leaders with big book contracts and followings, and neo-Reformed author-teachers like Tullian who run online magazines and headline conferences.

Despite major differences on the surface, this wave of leaders are all proponents of a quasi-Lutheran understanding of God’s saving grace, with a stark Law vs. Gospel/Grace dichotomy at the center.

Those who know anything about Pastor Tullian know that he has taken a good deal of flack from both the congregation he inherited at Coral Ridge and some neo-Reformed heavies in The Gospel Coalition camp. Their charge? Primarily, that Tullian is an antinomian – which is a fancy 16th-century way of saying that he disparages the Law of God too much in his favoring of the Gospel of Grace.

That is, the antinomian is the one who, in his fervor for an all-forgiving God, downplays the necessity of transformation, of holiness, of obedience. He comes dangerously close to “sinning so that grace may abound” and doesn’t sufficiently consider himself “dead to sin and alive to God and righteousness.” He makes a claim to Grace while not fully letting go of the flesh; he seems to relish his status as simul justis et pecator (simultaneously sinner and saint) instead of lamenting the sinner part.

It’s a matter of emphasis, really. To deemphasize Law too much in order to emphasize Gospel/Grace all the more, the detractors say, is to open up the door for precisely the kind of transgression that may precede, say, a pastor’s resignation.

Hear me: I’m not accusing Tullian of these things, but this is what his detractors have argued.

And, to hastily tweet after such a resignation to the tune that God’s grace is still surely with you at the very moment of your fall has the tone of presumption that would seem to back up those arguments.

Not So Amazing Grace

I don’t presume to know the circumstances surrounding Pastor Tullian’s moral failure; nor is it my place to investigate. The spiritually mature response to something like this in the life of a brother and sister in Christ (let’s not forget Kim Tchividjian in all this, and the children) is sadness, empathy, and prayers for processing, healing, and change.

But I do think this incident provides us with a moment to take a look at the theology behind the larger movement and see what gives. No, there is not necessarily a direct correlation between this Grace-mania and the actions of an individual. But I think there is a correlation between this theology and the culture that is being created around it.

Namely, the concept of Grace, building and riffing on the categories of the 16th century, has been abstracted from the biblical narrative and hardened into an absolute principle by this wave of preaching and teaching, such that it is held up as The Definition of Christian faith. It is clearly a reaction to the moralistic and traditionalist errors of the past; but as a reaction, it is doubling down into the same kind of fundamentalist posture. It’s all about Grace! Grace is the Gospel! Embrace Grace! Don’t question Grace!

And in this definitive formula, Grace makes the Gospel completely about me. If Pastor Tullian’s detractors are wrong in the charge of antinomianism (and honestly, I’m just not sure how to discern this) then there is at least a cultural trend here that seems decidedly slanted away from a call to obedience or transformation – and slanted toward an individualized experience of guilt-free living**. The problem this Gospel of Grace aims to solve is the guilt I might feel because of sin and failure, and the way the church has pushed that guilt on me in the past.**

But with Grace, I don’t have to feel guilt! And I don’t have to worry about being chided by the church because of my sinful works! It’s not about works! It’s about Grace!

And on top of that, because of Grace and guilt-free living, I can now enjoy life and enjoy being a Christian! This culture of Grace-fueled enjoyment even produces a new prosperity gospel of sorts where I can have lots of nice things and get my kicks and keep up with the Kardashians and God endorses it all! Because Grace!

And of course, the celebrity culture that supremely values excessive wealth, fame, and power is easily adopted by this new Grace culture.

These are generalizations, but I think they are descriptive.

Now, here’s the thing. My issue with this is not that I want to see a return to “moral values” in the church, or traditional propriety, or ascetic living, or less fun in worship in programs. Honestly, I’m not interested in championing any of those causes.

My issue is that the basic categories are all wrong.

And this Grace is not all that amazing.

Guilt, Grace, and a Better Gospel

In the old days, a humble response to the failure of another was, “But for the grace of God, there go I.”

That phrase can certainly be Jesus-juked into something self-righteous and arrogant along the lines of the Pharisee loudly praying, “God, I thank you that I am not like this tax collector” – but at the core of it there is an important truth.

Namely, that the grace of God changes us. That’s what’s amazing about it.

Brené Brown has famously highlighted the distinction between shame and guilt:

Based on my research and the research of other shame researchers, I believe that there is a profound difference between shame and guilt. I believe that guilt is adaptive and helpful – it’s holding something we’ve done or failed to do up against our values and feeling psychological discomfort.

I define shame as the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging – something we’ve experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection.

I don’t believe shame is helpful or productive. In fact, I think shame is much more likely to be the source of destructive, hurtful behavior than the solution or cure. I think the fear of disconnection can make us dangerous.

Did you catch that?

In the case of Pastor Tullian, his failure must not be seen, by himself or others, as making him unworthy of love, belonging, and connection. That’s shame, and it’s inherently destructive and counterproductive.

But guilt is something different. Guilt is the honest reckoning with the destructive nature of one’s choices, which rightly brings on discomfort and grief. And it is that which has the potential to rouse us to action, healing, and change – something the Bible calls repentance.

We discover a better gospel through the realities of guilt and repentance. Guilt-free living may seem attractive at first, but it quickly becomes an ongoing exercise in denial. At best, it will perpetuate hurt and unhealth instead of bringing healing. At worst, it can be used to shield and justify destructive or excessive behavior. It can create a culture that is all about me, that eventually buys into the empire’s values of excessive wealth, fame, and power (and often the abuse thereof) all in the name of Grace.

When we plunge into the narrative of Scripture what we discover is a story dead set against denial. The Bible is a brutally honest book. And the New Testament narrative especially is not painting a simplistic black and white picture of Law vs. Gospel/Grace, but a layered and complex invitation to a whole new way of seeing the world and living in the world.

Is free forgiveness from sin at the center of the gospel narrative? It absolutely is. But it is not a small story about me living a guilt-free life. It is a much larger story about the rescue of Israel from their own destructive path, and the grafting in of all of us into a new and healing alternative way to live. It is the story of the transformation of all creation in and through the Messiah, Jesus.

Grace, biblically speaking, just means gift. And anything that God gives to us is grace. When God gives forgiveness through Jesus, undeserved in light of our very real guilt, it is grace. When God gives a new heart and the Spiritual power for a new start in our lives, it is grace. When God gives conviction of sin in our ongoing walk of transformation, it is grace. When God makes a way of escape from destructive choices, it is grace.

When God provides for our needs, it is grace. When God gives us more than we need, it is grace – to be shared with God’s people and the world, not hoarded according the values of celebrity culture.

The apostle Paul, of course, heads off the antinomian argument at the pass not by glorifying the Law but by grounding our experience of God’s grace(s) in our unity with Israel’s Messiah. That is, by trusting in Christ, we are, as a people, united with him in death and resurrection. This is what our baptism means. It is nothing less than an already completed, total transformation – yet unfolding throughout our lives:

“How can we who died to sin go on living in it?“

And the Law, which both set up the wall of cultural division between Israelite and non-Israelite and perpetuated a shame-based attempt at religiously setting oneself above others, is actually nullified by the very gift (grace) that enables us to be humbly transformed and embrace healthy obedience to God rather than destructive sin.

Pastor Tullian’s last tweet reads:

https://twitter.com/PastorTullian/status/613536214340214786

There is perhaps a little drama here, but there is at least sorrow – and that is good. And there is no occasion for judgment. But for the grace of God go we all.

And for exactly that reason there is hope. There is hope that all of this can motivate us toward a better, more biblically-rooted gospel – one that makes the message of transformation in unity with the Messiah of Israel and the world a priority.

That message of transformation is something the church desperately needs to begin preaching again. It’s something I need to begin preaching again, and practicing with more passion, by God’s grace.

Because much more than a message of guilt-free living, the message of the transformation of all creation in and because of Jesus the Liberating Messiah is The Definition of the Christian faith.

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