Your Father Knows What You Need

"And when you pray," taught Jesus, "do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8). Jesus' main point here is that we don't need to instruct our all-knowing, all-good, and generous Father about our needs. We can come to him in trust that he already knows us. We don't have to teach him who we are or persuade him to adopt our point of view.

What then is prayer for? It jumped out to me that prayer is, at least in part, perhaps more to teach us about our needs in life. In prayer we draw near to the One Who Sees (Gen. 6:13), who formed us for his purposes, and who knows our every circumstance. If God "knows what you need before you ask him," we should be asking him to show us what our real needs are. He knows the world, his desires for us, our fears, and the Spirit within us far better than we ourselves. Shouldn't it follow that we should ask him what really matters, where our real needs and deficiencies are? God our Abba always welcomes his children when they cry out to him with their needs and will never turn a deaf ear to our petitions (Matt. 7:7-11). But maybe we need to consider times of prayer with no other agenda than to ask him to teach us what we really need, what is good and best for us, and reorient our values and requests around that.

Jesus continues: "Pray then like this . . ." and teaches his followers how they ought to pray (Matt. 6:9-15). Jesus sets priorities for our prayer--what our needs really are. We need to know God's love as our Father. We need to see God glorified, to live under his reign and to do his will. We need to acknowledge that our lives are in the hands of a trustworthy Provider and be content with what he gives. We need to forgive and to be forgiven--to be filled with and overflow with God's grace. We need awareness of the evil within and without, and to be rescued from it.

We could look at Jesus' other prayers and at other prayers of the saints throughout the Bible to learn our needs, that is, to learn God's view of ourselves and what he values for us. When we hear God's Spirit speaking through his Word what our needs are, what his will is for us, then we can lift those needs back to God with this assurance: "And this is the confidence we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15).

"The man who serves you [God] best is the one who is less intent on hearing from you what he wills to hear than on shaping his will according to what he hears from you." (Augustine, Confessions 10:26)

The Kingdom of God

If you're an avid reader of the New Testament, you've probably noticed that "the kingdom of God" is all over the Gospels; it's Jesus' main message: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). The good news Jesus preached was that the kingdom of God had arrived. But what exactly is God's kingdom? Is it a land or a physical realm? Is it the church? Furthermore, how come Paul and the other apostles didn't preach or write much about it? Is the New Testament in conflict?

In his magisterial New Testament Theology, George Eldon Ladd argues that basileia theou ("kingdom of God") really refers to neither a realm nor to the church, but to the active, dynamic reign of God--his "kingship" which extends to both people and places (cf. John 18:36 RSV). In a similar vein, over at Kevin DeYoung's blog, Russell Moore provides a similarly helpful clarification--one of the best I've heard yet. His explanation is not only in line with the Gospels, but also shows that the kingdom of God was in fact the Pauline and apostolic message.

Sometimes even those who've followed Jesus for a long time find the kingdom message a difficult one to grasp. We sometimes assume "kingdom" is just a metaphor for "getting saved" or for another denominational program or political crusade. We hear chatter all around us about the Prince of Wales or the local school homecoming queen or the advertising slogans of the "King of Beers" or the "Dairy Queen."

Against this kind of potential confusion, the mission of Christ starts and ends not just in the announcement of forgiveness of sins or of the removal of condemnation--although both those things are certainly true. The mission of Christ starts and ends with the announcement that God has made Jesus emperor of the cosmos--and he plans to bend the cosmos to fit Jesus' agenda, not the other way around.

The kingdom of God, then, is the good news that the right rule of God, and the right rule of man--a rule our ancestors Adam and Eve lost--have come together in the right rule of one right God-man: Jesus of Nazareth. In his sin-resisting life, his wisdom-saturated teaching, his demon-exorcising power, his substitutionary, conquering death, and his justifying, victorious resurrection, Christ is king.

That king, through his Spirit, invites all men to believe by faith what they'll someday see by sight--what everyone will someday see by sight: Jesus is Lord. Jesus forgives. Jesus is king. And his reign will extend to every corner of the galaxy, forever.

The Bible for Teenagers

Some of my students have the attention span of a gnat. If you're like them, or if you're a youth pastor swarming with such gnats (just kidding, I love teens), you might relish Dane Ortlund's task of asking 25 pastors how they would summarize the Bible's message in one sentence. Jay Sklar's reply is probably the most simple and effective: "God made it, we broke it, Jesus fixes it!"


One commentor's summary is also really good: "God chose one man (Abraham) in order to make of him one great nation (Israel) so that through it He might bring forth one great Savior (Jesus) and through Him demonstrate God's glory and extend God's grace to all creation." Pretty well said.


My own (rather lengthy) sentence would be something like this: Despite the just curse of death brought through man's sin, God the Father has promised to defeat sin and exalt himself so that those who trust him will enjoy him and live under his blessing forever, and his Son Jesus has lovingly and graciously come in fulfillment of those promises to free us from judgment and bring us home with God--a life we taste even now by the power of his Spirit.

You Can Take a Boy out of the Country . . .

Genesis 18-19 records the account of God's visitation of Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate their wickedness and, if found guilty, to destroy them for it. "Then the LORD said, 'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know'" (18:20-21; see also 19:13).

Who made this "outcry" to the Lord against Sodom's people? We can infer that there are not even ten righteous persons among the two cities (18:22-33). My guess is that it was Lot, Abraham's nephew. Peter records that "righteous Lot" was "greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked" in Sodom and was tormented within by their daily corruption (2 Pet. 2:6-8).

But that's not the picture that emerges from Genesis 19. Though on account of Abraham and his prayers, Lot is rescued by the angels along with his wife and daughters (19:29). For starters, while he kept up the customary Near Eastern hospitality toward strangers by trying to protect his guests from being gang-raped, he offered instead his two virgin daughters! Then we learn that Lot had allowed unrighteous men to marry his daughters (v. 14). And when the angels urged Lot to flee from Sodom, lest he be swept away, "he lingered" (v.15) and even had to be forcibly dragged out of Sodom. Lot's heart seemed to be with Sodom and its pleasures. Even when he does flee, he argues with the angels to not return to open country but to join a new city instead (cities being associated with the corruption of man in Genesis) (vv. 17-22).

Under such headship, what then did the rest of his family look like? His wife didn't heed the angels' admonition to not look back longingly at Sodom--and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's daughters got their own father drunk and slept with him to become pregnant (with no apparent opposition on their father's behalf).

Apparently it is easier to get the family out of Sodom than it is to get the Sodom out of the family.*

I don't know what Lot's ultimate fate was before the Lord. From this account, everything looks grim. But I think 2 Peter 2:6-8 is the ray of hope. The final word on his life is that he is called "righteous Lot," and he goes down on the record as a man who was vexed within over living among evil people. Lot was simul justus et peccator -- at the same time righteous and yet a sinner--because the only true righteousness anyone can possess is that of Jesus Christ himself. Lot may have been a sinner, and his heart could still have been drawn to the pleasures of Sodom, but new desires had sprung up within that caused him to love the Lord and his law and to hate the wickedness of men around him. He was torn within, just like Paul in Romans 7, because he had been justified and was righteous, and Godward desires had been planted within his heart. "Unbelievers don't have such a struggle," notes Jerry Bridges.

For the most part, they enjoy their sin or rationalize their sinful attitudes. They feel justified in their self-righteousness, their criticial and unforgiving spirits, and their pursuits of pleasure and materialism [note Gen. 19:9]. Occasionally, they regret the
consequences of their attitudes and actions, but they do not see them as sin. . . . They may or may not have conflicts with other people, but there is little conflict within themselves. ("The Discomfort of the Justified Life," Modern Reformation, July/August 2006)

I think the key to figuring this all out is given within Paul's account in Romans 7 of his own struggle to live a new, holy life in Christ. "For I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out" (v. 18). Paul goes on to explain that it is not truly him but residual sin, the "old Adam" within, that hasn't been fully put to death yet (cf. 8:13). What counts is not so much the degree of our progress in holiness--that is, love for God and for our neighbors--but the desire that we progress. Jesus teaches that when there is "good treasure" within our hearts--God-honoring, pure, loving desires--such desires will overflow into our deeds and will prove that we are at our core "good trees" (Luke 6:43-45).

In the meantime, in what do we then hope? Paul gives us two solid anchors: (1) We can be confident that the day will come when, at our death, we will be freed entirely from the realm of sin into a new home where righteousness dwells (Rom. 7:24-25; 2 Pet. 3:13). (2) When we are "wed to Christ" by faith, we can know that we have "died to the law through the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:4). Our old self under the curse and condemnation of the law has died, and now there is no longer any condemnation awaiting us because Jesus has already fully taken our punishment upon himself in his death (8:1-4).
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*I wish I were this witty, but I must give credit where credit's due: This statement is from Leland and Philip Graham Ryken's preface to Genesis 19 in The Literary Study Bible.

Nothing Will Be Impossible for Them

As I've begun reading through Genesis again in my annual trek through the Scriptures, the well-worn story of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) spoke to me a new word. Wicked men, unified not only in language but also in their desire to exalt in their own accomplishments, abilities, and ingenuity, erect a tower from which to assault heaven and earn for themselves fame, glory, and autonomy from God. I always laugh that God "came down" to see what they were doing; their tower really fell quite short of imposing upon heaven (v. 5). But what God says next has always unsettled me: "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them" (v. 6). Frankly, I hate this verse. Why? Because it doesn't fit with my idea--and a very biblically consistent idea at that--that God is completely sovereign and in control over all of mankind's activities. No one can thwart the God-of-Angel-Armies.


But this time it spoke to me a new word of hope. It's true that this story of origins--the origin of cities--occurs in the very place man tries to erect a kingdom for himself in rebellion against God (see Gen. 10:10-11). But where is it that the apostles first carry the gospel? Cities: Jerusalem, Damascus, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, Athens, Rome. These were no doubt major hubs of anti-Christ religion and philosophy. Cities were (and are) Babylon in all its hollow pleasures and prides. But that's also the key. The gospel spreads and the kingdom of God invades those strongholds of darkness, upsetting and transforming them--and the culture along with them--at the very root of worldliness and rebellion. Cut off the cities, and you've made a good way to cutting off the devil nationwide. If cities such as Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, New York, Sao Paolo, Helsinki, New Delhi, Baghdad, or Cairo were to become predominantly Christian, what was once spoken of men in their evil could be true for the kingdom of light: "nothing will be impossible for them." Now, I'm no postmillenial*, but it's cool to see the power of the gospel to bring liberation to Satan's most entrenched outposts and to imagine the ever-present hope that greets those who labor to reach urban areas for Christ.

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*Postmillenialism is the view that the Lord will return after (post-) the "millenium." In this scheme, the gospel will spread with increasing effectiveness so that eventually whole nations and cultures will be largely converted and Christianized.

Excellent Overview of Biblical Eschatology

I've often thought of Christianity as "living backwards from the future." By his decisive coming to earth in the past, Jesus Christ has secured the future salvation of God's people--and by his Spirit even now we participate in the firstfruits of that deliverance. We're told the end of the story in advance and are then expected to live our way forward into the life that is to come. But the kingdom of God is not only a coming, future reality; the Gospels declare that it has already come in part and is coming presently, active today. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth--and the Holy Spirit says to all churches everywhere--that because Jesus the Messiah has come, "the fulfillment of the ages has come" along with him (1 Cor. 10:11). We are now living in the grandest era of history, when the promises pledged by God for the salvation of his people are coming true. Thus it is fitting that Jurgen Moltman describes the whole message of Christianity as an eschatological message:

Christianity is eschatology, is hope, forward looking and forward moving. . . . The eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium of the Christian faith as such, the key in which everything in it is set.

All that is to say that what Don Garlington has written here is probably the best synopsis of New Testament theology (i.e., eschatology) I've read yet. Even if you don't care about his discussion of Revelation 20:1-6 and the "millenium," the first two sections on eschatology and biblical interpretation are well worth reading.

Adam, Son of God

The third role alluded to in the title Son of God is that of Adam himself, the original and prototypical human. The direct identification of Adam as God's son is most explicitly pointed out in Luke's genealogy of Jesus, who is ". . . the son of Adam, [who is] the son of God" (Luke 3:37). How is Adam the son of God? And what does it mean for Jesus, the Son with a capital "s"?

The very first words about Adam (and Eve, in fact)--that is, Man--give us the answer. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule . . . .' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:26, 27). This is repeated nearly verbatim in Genesis 5:1-2: "When God created man [Hebrew adam], he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them 'man' [adam]." But then listen to what immediately follows concerning their son Seth: "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth" (v. 3).

Being one's son therefore means bearing the image or likeness of the father. This is not in a mere genetic or phenotypic sense. In Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible, the "image" is what embodies or reflects the personal-spiritual-relational attributes of the father, ruler, or god.* Like God, man was created as vice-regent or steward of the cosmos, who would exercise just and righteous dominion over all things and so live under God's blessing and pass it along to all things (Gen. 1:26-28; 5:2; 9:1-7; cf. Abraham in 12:2-3). In Adam's life and actions--and through all his offspring--all the world would see God in his beauty and worth. We humans were meant to be God-bearers to one another.** But in Adam's transgression we all fell from this glorious role. Adam failed to pass on the wholeness of God's image to his son, but rather diluted it with his own (5:3). And through him, as both the father of mankind as well as our representative head before God, we all inherited his corrupted nature, and the image of God in us is now twisted and dimmed (Rom 5:15-21; 1 Cor. 15:49; Eph. 2:3). "All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

But when Jesus the Son of God steps on the scene, all of that is reversed! The New Adam is here, God's true Son (1 Cor. 15:45)! Paul says that "Christ . . . is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4) and that "the Son he [God] loves . . . is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Col. 1:13, 15). Note the very Adamic--that is, human--description of Jesus. He is God's image, revealing God to the world. "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb. 1:3). Where fellowship with God and knowledge of him were lost, Jesus has come to restore our sight (2 Cor. 3:12 - 4:6). But the good news doesn't stop there. It also means that all who trust and follow Jesus are being remade in God's image as well. "You have taken off your old self . . . and have put on the new self, which is being recreated in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Col. 3:10). When through the Son we see both our true Father and Example, we too grow to take on his likeness ourselves (Rom. 8:28-30; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:7-12; 1 John 3:2). The curse is being overturned.

But this is not all the Son of God does as the true Adam. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Col. 1:15). Jesus is the firstborn, the beginning of a new family of mankind, as Adam once was (see Heb. 2:10-18). And he is over all creation, exercising kingly and priestly dominion as Adam was ordained to do (Heb. 2:5-9). As God's Son, Jesus is the ruling and representative head of God's new creation (Eph. 1:10, 21-22). Where Adam sinned and brought the curse of death and exile from God's presence to all humans, even to the whole created order, Jesus brings justification, bodily resurrection, and eternal life and intimacy with God in Paradise, where all who are in Christ by faith will enjoy God forever (Rom. 5:15-21; 1 Cor. 15:20-28, 44-49). He exercises the dominion Adam was meant to have, restoring peace to the world. Satan has not triumphed over God and his creation; Jesus the Son--and his saints who belong to him--have crushed his head (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20; Col. 2:14-15)!

"He comes to make his blessings flow / Far as the curse is found" is more than a line from a quaint Christmas carol about a babe in a manger. It is the gospel of God's Son Jesus, God's grace and glory dwelling among us again.

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*Dennis Johnson, following Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10, describes the image of God in man as "characterized by right knowing (truth), right ruling (righteous and loving exercise of authority), and right relationship (holiness in God's presence)" (Him We Proclaim, pp. 246 f.).

**I think in many ways we also do not directly reflect God, as if we embodied all his attributes. God is everlasting, unchanging, all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful in ways we cannot be. In our limited and finite power and wisdom in this life, perhaps we show off God's majesty precisely by what we are not and what we cannot do or know. Even now when we point sinners to God's grace and the Savior's cross, we are images pointing the way to God, showing off who he is.

Israel, Son of God

Several places in the Old Testament the nation of Israel is referred to as God's "son": "Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son'" (Exod. 4:22; cf. Deut. 8:5; Jer. 31:9, 20; Hos. 11:1). But what implication does this have for how we are to understand Jesus as the Son of God?


The gospel at its core says that Jesus has come to fulfill all that was pointed toward in Israel's history and Scriptures, namely, the promise of blessing to Abraham's descendants and to all the world through them. (See Scot McKnight's explanation of this here.) In what is perhaps the most succinct description of the apostolic gospel, Paul writes to the Corinthians that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve" (1 Cor. 15:1-8). Paul and the apostles before him saw all this happening "according to the Scriptures," that is, the "Christ-event" (Barth) was something anticipated in the Old Testament and in the history of Israel (see Rom. 1:1-4). Even Jesus had this view of himself (see, e.g., Matt. 5:17 and Luke 24:25-27).


While there are many ways this can be seen in the NT, it is perhaps most evident in the Gospel of Matthew. When Herod hears of a rival king's birth, the holy family flees to Egypt and seeks refuge until Herod's death. Matthew elucidates the meaning of this event: "And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son'" (2:15; quoting Hosea 11:1). In Hosea it is Israel who is God's son, and the reference is to their rescue and calling in the exodus (cf. Deut. 8:5). But here the title is applied to Jesus. Stepping back, we can see numerous other parallels to Israel's history in the life of Jesus. For example, the flight to Egypt parallels not only Pharaoh's murder of Hebrew babies and Moses' rescue to become Israel's leader (Exod. 1-2); echoes can also be seen of the incipient family of Israel (Jacob) fleeing for their lives to Egypt (Gen. 42-43).


Additionally, just as Israel was "baptized" in their exodus-passage through the Red Sea (Exod. 14; 1 Cor. 10:4), so Jesus also underwent baptism (Matt. 3:13-17). After the exodus, Israel wandered in the wilderness, undergoing temptation and grumbling against the Lord for forty years. After his baptism, Jesus likewise spent forty days in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan (Matt. 4:1-11). Israel was tempted by hunger and thirst in order to humble them, to expose their hearts, and to teach them that "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (Deut. 8:2-5). But ultimately their discontented hearts were set on idols, and they failed the test (1 Cor. 10:5-10). Yet where Israel failed, Jesus held fast, even wielding Deuteronomy 8:3 against the devil's devices. Whereas God was not pleased with Israel (1 Cor. 10:5), in his baptism and temptation Jesus is marked out as the beloved Son well-pleasing to God his Father (Matt. 3:17).


There are many other places as well in which Jesus is portrayed as fulfilling (that is, filling up, bringing to a climax, or displaying the true meaning of) Israel's history and hopes. (If you want to know more, e-mail me or read Peter Leithart's essay, Jesus as Israel: The Typological Structure of Matthew's Gospel.) Not least among these is that Jesus is the true seed of Abraham who serves as the representative head of God's people and bears upon himself the curse due to Israel for their disobedience to the Law, releasing to God's people (now both Jew and Gentile) the fullness of God's eschatological blessings, received by faith (Gal. 3:10-14, 21-29).


So in calling Jesus the Son of God, Matthew and other NT writers are really saying that Jesus is the true Israel, the one whose story culminates and transforms Israel's. He re-enacts and undergoes all that Israel went through in her travails to bring God's glory and blessing to a fallen world. Only where she failed, he succeeded. He is the true obedient servant of God, who truly understands and lives out the law's demands for trusting love to her Creator-King (Matt. 5:17; Heb. 10:5-10). The implications of this are that all of God's blessings are now no longer seated upon the Jews' obedience to the Law, but upon Jesus the Son's obedience and curse-bearing. As was always promised even to Abraham, covenant righteousness before God--and therefore the covenant promises of abundant life, an eternal home, and dwelling with God--now comes through faith in his Son Jesus.

David, Son of God

"Jesus is the Messiah, [that is,] the Son of God" (John 20:31). As I argued in my previous post, Son of God and Messiah were somewhat interchangeable titles; or at least they were understood to be synonymous for the person God would send to be King over Israel and the whole world and bring Israel's final glory.

Properly understood, the title Messiah (Christ) means "anointed one." To anoint someone with oil in Hebrew culture was to ceremonially set him apart for a special role. While there were many occassions for anointing someone with oil, in the OT there were three particular roles into which someone was baptized by an anointing rite: prophet (Isa. 61:1), priest (Exod. 28:41; 30:30; Lev. 16:32), and king (1 Sam. 9:16; 15:1; 2 Sam. 2:4; 1 Kings 1:34). The majority of OT references to an anointed person, though, refer to King David and his successors on the throne of Israel (or Judah, during the divided kingdom). Thus when the nations hate God's law and rage against his "anointed one," God derides them and proclaims the truth: "I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill" (Ps. 2:1-6). This king is referred to as God's "son," and upon the day of his coronation, God becomes his "father" (2:7, 12). (Some translations of Psalm 2:12 say that God has "begotten" the king.) In John 5:19-30, Jesus is even explicitly revealed as the Son entrusted by the Father with all judgment, wielding his Father's scepter. There is an intimate connection between divine sonship and regency.

This motif is echoed elsewhere in the Psalms. Psalm 89, which implores God on that basis of his covenant made to David (see 2 Sam. 7), records God as saying, "I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him . . . He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.' I will also appoint him [as] my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth" (vv. 20, 26-27). It is through the just and righteous reign of God's anointed "son" that God rules his people Israel and subdues the nations (vv. 22-29; cf. 2:8-12; 72; 110; Gen. 49:10). Yet when Israel backslid into the spiritual adultery of idolatry and apostasy and was carried into exile by godless foreign nations, it was made clear that no such exalted king had yet come. The truly righteous King of the house of David awaited a future era for the people of God (see Jer. 23:1-8).

So by saying that Jesus is the Son of God, the Bible is saying that Jesus is the definitive answer to Israel's hope for a king who would save them through his wise and just reign. He ist the ruler who would usher in an era of unparalleled peace and prosperity for God's people--and destruction for those outside of God's kingdom. In Jesus, the promised shepherd-deliverer had come (Ezek. 34). This is good news for those who will gladly and willingly submit to him, but terror for those who refuse him in this life. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not have eternal life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36; see the parallels with Psalm 2).

Jesus, Son of God

If you have read John's Gospel or his letters (1-3 John), you will notice pretty quickly that his preoccupation is that Jesus is the "Son of God." In fact, this was so central to John's view of Jesus that he wrote entirely so that "you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). But what exactly does this title mean? To most evangelicals it means that Jesus is fully divine, that he is God incarnate. And the prologue to the Fourth Gospel validates this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God" (1:1-2). This Word (Greek logos) is perhaps best seen as the ultimate, cohesive, self-expression of who God is in his very essence. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [lit. "tabernacled," as did the shekinah cloud of God's glory] among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (1:14, 18). In the Word the eternal, hidden God is revealing who he is and what he is like. (In his book The Challenge of Jesus, N. T. Wright points out that Jesus as the Son embodies God in five primary modes of God's action in the world and particularly through and for Israel: Word, Wisdom, Spirit, Temple, and Torah. Jesus is being and doing in the world what only God can do.) Elsewhere in John's Gospel, Jesus the Son of God is revealed as the one who knows the Father intimately and lives entirely in concert with his desires (3:35; 5:16-28).

But perhaps this declaration that Jesus is the Son of God, while not divorced at all from his deity, has as much--or even more--to do with his role as the human king who fulfills, rewrites, and redeems the history of Israel and, through her, the whole world. You see, John uses the title Son of God interchangeably with the title Messiah (Christ): "Jesus is the Messiah, [that is,] the Son of God" (20:31). The apostles also understood the Son of God as synonymous with the Messiah: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:10). I have heard the name Jesus Christ explained this way: "Jesus" refers to his humanity as the virgin-born man (Matt. 1:21), while "Christ" refers to his divinity as the virgin-born man. While this is not entirely wrong, are we missing something? I believe we may be, and I hope in the next few posts to flesh out (pun intended) three ways Jesus-as-God's-Son goes beyond "mere" deity and encompasses also his humanity as the true Adam, Israel, and David.

Glory Days

A few weeks ago our pastor Erik announced that, due to rapidly outgrowing our current worship space, we would be moving to a new site just a few blocks away. I immediately felt the cringe of nostalgia. Even though City Church is only four years old, we have always met in the same small, beautiful church building. I will be a little sad to leave. But Erik quickly reminded those of us who long for the "glory days" that for any church, our true glory days lie ahead in the new heavens and the new earth, when Jesus reigns completely and all things are renewed. What a challenging truth! It made me think: Is nostalgia really some sort of misplaced hope, as if we ever lived in some sort of heaven-on-earth? The apostle Peter warns us that we do not yet live in our true homeland "in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13); a later prophet chided nostalgia as "a desire for something which has never actually appeared in our experience" (C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory").

A few nights ago I was singing to myself Martin Luther's old Christmas hymn, "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come," in which an angelic host proclaim the good news of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. In the fourth stanza they bear this news:

He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.

"That . . . you may with us His glory share"--that is the gospel! The good news of the redemption Christ has won for us means that we would not only see beauty--the fiery glow of a sunset, the piercing radiance of noonday sun reflecting from a fresh snowfall, the calm drops of dew glistening suspended from a spider's web, the warmth of a loving family gathered around the hearth, the resounding voices of the chorus inside St. Peter's Basilica, the graceful movements of a ballet dancer, the arms of Mother Teresa around a discarded, sickly orphan, the trade of wrinkled smiles between a long-married couple--but that we would become beautiful and glorious ourselves. Only our glory and beauty will far surpass that of any temporal thing of this earth: we will share the very glory of Jesus the eternal Son ourselves.

The good news of the gospel is that through Jesus Christ, God himself and his saving righteousness have been unveiled (Rom. 1:17; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6). And the result--or, perhaps rather, the goal--is that we share in his glory ourselves. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor. 3:18). And one day, we will share the very same glory of body, soul, and spirit as the risen and glorified Son himself, full of the Spirit of Life: "For those whom he [God] foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Rom. 8:28-30*; see also Heb. 2:5-10; 1 John 3:1-2).

I think this is something even the best of us evangelicals can miss as we hold forth the cross. We focus so heavily on forgiveness and justification by faith--the open door into the kingdom and into union with Christ--that we lose sight of the end goal, of God's ultimate purpose for us in this life and the next: participating in Christ's glory and so exercising our true humanity. As we set our lives before God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1-2) and come to a deeper knowledge of God's excellent promises, we "become partakers of the divine nature" and become freed from corrupting desires (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Our life's goal, both now and in the age to come, is to be so clothed with Christ and filled by the Holy Spirit that we take on, participate in, and share the very glory of our Head and King himself. Eastern theologians say that while we do not share God's essence or nature as Diety, we do share God's "energies," his ways of acting and being in the world (known as theosis). We are meant to become, as it were, little Christs, little sons of God, brothers along with the Firstborn who shares his Father's image (Gen. 1:26, 27; Rom. 8:17-18, 28-30; Col. 3:10; Heb. 2:5-17). Not that we ourselves become deified, but that we become flawless mirrors reflecting the light of God's glory and so shine all the more brightly ourselves with goodness and love and joy and beauty. We will become fully illuminated, luminous as the brightest stars in the heavens (Dan. 12:2-3).

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*Paul employs the past tense to announce that both in God's eternal purposes set before creation and also in the cross and empty tomb in A.D. 29, all of salvation has already been accomplished--even if it is being applied and brought to fruition across time by the Holy Spirit as he unites people to Christ.

Old Advent Posts

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Apparently this maxim applies to my blogging, too. Maybe I just haven't had the time to think though Adventy stuff. Either way, you can check out my previous posts here, since I don't get around to posting much new material anymore. (However, I have spent a long time figuring out how Jesus as the Son of God means he fulfills the roles of David and Israel, and why this is good news. But apparently I can't copy-and-paste text from Word into Blogger.)

A Prayer for Today

Over the past few months, since the beginning of the school year, I've been learning the hard lesson on my continual need to open each day in prayer for God's presence and provision, acknowledging his grace. If I don't do so, it's so easy to lose sight of what each day is really all about--glorifying God in a life of transformation and discipleship after Jesus--and instead fret and falter over my performance and acceptance at work. This morning I sat down and wrote out this prayer. While it was originally inspired by a prayer from Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp's excellent book How People Change, some of you may notice it's largely a reflection on Galatians 2:20-21 and the introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism.



"A Prayer for Today"

Good Father, God Almighty,
I thank You for this day, whatever it may bring.
Today greets me full of hope,
Not because I am successful at what I do
Or because people near me appreciate me
Or because circumstances are easy,
But because I am not my own,
But belong--body and soul, in life and in death--
To my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has freed me from a life of performance-based righteousness;
In Him I am freely accepted and loved by Your grace.
His life, death, and resurrection assure me
Of my forgiveness and eternal life.

By His Spirit within me I am set free from sin and my old self.
Christ now dwells within me,
And I am being transformed daily into His glorious image,
Created anew to live out my highest calling:
To glorify You and enjoy You forever.
Insofar as I do this, I am truly alive.

Instead of the futility of trying to perform for You and others
To win acceptance, love, and value,
Or of exalting myself or worshiping vain idols,
I am set free to serve others,
Who are created in Your image and are valuable to You.
I will therefore gladly and generously use all that You give me
Each day to work wholeheartedly for You,
Knowing that it is better to give than to receive.

Make me today, in all I do, a light to others,
Bearing Christ in truth, humility, compassion, and generosity,
And gladly and boldly sharing His gospel.

When I am anxious, I will not be dismayed,
But will turn to You in prayer with thanksgiving,
For You are near and above all earthly powers.
You promise to do all things for my good,
To enable me always to do Your will and to become like Christ.
To look at it any other way is to live a lie.
But to live in truth brings You glory,
And this is my highest form of worship.

"Every baptism is an infant baptism"

Last weekend the local RUF (Reformed University Fellowship, that is, not a ministry for canines) pastor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Peter Rowan, was ordained at our worship service. It was a beautiful and moving event to see a young man step forward to commit his life to guiding people to their Savior through the Word of the gospel. Then, in his first act as an ordained pastor, Peter baptized his infant nephew. Peter started his brief explanation of baptism with this provocative phrase: "In some sense, every baptism is an infant baptism." The sign of baptism, Peter explained, shows that we, like newborn babes, live entirely dependent lives before God, living entirely on what he gives us by grace alone in Christ.

I think this really is a beautiful picture we miss often by too quickly getting on with the business of responding to our baptisms by following Jesus' call to death-and-discipleship. No matter how zealously we follow Jesus and serve his church, we must recognize that every good and every blessing come to us not on account of our faith or our energy for God, but far prior to that. Baptism reminds us that it was "while we were still weak" and powerless like a little child with no strength or skill or virtue to offer, "Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Brennan Manning points out in his book The Ragamuffin Gospel that children are the model citizens of God's kingdom "because they have no claim on heaven. If they are close to God, it is because they are incompetent, not because they are innocent. If they receive anything, it can only be as a gift" (p. 28).

Happy Reformation Day!

It's finally here: this year's annual Reformation Day post! (You can all exhale now.) In case you haven't been reading this blog for years, every October 31st I celebrate the nailing of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses to the cathedral door in Wittenberg on All Souls' Eve in 1517, ultimately spurring many within the church to return to Scripture and to celebrate Jesus Christ alone as our All in All. This year's quote comes from a sermon of Dietrich Bonhoeffer titled "Justification as the Last Word" (c. 1940).* It's a bit lengthy, but well worth the patience.




All Christian living has its origin and existnece in one single happening which the Reformation called "justification by grace alone." It is not what the individual is in himself or herself, but what he or she has become by this happening which defines a Christian life. Here we have the length and breadth of human life in a nutshell, gathered together at one point; the whole of life is contained in this event. What happens here? An ultimate act of suffering which cannot be grasped by any human being. The darkness, which from within and without takes human life into the abyss of hopelessness is bound, conquered, and destroyed by the power of the Word of God; in the light of this deliverance, we see God and our neighbor for the first time. The bewildering labyrinth of the life we have lived so far is shattered. We are free for God and our neighbor. We begin to know in our heart that there is a God who loves us, accepts us, and that by our side is a brother or sister, whom God loves as he loves us. Also, we know now that there is a future with the triune God, who is present among his people. Now, the human being has faith, love, and hope. Past and future become as one in the presence of God. The whole of the past is gathered up in the word "forgiveness"; the whole of the future is in the safekeeping of the true God. The sins of the past are sunk into the abyss of the love of God in Christ Jesus and overcome. The future will be a life with God, without sin (see 1 John 3:9). Life, then, is revealed as detached from teh temporal and held fast by the eternal, choosing the way of eternal salvation ratherthan the ways of the termporal world, as a member of a community and of creation, which sings praises to the triune God. All this happens with theencounter of Christ with the human soul. All this is truth and reality in Christ. Because it is no dream, it is a dtruly human life, which is lived in the presence of Christ. From now on, it is no longer a lost life, but a justified life, justified by grace alone.



But not only "by grace alone," also "by faith alone." That is what both the Scriptures and the Reformation teach. Not love nor hope, but only faith justifies a life. Faith alone, indeed, sets life upon a new foundation and it is this new foundation alone that justifies it, so that I can live before God. The foundation, however, is the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this foundation a life cannot be justified before God. It is left to the mercy of death and damnation. Only by living a life by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ can we be justified before God. But faith means finding and standing firm upon this foundation, to be anchored in it and thereby to be held firm by it. Faith means establishing one's life upon a foundation outside one's own self, upon and eternal and holy foundation, which is Christ. Faith means to be captivated by the glance of Jesus Christ, to see nothing other than him, to be torn out of imprisonment in one's own ego, to be set free by Jesus Christ. Faith is letting this action take place, which is an action in itself, but these two are not enough to explain the mystery. Only faith is certain, all else is doubt. Jesus Christ himself is the certainly of faith. I believe that my life is justified in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way to the justification of my life than by faith alone. . . .

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*Bonhoeffer, Werke, Vol. 15, pp. 492-98; as found in Edwin Robertson, ed., tr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), pp. 160-162.

Triumphs and Tears

I know this is outside the scope or intent of this blog's normal content--if and when I even post anything anymore--but some of you who read this know that I have been a high school track and cross country coach. This year I'm at a new high school and no longer coaching track because it's such a time-sucking vortex, but I had the opportunity to serve as the boys' cross country coach. I ended up being the de facto girls' coach too, however, because Julie (the girls' coach) and I pretty much decided to blend the teams this year.

Yesterday was the day we were all eagerly awaiting: the Capital District Championship. On paper the girls were ranked fourth, and the boys were fifth or sixth out of eight teams in the district. The top four teams advance to Regionals. Despite slow, spongy course conditions due to the storms and tornadoes one day earlier (which forced the meet to be postponed one day), the girls ran really well. As the girls streamed across the finish, I frantically tried running my own scoring of the meet. What I calculated on paper was confirmed later by the official scoring: The girls placed fourth and moved on to Regionals! An added plus was that our top freshman, Katie Sperry, finished 9th to take All-District honors.

Sadly for the boys, our number-five runner and last scorer selfishly quit the team yesterday, leaving us a hole to fill. ("Welcome to the world of coaching," another veteran coach told me.) But our sixth guy stepped it up. We knocked off one of our rival schools that had narrowly defeated us all season long -- except this time we crushed 'em. However, we only ended up fifth place in the district, so our season is over. But I was pretty glad to see that, of all teams in fourth, it was Henrico (where I previously coached) who had defeated us. After all, their top five were all guys I had coached in track last year and recruited to run XC this season. Several other coaches congratulated Julie and I on getting the team off to a good start. It felt good.

Today was an easy, fun day for the kids: the "rainbow run." (Props to Tim Hoshal for that one.) It was a crisp, sunny fall day, with the red maples donned in their characteristic scarlet and the willow oaks and sweetgums in golds and yellows. The kids were in good spirits, and their laughter and smiles added to the bliss brought to me by a beautiful fall day and the joy of cross country. I know that I really need the extra time at school and home afforded by not coaching the rest of the year. I really do. But I'm really quite sad that the season is over for the boys and will soon wrap up for the girls, too. Just like track last year, cross' has been a huge blessing from God in my life, something I'm really thankful for.

Next up: Central Region Championship. . . . And dare I run the Richmond Half-Marathon?

KDY - The Crust and the Core

Kevin DeYoung has re-posted an old post of his, "The Crust and the Core," which ended up becoming the final chapter in his book about the Heidelberg Catechism. He argues for why doctrine must be studied and alive within a church and our hearts (our "core"), but that it should not become a barrier which prevents unity in the church and keeps others from seeing the glory of Christ (a "crust"). Highly recommended.

On that note, too, I'd like to retag an old post of mine which hopefully embodies the same spirit: "Whose orthodoxy is it?"

Thanks for the Dawn

As I've been working my way through the book of Isaiah for this year's BSF study, I've been met time and again with the reality of most people's spiritual stupor before the living God, the Holy One. On one hand, I too feel provoked by visions of the Lord "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (6:1); I don't see Christ much this way, nor tremble under him in reverent awe.

But I am also filled with a deep sense of gratitude to this same Lord, this reigning and ruling King. Millions of others may spend their whole lives either openly dismissing the gospel, or more likely, going about aloof or ignorant of his resurrection and judgment to come (Rev. 20:11-15). But in his kindness I have been given his Spirit, my sight of him has been restored, and in my deepest being I know that he is true. In fact, the very first time I believe I saw Christ for who he really is, it was an inescapable mental image of what is known as Christos Pantokrator, "the Messiah All-Powerful," who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. But he did not terrify me; he also showed me that he gave up his life in agony upon a deserted cross to remove my sins and to become my own Savior.

Every time I think of those around me who have never seen his Light or who have fallen away from faith in him, I thank God that for whatever reason unknown to me, he has lovingly brought me to faith and has kept me faithful. The words of Augustine come to mind: "Yet if any man makes a list of his deserts [merits], what would it be but a list of your gifts?" (Confessions IX.13). Each day I cannot boast that I have deeper spiritual insight or godliness or purity of will than anyone else. All I can do is boast in the Savior who gives me these things in his time and measure. "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" (1 Cor. 4:7).

On Inerrancy

There is (still) a lot of debate within the evangelical world about the inerrancy of Scripture, the belief that the Bible, in its original manuscripts (autographs), is flawless and completely truthful in all its propositions, claims, and all that it affirms. Now, I don't doubt this. "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (theopneustos, 2 Tim. 3:16) and has the Holy Spirit as its ultimate author, though it was penned in culturally conditioned ways through fallible human authors. In reality what looks like error to us is simply the result of three main phenomena: (1) It was authored by the Spirit of God, and only the Spirit within us knows and interprets and unveils to us God's thoughts. "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). Because we are not completely ruled and renewed by the Spirit yet, in many ways Scripture seems opaque, foggy. "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).

(2) God's revelation of himself remains under his lordship and at his discretion. Because he must breathe his Spirit into us to comprehend his breathed-out Word, we are at his mercy in all true wisdom we may gain. The fact remains that all Scripture comes from a perfect Mind which is infinitely beyond the reach of our finite, creaturely minds. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8-9). Only as God chooses to enable our minds to grasp the truth of his Word can we grow in grace and knowledge. The Word is God's self-disclosure, self-revelation; and as such we can never wrap our minds around it fully to make judgments upon it any more than we can scrutinize and judge our Creator. It is as if a paper doll were to lay claim to the child who cut it! The real question for us is, under God's lordship, will we be faithfully submissive to what we do understand, while praying all the while for deeper knowledge of his mysteries? "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29, emphasis mine).

(3) There is the obvious difficulty of our cultural differences and historical distance from the times and places where the Bible was written, and this will always occlude our view of its message. For example, many (though not all) inerrantists claim that you must believe in a single, uniquely-created Adam who was the very first of all humans, if you are to accept an unerring Bible. But that opens up many other difficulties with the Genesis account which they would need to reconcile, if they accept Adam as the original progenitor of the human race. (I am simply using this as an example, not to say what I believe about Adam.) But what if the narrative about Adam's creation wasn't meant so much as to answer the hows or whens of creation, as it was to give Adam and mankind his purpose within the world--ultimately a purpose which Israel was supposed to embody. The Genesis creation accounts could've been penned (carved?) by Moses to point Israel to her identity as the divine image-bearers of God exercising dominion over the world and bringing blessing to it. This example obviously leaves out a lot of details, but I'm simply using it to point out the gaps created by cultural distance.

* * *

Ultimately, though, while I accept inerrancy a la B. B. Warfield and the Chicago Statement, it doesn't matter that much to me. Why not? To put it simply, I don't trust the Scriptures because I believe they're inerrant. (Though because they are inerrant and infallible, we need to accept and live by all that God reveals to us therein, because they are the instrument of his rule in our lives, his words which soar above the puny "wisdom" of man.) I believe them because they revealed to me my risen Savior Jesus Christ. I came to know and believe in Jesus long before I ever knew about the doctrine of inerrancy. And because the Bible pointed me to Jesus, I kept on reading it and found living words that read me, and I found life for my soul. No other book does that. That is why I trust the Bible and rely on it: not because it fits some sort of definition of inerrancy, but because it has brought me to a knowledge of my sin and, more so, of a redeeming God of love who bore my sin on Calvary. I believe it because only its message makes sense of my life and of the world. That is why I trust it. And because I know in my heart that the risen Jesus is living and true, and that I cannot turn away from the inescapable grip his reality has on me, I take his word as trustworthy and true. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).

Gospel Hope for Work (and Home)

On Tuesday Glen Allen High School opened its doors to students. A new academic year had begun. While on one hand I was pretty excited to see all the new faces and ponder what the next ten months will be like, as usual I also had a lot of anxieties about the upcoming year, especially in such a high-expectations environment as a brand new, tech-savvy, innovative school.

But by God's grace I realized that each day's success is not based on whether I garner my administrators' approval, or if my students have high grades and do well in the Virginia Academy of Science, or if I'm integrating enough technology and "21st-century skills," or if my lessons are really interesting and engaging to wide variety of students, or if the cross country team does well. In God's eyes success comes from whether or not I worshiped him in all I did (1 Cor. 10:31). Did I perform my job to the best of my effort and know-how (Col. 3:23)? Did I use my time, abilities, and opportunities to serve and strengthen others (1 Pet. 4:9-11)? Did I treat students with gentleness, patience, and understanding when I could've otherwise been strict, harsh, and demanding (Phil. 4:5; James 3:17)? Did I turn to the Lord in prayer during frustrating, perplexing moments (Phil. 4:6-7)? Did I look for reasons to rejoice in my students and circumstances instead of dwelling on negatives (Phil. 4:8-13)? Did I die to my desires and rights so that I could help others (Phil. 2:3-11)? Did I trust God's presence and his promises that he is, and that he is in control (Isa. 26:3; John 16:33)? Did I step out in faith at the Spirit's leading and share a spiritual lesson or speak about God's holiness, justice, and grace in Christ (Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:2-6). Did I live for God's approval rather than my colleagues' (Gal. 1:10; 1 Sam. 16:7)?

To the extent that I do these things, every day is a success, because God's purpose for me is to form Christ in me (Rom. 8:28-30). I know that the list above in many ways this sounds like an unrealistic burden. And we could look at it simply as that--a burden of God's desires and demands under the law. But the good news for me and for all of us, I believe, is that in Christ we are forgiven of all our sins and failures. And through him God has also given us his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ himself alive and active within our hearts and minds to "will and to work for [God's] good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). The watching world of my students, bosses, parents, and colleagues may not see it--all this is foolishness in a world of performance-based righteousness and earned love--but the Lord does not see as man sees; he looks at our hearts, which he possesses and is working to renew (1 Sam. 16:7).

Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
(Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q & A 1)

If I love, worship, and glorify God, I've met my telos, my goal. And even when circumstances are tough and comforts flee, I have this sure and solid comfort in life and in death: "That I am not my own, but belong--body and soul, in life and in death--to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. . . . Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him" (Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 1).