Thoughts on Fasting.

Donald S. Whitney says in his now classic, at least in my mind, work ‘Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life’ that fasting is “the most feared and misunderstood of the spiritual disciplines.” When I read that, I take in a breath - and think, “hmm, he’s totally right.” I don’t understand it, neither have I been exposed to regular admonition to practice fasting as a discipline. I don’t fear it exactly, but I don’t fully understand it, and it is often the case that we seem to fear what we don’t understand. It is fearful like timidity is fearful, like that uncertain, hesitating first step onto the bridge we think may collapse. Uncertainty and unfamiliarity amid the cacophony around lead to inaction in any area. We think, ‘eh, maybe next time;’ or, ‘let me think a while about it first.’ On and on until weeks pass and nothing has been done. Perhaps this is a thought about some larger problem in the postlapsarian human condition, certainly at least as I see it manifest in myself. Either way, my intention is by God’s grace to prayerfully search out and implement this lost discipline.

The following article will be the first in what I plan to be a series, undetermined in length, in which I put down my developing thought. I mean to keep a catalogue of sorts, which is beginning in my mind as statements about what I know fasting is not and cannot be. After setting boundaries, it will be easier to make positive statements. As I read and pray and practice, I hope to be pressed into the mold of God’s thinking so that my behavior will be pleasing to him. let the reader note that I write as to a mirror, addressing my own soul, perhaps in God's providence you too are edified. I certainly pray that is so, and if what I say is biblical and true, then it will be edifying to us both. On then to the first thought.

Fasting can and will never be the foundation of God’s graciousness or favor toward you.

            I am mindful of the all too human tendency to attempt to earn God’s grace. I am mindful of this error in my own heart. Grace however cannot be earned. If an object is earned, then by definition the object was owed, not given graciously. Consider that if I make $10.00 per hour, and work for one hour, then I am owed $10.00; it is my wage. My employer was not being gracious by paying me $10.00 he was merely adhering to a stipulation. If, however, he gave me $10.00 and a candy bar, then the candy bar was a gracious addition to my wage. Making sense? The demand to pay for something that was given freely is actually arrogant and dismissive of the individual who did the giving, even if the attempt is well intentioned. Paul explains to the Galatians that,

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”(2:21)

Will Paul attempt to add personal righteousness through adherence to the law to his criteria for salvation? Certainly not. Isn’t this exactly what the Judaizers were seeking to do? They said that the Gentiles must be circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul calls this hypocrisy (Gal 2:13) and not in accord with the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2:14).

The nature of grace is that it is un-earned, to attempt to earn grace is to misunderstand grace completely, and to stand in front of God with arrogance rather than humility. The foundation of God’s grace is in his own sovereign desire to dispense it and the foundation of God’s favor is the obedience of Christ. In your union with Christ, you receive the benefits of his obedience, death and resurrection. Jesus is the Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased. So when he looks at you he sees your older brother, his beloved son, and because of your relationship to the Son, the Father is able and willing to show you favor. Furthermore, this is already done. Hebrews explains,

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (10:12-14)

It is finished. You cannot increase your standing one step more than where Christ has placed you. You cannot add to the righteousness that is yours in Christ, to attempt such is rather to tarnish you, not cleanse you. Isn’t this an application of Isaiah 64:6?

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

And you ought not to live as though God at times forgets that he loves you, and must be reminded. Do not think that your fasting jogs his mind so that he says, “Well well, there’s that Benoit fellow I made, good thing he reminded me of my purposes toward him, ‘cause I totally forgot…pheew.”

No, Philippians 1:6 makes it clear that it is God himself totally apart from you who finishes his work in you.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The covenant he made is one that he took on the stipulations for. It is his promise and he will fulfill it. Do not think that you who are so feeble and small could reach out into eternity and grapple with the mind of the living God.  David prayed in Psalm 119:49-50,

“Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

I do not think David is attempting to remind God; rather, he is praising God for the surety of his promise, a promise that God has marked. Be sure my soul of this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises (2. Pet 3:9), and your standing before God is by grace alone, through faith alone, by the merits of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Let me fast; careful not to fall into thinking that I am holy or that it will earn God’s favor. Such is sin.