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It’s probably been said before, but I’ll say it again:
“Any true doctrine, rightly understood, should leave your pride crumpled up on the floor and your eyes fixed beseechingly on the Savior of your soul, Jesus Christ.”
And birth control is no different.
So regardless of where you fall on this issue – if you believe birth control is the greatest gift man ever gave to himself, or you think Luther’s lost Reformation treatise was “the Bondage of the Pill” – if you are not humbled by your family planning doctrine, then you’ve got a problem.
The temptations are present for both sides. Those who oppose birth control may be tempted to think they are holier because of what they are “not” doing, or because it makes them look like they have more faith and trust in God. Those in favor of birth control may scoff at what they label as legalism, thanking God they are not like those other sinners. Opponents of birth control may see a couple with few or no children and may be tempted to judge them – forgetting that if not for the grace of God for themselves, they would be more wicked than the filthiest sinner. Birth control proponents may see a large family and pity the parents, or think it unwise of them not to control the size of their family — forgetting that every child is a gift from God, and no child comes to us apart from His hand.
The presence of pride over a doctrine means, at the very least, that your Cross-centered perspective has been lost. And once that happens, no matter how right you are, you are not right. There is no room for pride in biblical principles. We did not write them, we did not interpret them correctly apart from the regenerating, sanctifying, internally-testifying witness of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we wouldn’t even be talking about it, had not the Incarnate Word stepped down and change the course of human events forever. If Christ was not King, birth control would be the least of our concerns.
But Christ is King. And He has a will for our marriages and our children. As we seek to discern that will, we should never forget — It is His will. Any union we may have with it is a supreme blessing of an infinitely merciful God, that has been bought and applied to us by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
Charles Spurgeon said it better than I ever could:
“And art thou proud? Dost thou exalt thyself? O! strange mystery, that thou, who hast borrowed every thing, should exalt thyself; that thou, who hast nothing of thine own, but hast still to draw upon grace, shouldst be proud; a poor dependent pensioner upon the bounty of thy Saviour, and yet proud; one who hath a life which can only live by fresh streams of life from Jesus, and yet proud! Go, hang thy pride upon the gallows, as high as Haman; hang it there to rot, and stand thou beneath, and execrate it to all eternity; for sure of all things most to be cursed and despised is the pride of a Christian.”
‘BH
7 Comments
March 21, 2008 at 3:54 am
I agree!
March 22, 2008 at 8:31 am
Wow, Brotherhank, this is an amazing post! It ranks out there with one of my top posts.
I admit that in the past I have been one of those people (in favor of Birth control) that pity the people with large families. Over the years and through my interactions with other Christians that either come from large families or have large families themselves, I have seen my sin be brought to forefront on this issue. Yes, my personal desire may not be to have a family of more than 3, but that is my desire and no one else’s. God gives us all different desires and for different purposes. People with lots of children are happy and, just because I choose not to have a large family, doesn’t mean that they are wrong for choosing it.
Christian large families are beautiful. The way they work marvels me, they are so organized. And the parents are truly overjoyed at every single blessing they have. And some of us are more suited to have only a few.
I just love this post because it points out both the wrongs of the anti-birth control people and the wrongs of the believers of birth control. When we automatically rise ourselves up based on our belief on one issue, that is pride. Christians who choose to limit family size (nonabortively) are no better or worse than Christians who choose to “let God choose” and forgo all methods of birth control.
Thank you for posting this and Thank you for realizing that we all should live Cross-Centered lives.
BTW: Have you read the “Cross-Centered Life” by CJ Mahaney. I highly reccommend it.
March 22, 2008 at 3:18 pm
This was good. My wife and I have been struggling with the issue of when to have kids (and if now now, how will we avoid it?) for a while now, and we always feel a sort of tension. As I get closer to graduation, the tension gets stronger and both of us are anxiously anticipating somewhere around 9 months before I graduate so we can start really trying.
The point is, we’ve always been uncomfortable delaying this life landmark, but we also feel just as uncomfortable jumping right in. And I think that’s a healthy tension. Tension, I think, should characterize the Christian life in all sorts of areas, and I think this has been one area in which we’ve had to just trust God to guide us. It’s not that we feel we’re going against our conscience. We feel as if children are a gift, not a requirement. BUT, we are also open to the principle that God’s plans are not necessarily our plans.
If Jessica wound up pregnant tomorrow, we’d be scared to death but ecstatic.
Good post, Hank. Nice to meet you the other day.
March 22, 2008 at 3:26 pm
That last post was from me. Weird username issues.
April 19, 2008 at 10:12 am
[...] For a very thoughtful and scripture-based exploration of this topic, read this seminary student’s posts. [...]
June 1, 2008 at 6:26 pm
[...] close with a quote from a post entitled “Opposing Birth Control: Why This Should Radically Kill Your Pride“: There is no room for pride in biblical principles. We did not write them, we did not [...]
December 28, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Wow ! this really spoke to me . You have probably saved many lives just from writing this. God bless you a thousand times!