The Worst Kind of Forgetfulness

In this post, I shared about a gap between an intellectual understanding of the gospel and the practical application of it to daily life. Due to this gap, many Christian couples don't see holes in their marriages and other relationships.

Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp used 2 Peter 1:3-9 to explain the nature of this gap. Verse 9 describes people who have an intellectual grasp of the gospel but whose lives fail to produce the kind of life that is characterized by peaceful and loving relationships. Instead, their knowledgeable but impersonal walk with God produced broken relationships, which is evidence of the absence of spiritual growth.

Why so many people these days who claim to be the followers of Christ and yet their lives are so ineffective and unproductive? The apostle Peter identified two problems: nearsightedness and blindness.

In the medical field, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. This kind of disease is related to loss of cognitive functioning – thinking, remembering, and reasoning and is usually associated with aging. However, there is a kind of forgetfulness not related to aging, and this is the worst kind of forgetfulness – to forget that you have been cleansed from your past sins. This kind of forgetfulness is destructive. It could destroy your relationships and everything you treasure in life.

Lane and Tripp describe the gospel as a "then-now-then" gospel. By this phrase, they mean the "then" of the past and the "then" of the future. People who put their faith in Christ can find assurance that their past sins have been forgiven. The same thing is true with their eternal destiny. "The church has done fairly well explaining these two 'thens' of the gospel," said Lane and Tripp. However, for some reason, the church takes for granted the power of the gospel for the present. Both authors raised a series of questions to emphasize the seriousness of this problem:

What difference does the gospel make in the here and now? How does it help me as a father, a husband, a worker, and a member of the body of Christ? How does it help me respond to difficulty and make decisions? How does it give meaning, purpose, and identity? (How People Change, 2006, p. 4).

For Lane and Tripp, the spiritual blindness or forgetfulness that Peter describes is most evident among Christians in facing the here and now of life. This is where we experience gospel blindness that explains our lack of growth and unproductivity. See how they describe the character of this blindness:

Our sight is dimmed by the tyranny of the urgent, by the siren call of success, by the seductive beauty of physical things, by our inability to admit our own problems, and by the casual relationships within the body of Christ that we mistakenly call fellowship. This blindness is often encouraged by preaching that fails to take the gospel to the specific challenges people face. People need to see that the gospel belongs in their workplace, their kitchen, their school, their bedroom, their backyard, and their van.

We learn in this reflection that the true knowledge of the Lord is destined to be effective and productive. An ineffective and unproductive knowledge of the Lord is an anomaly. It’s either the claim to knowledge isn’t true or if it’s true, there will be effects and fruits of such knowledge.

If I were to describe the 37 years of my Christian walk, I could say that I am not that effective and productive. I pastored four churches, but the problem is I don't have this passion for people. I only love to read books.

If I were to ask myself the question why this is the case with my Christian walk. I think the gap, that gospel blindness, that forgetfulness explain why. I have to remind myself what God has done for me to grow in faith. In the language of 2 Peter 1 verses 3 to 9, I have to remind myself that God’s divine power has already given me everything I need for life and godliness and He has already provided me strength to grow, to be effective, and to be productive.

Grace and peace!