Many of us go through periods of making, breaking, not making, or re-making resolutions. When I was a little boy for five years in a row I resolved to stop biting my fingernails. You could find statistics about the great number of people who have resolved to quit smoking. Usually we make these resolutions on January 1st, but not always.

There are three basic types of resolution makers. First, there are the emotionally driven resolvers. The hype of a New Year’s Eve celebration and the promise of a new year ahead of them incite these resolvers to speak their hopes and hunches about what they want to accomplish. However, they have no practical idea how to implement or achieve these things. Secondly come the systematic plan-and-do resolvers. These resolvers have a personality type that makes and keeps resolutions not because it is a new year, but because they are always making and keeping plans. So when the first of the year comes along, they are just making and keeping plans the same as they were in April or in August. If the emotionally driven resolvers aren’t making real resolutions because they are not practical at all, then the plan-and-do resolvers aren’t making real resolutions because they are just continuing their über-practical way of doing things. Lastly, there are the anti-resolvers. These are the ones who have rejected the whole New Year’s resolution business altogether. They not only don’t make resolutions, but they disparage anyone who does. They don’t want to be bound by the shackles of convention especially when they aren’t really sure how this convention began in the first place.

But why bring up any of this? Wasn’t the moment for a blog post on resolutions two weeks ago? Even though we are more than halfway through the first month of 2015, I think this is precisely the moment to bring this up. The conversation about resolutions is really a conversation about what moves us to action in life. What’s your motivation? Unfortunately, guilt and shame are great motivators in our world, and no matter how hard we try we can’t resolve them away. Whenever I make a resolution or hear others making resolutions I wonder how guilt and shame are playing into the decision. Even those who are anti-resolvers can be so because of haunting guilt and shame.

So I bring this up to give you some gospel encouragement. The gospel is good news for resolvers and anti-resolvers. It is good news that our motivation isn’t from shame and guilt but from grace—the grace that comes to us from Jesus’ righteousness counted to us by faith.  His death and resurrection has secured for us a perfection that surpasses all human efforts. Our guilt and shame has been erased because He bore our guilt and shame Himself on the cross. So now our motivation is founded in grace, not guilt.

So whether you are a resolver or an anti-resolver I encourage you to rest. Rest in grace. One of the questions of membership at GCC asks if you receive and rest on Christ as He is offered in the gospel. I hope this you will resolve to rest in this grace in 2015.

In Him,

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