In our culture, especially our church culture, we tend to see sin as the list of our evil thoughts, words, and deeds that we think, speak, and do in offence to God and others. We often forget, I think, that sin is a condition of our existence that becomes manifest in our sinful behaviors. When we see our sinfulness by the grace of God, we often sin further by trying to work out our own salvation and/or sanctification by ourselves instead on fleeing to the One who can work real lasting change in our hearts. Paul Tripp, in Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, says when we sin we are blinded by our sin and we miss out on the one thing that is worth seeing: the glory of God. It is this glory demonstrated in the life of the incarnate Christ that we as Christians are called to emulate as His ambassadors.
If all of life is counseling/personal ministry, then it would be helpful to have a purposeful framework for this ministry. Tripp begins to lay out such a framework in the opening chapters of this book. Our goal, he states, is to help one another live with a “God’s story” mentality; we are part of His unfolding redemption story. We are called to teach, admonish and encourage to rest in God’s sovereignty, to rely on His grace, and to submit to His glory. People are changed when they see His glory; therefore, we are called to incarnate Christ, to let His glory be revealed in our lives. Tripp rightly points out that a person’s most important encounter is not with us, but with Christ. We are simply there to set up that encounter.
This framework is effective not only for counseling relationships, but for relationships in general. As Tripp also says, this is an agenda for life. The framework that he has set up helps me to orchestrate more of a focus for my life. I pray that God will use this to shape the way I live and interact with others, but as I seek to do so, that I will not lose sight of His glory.
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