A letter from Larson Hicks to the congregation of Trinity Reformed Church

Dear Trinity Reformed Church,

It is SO GOOD to be home! Summer was pretty hectic for the Hicks family, but we enjoyed making some lovely memories with Jed before he left and I got to drop him off last week.

The Parish party at our house on Saturday night was the perfect welcome home for me and my family.  We LOVE our people here in HSV. I frequently marvel at how kind God has been to answer our prayer for friendship and community in HSV. 

It was about this time in 2019 that Bethany and I decided that we were going to give HSV another 6 months before moving. We had tried Beer, Hymns, Prayer, Pancakes, Grill, Chill, membership at 2 different churches (and had visited another ~20 churches), and yet we just hadn't been able to scrape together enough like-minded Christian families in HSV to constitute a "community" that we felt we faithfully could raise our children in.

We are so thankful for you all.  After everyone left our house on Saturday night we reflected on how much we enjoy and are encouraged by this church community that God has given us. Thank you for being here and being a part of our lives. 

Submitting to God's Righteousness

I want to share a passage of Scripture and some thoughts. Doug Wilson preached a sermon a few weeks ago while I was in Moscow dropping Jed off that convicted me to my core. The passage below was the real kicker for me. 

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

10 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Romans 9:30 - 10:4

Christians, we must submit to God's righteousness. 

This is so hard for us to do.

We have our own version of righteousness.  The laundry list of things we do that makes us holy. 

We may believe that we "have a zeal for God", but Paul warns us that we may be like those first-century Jews who are "ignorant of the righteousness of God". 

We are "seeking to establish [our] own [righteousness]" and therefore are unwilling to "submit to God's righteousness." 

We stumble over the stumbling stone of Christ.  Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness through works.  God sent Christ, the fulfillment of the law, and they stumbled over Him. Unwilling (too holy) to place their faith in Christ. Too proud of racking up righteousness points through works of the law to be willing to see Who the law was pointing to. 

It's the Sunk Cost fallacy.  "I'm already too invested in this [fill in the blank] to stop now." 

But, as Doug Wilson says, we must learn to "repent of our virtues." We can't just repent of our sins. We must also repent of our virtues. In fact, UNLESS we repent of our virtues, we are not truly repentant. 

If you still think that part of your standing before God is the good works/righteousness that you're bringing to the table, then you have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

We must come to realize that even the best of our good works is like filthy rags: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." (Isa 64:6)

One day we'll look back on our lives with a 20/20 vision and realize how absurd it was that we thought we had it figured out.  That we were squared away because we were adherents of the latest fashionable system, method, diet, bible-study plan, family worship structure, etc., etc., etc.  We'll look back and realize that we were not much different from the little toddler proudly bringing her parents a mud pie to eat. The parents warmly accept the mud pie, not because the mud pie itself is good, but because they love the child. 

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." 

Philippians 3:7

The things that made me look good were a distraction from the true source of my salvation. 

"...and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..."

Philippians 3:8-9

True faith is always accompanied by good works. But our good works are never the source of our righteousness or our standing with God. We are accepted by God 100% by grace through Christ. 

So, repent of your virtues; All ye who are heavy-laden find rest in Christ. His burden is light and His yoke is easy/

Blessings, Larson

Larson Hicks and his wife, Bethany, have 7 children. They were high school sweethearts in Texas and spent the first 10 years of their marriage in Moscow, ID, where Larson graduated from New St. Andrew’s College and Bethany from Washington State University. Larson is the CEO of Sycamore Independent Physicians – a healthcare staffing company focused on Emergency Medicine.