I can almost hear some coach chanting to his athletes before the big game: "Be the seed. Be the seed." Well, maybe not. This morning while at the gorgeous Keystone resort in Colorado, Keith Bubalo shared his thoughts on 2 Corinthians 4.4-12. In a time of prayer and reflection afterward, the Wind of God directed me to these words of Jesus recorded in John 12.23-33:
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." . . .
"Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
Jesus said that it was his death that cast down Satan (see also Rev 12.9; 20.1-3 if you're an amillenialist like me) and would draw all people to himself. And as his servants and followers whose goal is to live for and continue his purposes, we also are to carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus, in order that his life may be manifested within us (2 Cor 4.10-12).
Jesus teaches here that bearing fruit for God is contingent upon "death". A few days later after celebrating the Sedir he said, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15.8-11). In other words, it is by our dying that we glorify our Father. Willingly surrendering all rights to our selfish comfort, ease, and painlessness is necessary, for our weakness allows God to display his power through us so that there's no fooling anyone as to our source of strength and competence.*
But Jesus says all of this out of love for all of his followers: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you". What did his Father's love look like? God's love sent his only Son through suffering, blows, lacerations, nails, mocking, and asphyxiation--but ultimately to the place of incomparable blessing, joy, and adoration at his right hand (Heb 1.8-9; 12.2). It was truly through the cross that the Son of Man was glorified (John 12.23). It is always his love that motivates Jesus to call us to the cross and to denial of our selves and the worldly desires that would otherwise be fully legit if the Resurrection weren't true (see Mark 10.21).
But by God's power Jesus did triumph over the grave and is reigning from heaven (Eph 1.19-23). In our dying he calls us to join him in these same unblushing rewards as he received. "Where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." We will be with him at home forever, accepted, approved, and beloved in him by our holy Creator and Sovereign, who calls out the stars by name and is storing up great wrath to crush the skulls of those who set themselves up against his reign (Rev 6.15-17).
Jesu, may we know and believe that in his love your Father didn't spare you the cup of suffering on your path toward joy's eternal increase. With that very same love you call us to die to ourselves and share in your pains and sacrifices for the gospel and bringing all men to yourself. We must know and feel the unsearchable riches of your hesed, your loyal covenant love that surpasses all comprehension (Eph 3.8,16-19). And may our hearts' experience of it compel us to be fools for your sake in bringing the gospel to the people of Turkey, Bangkok, Michigan, or wherever else you've called us, with boldness and clarity. Amen!
*On a side note, another insight I gained from 2 Cor 4.5-7 this morning is that it is not we who have adequacy or effectiveness, but our message does! For it is the power of God for salvation for all peoples, bringing the truth of God as seen in the crucified and risen Christ Jesus.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Definitely not a theological post -- but whatever
I've never been in the mindset that we should only listen to "Christian" CD's. Frankly, I've never been much for the CCM scene. Prompted by R. T., here are the top discs in my collection:
The Beatles, Abbey Road - I don't know if this qualifies as a theme album, but it just fits. It's incredibly innovative, with the final several songs all blending together into one long track.
The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness - The Victorian artwork fits this double album perfectly. There is more summertime sweetness, more raw vocals, more textured guitars on this album than any other. A beautiful work. Their previous work, Siamese Dream, is close behind.
Anathallo, Holiday at the Sea EP and Sparrows - No one, and I mean no one, tops Anathallo (Greek for "renewal"). Guitar, xylophone, drums galore, clapping, horns, piano, and even scissors and chains--ya just can't ask for more. Only you do get more, like tremendous builds and crescendoes, songs in Japanese, and perceptive my-deceptive-heart-is-cut-open-and-my-sin-is-bleeding-out-so-I-surrender lyrics make these guys the best. Their live shows must be witnessed. Props to having lyrics based upon the greatest essay of all time, C. S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory. These guys know the Old Testament.
Radiohead, OK Computer - This is when they made it out of their already-good Brit rock days and into the bigtime with their innovate, post-apocalyptic tones.
Dispatch, Silent Steeples and Who Are We Living For? - These New Englanders redefine musical talent. Beautiful harmonies, rich hand percussion, and haunting lyrics make these two the most listened-to discs in my collection. Pick the former for their older, acoustic sound, and the latter for something electrified.
Guster, Goldfly - Forget Pedro the Lion; these are the guys who first took downcast lyrics and merged them with upbeat, poppy music. Songs about consciously manipulating others and the like create an odd lyrical content that makes up the Somerville, Mass., trio's first two discs. Plus Brian "Thundergod" Rosenworcel is the best hand percussionist around, hands-down.
Jars of Clay, Who We Are Instead - I would've said their self-titled debut was their best, but there is a something about their fifth studio album that leaves me in tears. Dan Haseltine sings from the perspective--an honest and personal one, from what I believe--of a man who's seen his sin, lived low in it, but has found hope in the faithfulness and bloody grace of his Savior. "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" cannot help but move someone -- it was based on an audio recording they heard of a homeless man singing this simple line to himself for hours as he fell asleep on the streets. This disc echoes of Johnny Cash. Their second LP, Much Afraid, is well worth a listen if you want to be broken of your sin and be left weeping before God.
Honorable mention: Pearl Jam, Vitalogy; Weezer, Weezer (blue album); R. E. M., Document; U2, The Best of 1980-1990; Blue Merle, Blue Merle; anything by Dan Tyminski.
The Beatles, Abbey Road - I don't know if this qualifies as a theme album, but it just fits. It's incredibly innovative, with the final several songs all blending together into one long track.
The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness - The Victorian artwork fits this double album perfectly. There is more summertime sweetness, more raw vocals, more textured guitars on this album than any other. A beautiful work. Their previous work, Siamese Dream, is close behind.
Anathallo, Holiday at the Sea EP and Sparrows - No one, and I mean no one, tops Anathallo (Greek for "renewal"). Guitar, xylophone, drums galore, clapping, horns, piano, and even scissors and chains--ya just can't ask for more. Only you do get more, like tremendous builds and crescendoes, songs in Japanese, and perceptive my-deceptive-heart-is-cut-open-and-my-sin-is-bleeding-out-so-I-surrender lyrics make these guys the best. Their live shows must be witnessed. Props to having lyrics based upon the greatest essay of all time, C. S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory. These guys know the Old Testament.
Radiohead, OK Computer - This is when they made it out of their already-good Brit rock days and into the bigtime with their innovate, post-apocalyptic tones.
Dispatch, Silent Steeples and Who Are We Living For? - These New Englanders redefine musical talent. Beautiful harmonies, rich hand percussion, and haunting lyrics make these two the most listened-to discs in my collection. Pick the former for their older, acoustic sound, and the latter for something electrified.
Guster, Goldfly - Forget Pedro the Lion; these are the guys who first took downcast lyrics and merged them with upbeat, poppy music. Songs about consciously manipulating others and the like create an odd lyrical content that makes up the Somerville, Mass., trio's first two discs. Plus Brian "Thundergod" Rosenworcel is the best hand percussionist around, hands-down.
Jars of Clay, Who We Are Instead - I would've said their self-titled debut was their best, but there is a something about their fifth studio album that leaves me in tears. Dan Haseltine sings from the perspective--an honest and personal one, from what I believe--of a man who's seen his sin, lived low in it, but has found hope in the faithfulness and bloody grace of his Savior. "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" cannot help but move someone -- it was based on an audio recording they heard of a homeless man singing this simple line to himself for hours as he fell asleep on the streets. This disc echoes of Johnny Cash. Their second LP, Much Afraid, is well worth a listen if you want to be broken of your sin and be left weeping before God.
Honorable mention: Pearl Jam, Vitalogy; Weezer, Weezer (blue album); R. E. M., Document; U2, The Best of 1980-1990; Blue Merle, Blue Merle; anything by Dan Tyminski.
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Monergism I: The human condition
Okay, as promised, here's my first installment into the biblical truth known as monergism, that is, the fact that salvation is 100% God's decision and work, and we have no part of it. I will not argue that the word "grace" means that we are blessed apart from meeting some set of conditions. Indeed, Scripture says there is a condition that must be met for salvation: belief in the gospel. But just because there are terms involved does not mean that the recipient deserves the blessing he is receiving. With that said, hear me out…
Watch any of today's popular movies, and what's a main theme? Isn't it that, in the end, despite some evil character's ploys and schemes, the inherent good of man triumphs and wins the day. Pick a movie--Armageddon, Braveheart, Happy Gilmore--somehow a person is able to dig within himself and pull out a measure of altruism or self-sacrifice or golf skill and save the world. We want earnestly to believe in, though often hidden, the goodness of mankind. Call me a pessimist, a skeptic, or what you will, but I don't buy it one bit.
What we really need are more books that expose true human nature, such as William Golding's Lord of the Flies. This novel exposes what happens when people are left to themselves rather than being subject to social law's restraints: young boys riot, insult each other, and finally slaughter their friends.
Enter many of today's megachurches and sit through a sermon or praise songs, and some things might strike you as they did me: the sermons are mostly based on self-help or self-betterment or how to live more holy. Not only is this a bastardization of the gospel of grace, but there's often an underlying current of how we're really able to make these things happen. We want earnestly to buy that we aren't so bad, so we fill bestseller lists with fecal pop psychology that says "You can do it!" Jesus becomes only a teacher on how to live well rather than also a prophet of divine fury (Luke 19.41-44) and the One who makes the dead come to life.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sins is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8.34-36). The first thing we simply must know in order to get the gospel right--and all of life and eternity beyond--is that we are by nature slaves to sin, period. Part of the Fall of man was that all humans have inherited a corrupt nature (Rom 5.18), Mother Theresa and Mohandes Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., included.
This therefore renders us not only evil in heart—just look at Gen 6.5—but also unable to desire and choose God. The whole question over whether or not we can choose God by free will is moot; how can one's will be "free" while a "slave" to sin and corruption? Let me briefly cover a few texts that back this up more fully:
Romans 8.7-8: "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Here Paul is speaking of flesh (sarx; NIV "sinful nature") as our existence and way of living apart from the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit of God, we are hostile and unsubmissive to God. Man in this state is not just rebellious; he wants mutiny! He is hostile to God (see also Rom 1.30; Col 1.21).
Moreover, he cannot possibly have saving faith in this state. Why, do you ask? I've got two reasons. (1) Fulfilling God's true law has always required faith and a God-honoring spirit (Rom 3.27; 4.1-12). How can someone do this when he is hostile and unsubmissive to God? No, he cannot, for "the mind that is set on the flesh…does not submit to God's law." In other words, it cannot have faith. (2) The writer of the letter to the Hebrews (Apollos?) instructs us that without faith it is impossible to please God (11.6). In other words, the only way to please God is through faith. Pleasing God once again presupposes faith, yet those in the flesh not only do not, but cannot please God. If you have faith, maybe you don't always please God, but you are able. But "those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Ephesians 2.1-3: "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Here is the complete fallenness of all of mankind, every man, woman, and child. All of mankind, by nature (apart from the Holy Spirit), walks in transgression (not merely unknowing error, but deliberate crossing of God's boundaries). To emphasize the universality of this, note that Paul says that Satan (the "prince") is of the air: he is everywhere. "We all once lived in the passions of our flesh"—no one is exempt.
In the middle ages many philosopher used to have humans divided into two separate faculties, the body and the mind. "We may succumb to bodily appetites such as disordered sexual lusts, laziness, overeating, covetousness, greed, and so forth," they would say, but they believed their reasoning and ability to grasp true goodness with their minds lay intact. However, note that both the desires of the body and mind are associated with evil and are separate from God's Spirit. Even the reasoning and ability to appropriate and embrace truth is corrupt in natural man (see Eph 4.17-24!). Clearly the mind of natural man is unable to understand the proper weight and gravity of our sinfulness and the weight and gravity of the person of Jesus Christ. Our mental abilities ("the mind set on the flesh"; Rom 8.7) are even so enslaved to the lies of Satan that we have all failed to perceive God's communication to us through his created works (Rom 1.19-20). Does this leave us an excuse? No! It only furthers condemns us for our blindness.
Perhaps the most obvious thing pertaining to our utter inability to know God and believe in him is that Paul twice (2.1,5) says that we are dead in our sins. Not wheezing or weak, not feeble and maimed, but stone-cold dead. Our bodies have grown cold, our skin is ashen and waxy, and our joints have gone stiff. Some like to soften this teaching by saying that we are like drowning people to whom God throws a life preserver, but we need to take hold of it. Au contrere, mon frere. Corpses floating in the ocean cannot grab life presevers!
What are we to do? "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved" (Eph 2.4-5; cf Col 2.13). It is God who makes us alive, entirely by his own decision and calling, for dead men cannot resuscitate themselves. Praise the Son, because he is the only one who can set us free from sin and death (John 8.36; Rom 7.24 - 8:4)!
[Dig deeper: Ezekiel 37.1-14; The Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther; The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, John Calvin; The Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards; The Canons of Dordt]
Thursday, August 4, 2005
You know you're a Lutheran if . . .
Serious support-raising mania has begun. Tonight I really needed a diversion from it, so I came up with the following based upon my own wonderful heritage:
You know you're Lutheran if…
1. … you celebrate both your natural birthday and your baptismal birthday.
2. … the only things the woman of the household can make are Jell-O, casseroles, bratwurst, or lutefisk.
3. … you own Lederhosen.
4. … you've got your Bible in one hand and a beer in the other.
5. … your children are named Martin, Philip, and Katherine.
6. … you believe the real problem with the local courthouse is not that there isn't a monument to the Ten Commandments, but that there isn't an equally prominent monument to the Gospel on the other end of the building.
7. … you end all of your stories with "This is most certainly true."
8. … you receive roses from your boyfriend/husband but complain that they're not white with red hearts in the center.
9. … you live in
10. … you know what the words Bier, Scheisse, and Schnitzelbank mean.
11. … instead of trick-or-treating on October 31, you nail complaints against your neighbor onto his front door.
Sola gratia. Sola fide. Sola Scriptura.Friday, July 22, 2005
Flatliners
Today I found out that my friend Niki's mom has gone into a coma as a result of anesthesia from yesterday's surgery. Upon receiving the anesthesia she immediately flatlined. Although they were able to resuscitate her, and it appears that she has no brain detectable brain damage, she is totally unresponsive to anything. If you're reading this, please pray for Niki, her mom, and her family. They're all believers in the hope of the redemption of all creation, including our bodies (Rom 8.18-25).
Comas: a weird thing, to say the least. Yes, the person is alive in a very real sense but can't respond to the world around or move about. The thought came to me how very much this is like each and every one of us humans, the living dead. Try as you wish to deny it, but we are all conceived as dead to God by mere virtue (or lack thereof) of being human, just dry bones (Ezek 37.1-14). "You were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Eph 2.1,3).
I don't quite have the time right now, but the beautiful truth theologians call monergism (mono = one, erg = work; one person's work) gripped me in a strange way a year ago and has become one of the rocks upon which I stand, the rock from which the cross of Jesus was raised up. Essentially, it is this: man is totally dead to God and under his just condemnation and eternal shame. We have no ability or desire to reach for him apart from his calling and grace. Therefore all of salvation, all of faith, must come from him and be accomplished by him alone (Eph 2.8-9). Our only choice comes in our condemnation and sinfulness, not our rebirth and justification. Monergism stands over and against synergism (working together), which says that salvation involves some component of our own choice and doing--a key tenet of Wesleyan, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian traditions. Hopefully I'll have time to flesh out what this means, why I believe it, and why it has become a joy to me.
Comas: a weird thing, to say the least. Yes, the person is alive in a very real sense but can't respond to the world around or move about. The thought came to me how very much this is like each and every one of us humans, the living dead. Try as you wish to deny it, but we are all conceived as dead to God by mere virtue (or lack thereof) of being human, just dry bones (Ezek 37.1-14). "You were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Eph 2.1,3).
I don't quite have the time right now, but the beautiful truth theologians call monergism (mono = one, erg = work; one person's work) gripped me in a strange way a year ago and has become one of the rocks upon which I stand, the rock from which the cross of Jesus was raised up. Essentially, it is this: man is totally dead to God and under his just condemnation and eternal shame. We have no ability or desire to reach for him apart from his calling and grace. Therefore all of salvation, all of faith, must come from him and be accomplished by him alone (Eph 2.8-9). Our only choice comes in our condemnation and sinfulness, not our rebirth and justification. Monergism stands over and against synergism (working together), which says that salvation involves some component of our own choice and doing--a key tenet of Wesleyan, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian traditions. Hopefully I'll have time to flesh out what this means, why I believe it, and why it has become a joy to me.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
"Have it your way."
Over the past year, I've been through a bit of a roller coaster ride regarding my affections for many modern churches. I grew up a very conservative and traditional Lutheran church (Missouri Synod), where the norm was baking having bake sales, wearing ties, and reading a liturgy based on the Authorized Version (that's the King James Version, for all you newbies). Amid many shortcomings, lots of things were/are good about it: daily memorization of Scripture (RSV) and Luther's small catechism; the place actually looks like it's sacred and not just my living room; hymns chock-full of solid, heart-warming doctrine. (Ah, for the days of singing Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott, #262 in the Lutheran Hymnal!)
When I went to college and Jesus drew me into a much deeper, truer relationship with himself, I wanted everything new and exciting. Consequently, I chose a church that was hip: everyone was young, the praise music was loud and electrified, and the sermons were entertaining. And I must say, they contributed to my growth as a follower of Jesus.
Yet something was missing: Christ Jesus himself. I found the preaching began to lack substance because it stayed too surfactory in order to be seeker-friendly. I got annoyed at the pastors' attempts to entertain rather than teach. I began to miss hymns and people older than thirty. And I got ticked that I couldn't express my newfound joy in monergism with others who viewed it as cold and unloving.
It was at this time I was introduced to a far smaller but, in my opinion, more passionate church last summer. I quickly became involved and became a member of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, whose desire is to be a "Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, burden-bearing, pilgrim people who are passionately committed to making much of God in all of life." Worship is lively and absolutely centered on glorious truths like Christ's propitiation and his making truly dead and blind men live and see. Pastor Kevin DeYoung is a solid expositional preacher who's not afraid to call a spade a spade. I've been able to build relationships with men of all ages. Twenty percent of the budget supports global missions and evangelistic efforts. I'll be the tenth member in recent years to serve the Lord in Turkey. It's sweet.
But I do know that people are coming to know the God and grow in his Spirit at all kinds of churches, even the "cool" ones. Part of my skin crawls when, like this past weekend, the first twenty minutes of the "message" were about the youth pastor's fishing escapades, enhanced by the ridiculous fisherman's outfit and tackle that he wasted the church's money on. I really do desire pastors to stop entertaining and selling the gospel as if it were a plan for improving your life, giving you purpose, and bringing out the best in you. It is, but it's not. Churches need to stop singing stupid stuff like "You alone are worthy of my praise" (as if I my praise were something extra special needed by God and that I'd be justified to withhold it from him, should I deem him not worthy of it). Honestly, church should bring out the worst in us instead, but heal us with the "best" of God if they are to be faithful in building disciples.
Anyway, after my brief autobiography and perplexed rant, please read two articles that express my feelings and concerns well. Actually, my previous writing was more of a lead-in to these, which have the real meat I wish to communicate.
1. Eugene Peterson on today's evangelical "spirituality"
2. Killing the Buddha's post on the church growth movement, or some perils of it.
When I went to college and Jesus drew me into a much deeper, truer relationship with himself, I wanted everything new and exciting. Consequently, I chose a church that was hip: everyone was young, the praise music was loud and electrified, and the sermons were entertaining. And I must say, they contributed to my growth as a follower of Jesus.
Yet something was missing: Christ Jesus himself. I found the preaching began to lack substance because it stayed too surfactory in order to be seeker-friendly. I got annoyed at the pastors' attempts to entertain rather than teach. I began to miss hymns and people older than thirty. And I got ticked that I couldn't express my newfound joy in monergism with others who viewed it as cold and unloving.
It was at this time I was introduced to a far smaller but, in my opinion, more passionate church last summer. I quickly became involved and became a member of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, whose desire is to be a "Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, burden-bearing, pilgrim people who are passionately committed to making much of God in all of life." Worship is lively and absolutely centered on glorious truths like Christ's propitiation and his making truly dead and blind men live and see. Pastor Kevin DeYoung is a solid expositional preacher who's not afraid to call a spade a spade. I've been able to build relationships with men of all ages. Twenty percent of the budget supports global missions and evangelistic efforts. I'll be the tenth member in recent years to serve the Lord in Turkey. It's sweet.
But I do know that people are coming to know the God and grow in his Spirit at all kinds of churches, even the "cool" ones. Part of my skin crawls when, like this past weekend, the first twenty minutes of the "message" were about the youth pastor's fishing escapades, enhanced by the ridiculous fisherman's outfit and tackle that he wasted the church's money on. I really do desire pastors to stop entertaining and selling the gospel as if it were a plan for improving your life, giving you purpose, and bringing out the best in you. It is, but it's not. Churches need to stop singing stupid stuff like "You alone are worthy of my praise" (as if I my praise were something extra special needed by God and that I'd be justified to withhold it from him, should I deem him not worthy of it). Honestly, church should bring out the worst in us instead, but heal us with the "best" of God if they are to be faithful in building disciples.
Anyway, after my brief autobiography and perplexed rant, please read two articles that express my feelings and concerns well. Actually, my previous writing was more of a lead-in to these, which have the real meat I wish to communicate.
1. Eugene Peterson on today's evangelical "spirituality"
2. Killing the Buddha's post on the church growth movement, or some perils of it.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Thursday, July 7, 2005
In due time their foot shall slip...
Ah, I see there's a new page up at Christian CounterCulture. CCC is normally pretty sound, and is in fact written by a number of fellow Reformed/Presbyterian contributors. And even when I do disagree, we ought not disagree for disagreement's or philosophy's sake, but for Scripture's. But how the crap did this get in there? Obviously someone has taken the "highlighter approach" to God's word:
This simple but life- transforming truth [of God's love] has been kept hidden by some of the most famous sermons in the history of the Church. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was delivered by the renowned preacher, theologian and revivalist, Jonathan Edwards at Enfield, Connecticut in 1741:
Commentating on Edward's sermon, the academic Ola Winslow reflects, "Two centuries and more later, this is still a grim sermon on the printed page and delivered to a packed auditory under the strain of 1741, it would have been almost unbearable!"
Preaching like Edwards' has been all too representative of the portrayal of the gospel by the Church over the last few hundred years, and, by implication, of any popular understanding of the message of Jesus. And though today, for the most part, the worst of this ferocious rhetoric is a thing of the past, the residue of such portrayals of the gospel still echo across the world. People still believe that the Christian God is primarily a God of power, law, judgment, hell-fire and damnation. A God whose strapline is probably, "Get in line fast or I'll squash you!"
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Web sites worth your while
If you share my theological sympathies (Reformational Christianity), then you might enjoy what's posted on the following sites:
Monergism - Essays and books related to the fact that our wills are captive to sin and the devil (2 Tim 2.25) and that God's sovereign grace is our only hope. Salvation by works (synergism) is futile.
Jonathan Edwards - Entire essays, treatises, and sermons from perhaps America's greatest theologican. Dedicated to God's passion for making much of himself.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - The belief & practice page has enough reading material to keep one occupied for a year, especially with the entire Book of Concord online.
Christian Counterculture - Monthly topical essays from a grace- and Scripture-saturated perspective. From The Discerning Reader.
Desiring God - The online resources of pastor John Piper. Contains the text of every sermon since 1981 or so, along with recent audio sermons and lots of other stuff.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version - Site dedicated to informing you about the way the Bible should be: faithful to the original texts in both thought and word, readable, and elegant. (Although I still use my NASB '95 study Bible)
Monergism - Essays and books related to the fact that our wills are captive to sin and the devil (2 Tim 2.25) and that God's sovereign grace is our only hope. Salvation by works (synergism) is futile.
Jonathan Edwards - Entire essays, treatises, and sermons from perhaps America's greatest theologican. Dedicated to God's passion for making much of himself.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - The belief & practice page has enough reading material to keep one occupied for a year, especially with the entire Book of Concord online.
Christian Counterculture - Monthly topical essays from a grace- and Scripture-saturated perspective. From The Discerning Reader.
Desiring God - The online resources of pastor John Piper. Contains the text of every sermon since 1981 or so, along with recent audio sermons and lots of other stuff.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version - Site dedicated to informing you about the way the Bible should be: faithful to the original texts in both thought and word, readable, and elegant. (Although I still use my NASB '95 study Bible)
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Simul iustus et peccator
[Please note: This may be somewhat rambling and Faulkneresque in its stream-of-consciousness style, but I merely want to put some thoughts down. My apologies up front.]
"At the same time righteous and a sinner." These words are sweet and true, but, oh, how often they sound like blasphemy to my ears! Lately there have been some sins from my past that have come to life, frustrating me to no end. While I sin, I am sometimes strangely complacent; yet afterwards, I freak out so much as to shrink back from a holy God, forgetting entirely that he is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
I crave assurance that I belong to Christ both now and eternally and that I am indeed in his hands, never to fall. Consequently, in my natural state, I want something concrete, something I've done or am doing, to point to as proof of my salvation. I want to look at the killing of some sin (Rom 8.13) and my sanctification as a source of relief--and indeed they ought to be. But I'm not like that; secretly I want more of myself. It's like looking to when "I received Christ into my life" or when "I said a prayer" or when "I made a confession of faith." Yet Scripturally this is a total bastardization of grace. The right way is saying and believing in when God breathed new life into me. "The Sacramentarians [Anabaptists] usually denied infant baptism and instead practiced believer's baptism. Adults made their own pledges to God and were then baptized in response to those pledges. Luther rightly objected that that turned God's action of giving grace in baptism into a man-made ritual centering on human declaration" (from the introduction to Galatians in the Concordia Reference Bible). Isn't this what we want? Confirmation from something we've done?
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matt 7.21-24)
This teaching is known to many, understood to precious few. Until recently, I thought this passage is law, i. e., what we must do to enter the kingdom ("he who does the will of My Father"). But this cannot be so. For these men pointed to what they did in fact do in the name of Christ as their grounds of assurance, but they were utterly rejected. It simply cannot be that anything we can do will stand to give us hope. This does not give the glory to God. Everything commanded us in sacred Scripture only kills, brings death, and condems (2 Cor 3.6-9). But the gospel brings life!
Oh, how quick I am to neglect Christ and his merits before God and trade my Christianhood for wishing to be a Jew! I trade the purpose of the law of Christ (Gal 6.2), which is identification with God and his character, thus worshiping him (indeed, this was also the purpose of the Mosaic law under the old covenant), and twist it into a way of becoming right before God. "Not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end [telos: culmination, fulfillment] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10.3-4; cf 2 Cor 5.21). Jesus of Nazareth perfectly met every one of God's covenant demands in both letter and spirit, thereby doing away with the old covenant.
"To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [that's me, ungodly!], his faith is credited as righteousness" (Rom 4.5). Is it really this simple, that I only need believe--and that with a faith given me entirely from God before ever I asked for it (Eph 2.8-9)? Yes, for only this can be true, Christ-centered and -exalting grace! Soli Christo gloria!
"If by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. . . . For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners [aorist passive indicative], even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous [future passive indicative]" (Rom 5.17,19). Ah, the beauty of grammar! Note that our righteousness is not from ourselves; we are made (or declared) righteous by God (passive voice). The indicative mood indicates certainty or actuality; this is guaranteed! Because of Christ's perfect obedience to God's covenant stipulations, God has counted Christ's very right standing as our very own right standing, all in one declaration, one fell swoop! Christ's righteousness has been given to us as a gift--given to me!--and it is in him and his work alone can we rest or find hope. This is the gospel, and I won't even pretend to know it well or embrace its depths. But God's Spirit is doing something, and I know that Christ is our hope, our firm rock. He has obtained for us all that we could never attain, and it is to this we can point before God and say, "Behold the Man! He is my righteousness, my holiness, and he alone. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
"At the same time righteous and a sinner." These words are sweet and true, but, oh, how often they sound like blasphemy to my ears! Lately there have been some sins from my past that have come to life, frustrating me to no end. While I sin, I am sometimes strangely complacent; yet afterwards, I freak out so much as to shrink back from a holy God, forgetting entirely that he is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
I crave assurance that I belong to Christ both now and eternally and that I am indeed in his hands, never to fall. Consequently, in my natural state, I want something concrete, something I've done or am doing, to point to as proof of my salvation. I want to look at the killing of some sin (Rom 8.13) and my sanctification as a source of relief--and indeed they ought to be. But I'm not like that; secretly I want more of myself. It's like looking to when "I received Christ into my life" or when "I said a prayer" or when "I made a confession of faith." Yet Scripturally this is a total bastardization of grace. The right way is saying and believing in when God breathed new life into me. "The Sacramentarians [Anabaptists] usually denied infant baptism and instead practiced believer's baptism. Adults made their own pledges to God and were then baptized in response to those pledges. Luther rightly objected that that turned God's action of giving grace in baptism into a man-made ritual centering on human declaration" (from the introduction to Galatians in the Concordia Reference Bible). Isn't this what we want? Confirmation from something we've done?
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matt 7.21-24)
This teaching is known to many, understood to precious few. Until recently, I thought this passage is law, i. e., what we must do to enter the kingdom ("he who does the will of My Father"). But this cannot be so. For these men pointed to what they did in fact do in the name of Christ as their grounds of assurance, but they were utterly rejected. It simply cannot be that anything we can do will stand to give us hope. This does not give the glory to God. Everything commanded us in sacred Scripture only kills, brings death, and condems (2 Cor 3.6-9). But the gospel brings life!
Oh, how quick I am to neglect Christ and his merits before God and trade my Christianhood for wishing to be a Jew! I trade the purpose of the law of Christ (Gal 6.2), which is identification with God and his character, thus worshiping him (indeed, this was also the purpose of the Mosaic law under the old covenant), and twist it into a way of becoming right before God. "Not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end [telos: culmination, fulfillment] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10.3-4; cf 2 Cor 5.21). Jesus of Nazareth perfectly met every one of God's covenant demands in both letter and spirit, thereby doing away with the old covenant.
"To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [that's me, ungodly!], his faith is credited as righteousness" (Rom 4.5). Is it really this simple, that I only need believe--and that with a faith given me entirely from God before ever I asked for it (Eph 2.8-9)? Yes, for only this can be true, Christ-centered and -exalting grace! Soli Christo gloria!
"If by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. . . . For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners [aorist passive indicative], even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous [future passive indicative]" (Rom 5.17,19). Ah, the beauty of grammar! Note that our righteousness is not from ourselves; we are made (or declared) righteous by God (passive voice). The indicative mood indicates certainty or actuality; this is guaranteed! Because of Christ's perfect obedience to God's covenant stipulations, God has counted Christ's very right standing as our very own right standing, all in one declaration, one fell swoop! Christ's righteousness has been given to us as a gift--given to me!--and it is in him and his work alone can we rest or find hope. This is the gospel, and I won't even pretend to know it well or embrace its depths. But God's Spirit is doing something, and I know that Christ is our hope, our firm rock. He has obtained for us all that we could never attain, and it is to this we can point before God and say, "Behold the Man! He is my righteousness, my holiness, and he alone. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
Saturday, June 25, 2005
"Morning, Midday, and Evening Sacrifice" - Gerard Manley Hopkins
The dappled die-away
Cheek and the wimpled lip,
The gold-wisp, the airy-grey
Eye, all in fellowship--
This, all this beauty blooming,
This, all this freshness fuming,
Give God while worth consuming.
Both thought and thew now bolder
And told by Nature: Tower;
Head, heart, hand, heel, and shoulder
That beat and breathe in power--
This pride of prime's enjoyment
Take as for tool, not toy meant
And hold at Christ's employment.
The vault and scope and schooling
And mastery of the mind,
In silk-ash kept from cooling
And ripest under rind--
What death half lifts the latch of,
What hell hopes soon the snatch of,
Your offering, with despatch, of!
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what Gods does for you is the best thing you can do for him." (Romans 12.1, The Message)
Cheek and the wimpled lip,
The gold-wisp, the airy-grey
Eye, all in fellowship--
This, all this beauty blooming,
This, all this freshness fuming,
Give God while worth consuming.
Both thought and thew now bolder
And told by Nature: Tower;
Head, heart, hand, heel, and shoulder
That beat and breathe in power--
This pride of prime's enjoyment
Take as for tool, not toy meant
And hold at Christ's employment.
The vault and scope and schooling
And mastery of the mind,
In silk-ash kept from cooling
And ripest under rind--
What death half lifts the latch of,
What hell hopes soon the snatch of,
Your offering, with despatch, of!
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what Gods does for you is the best thing you can do for him." (Romans 12.1, The Message)
Thursday, June 23, 2005
War of the world(s)
Watching the Pistons' playoff games, there have been several commercials for a new television series called Invasion. I think it's about aliens, or at least some girl whose mother smells strange, from what I can gather. But in his introduction to his translation of the NT epistles, J. B. Phillips writes of a different invasion:
The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters is that to us it is primarily a performance, to them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or at best a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ "living in" them. (Letters to Young Churches).
Whole people, true people, live with consistency. We can recognize our friends, coworkers, and family by how they act. We recognize people by how they walk or their handwriting or how they respond in certain situations. This is possible because it is the same person each time: you know what person X is like because he is one person.
The problem comes when it's the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde situation, when it's suddenly two people living in one body. I once dated a girl who suffered somewhat from bipolar disorder, and this wreaked havoc on our relationship. The thing I find scariest is that so often I am Mr. Hyde living in Dr. Jekyll's body (all the more made true by my new job working in a genetic research laboratory!). The point is, I find myself torn between listening to my old self and to Jesus. Most of the time I speak louder. It wrecks my life, even if only by causing strange tensions in me because I don't (want to) believe the fullness of my forgiveness by God.
The early Christians, according to Phillips, knew Christ was living in them--or, as poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once penned, Christ was "playing" in men. When we learn to live this out, the ascended Son's Spirit living within us, we can live whole again. When it's not Drew-over-Christ or Drew-and-Christ, but only Christ himself, then I can begin to live true shalom: wholeness with God, with community, with myself, and with creation. Only his voice, his actions, his choices will come through. People will recognize me. And maybe then I'll be able to recognize myself in the mirror once again, but this time I'll see someone else's face.
The way I see it, he said, you can do one of two things. One of them, not both. Nobody can do both of two things without straining themselves. You can do one or you can do the opposite.
Jesus or the devil, the boy said.
No no no, the stranger said, there ain't no such thing as a devil. I can tell you that from my own self-experience. I know that for a fact. It ain't Jesus or the devil. It's Jesus or you. (Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear it Away)
The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters is that to us it is primarily a performance, to them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or at best a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ "living in" them. (Letters to Young Churches).
Whole people, true people, live with consistency. We can recognize our friends, coworkers, and family by how they act. We recognize people by how they walk or their handwriting or how they respond in certain situations. This is possible because it is the same person each time: you know what person X is like because he is one person.
The problem comes when it's the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde situation, when it's suddenly two people living in one body. I once dated a girl who suffered somewhat from bipolar disorder, and this wreaked havoc on our relationship. The thing I find scariest is that so often I am Mr. Hyde living in Dr. Jekyll's body (all the more made true by my new job working in a genetic research laboratory!). The point is, I find myself torn between listening to my old self and to Jesus. Most of the time I speak louder. It wrecks my life, even if only by causing strange tensions in me because I don't (want to) believe the fullness of my forgiveness by God.
The early Christians, according to Phillips, knew Christ was living in them--or, as poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once penned, Christ was "playing" in men. When we learn to live this out, the ascended Son's Spirit living within us, we can live whole again. When it's not Drew-over-Christ or Drew-and-Christ, but only Christ himself, then I can begin to live true shalom: wholeness with God, with community, with myself, and with creation. Only his voice, his actions, his choices will come through. People will recognize me. And maybe then I'll be able to recognize myself in the mirror once again, but this time I'll see someone else's face.
The way I see it, he said, you can do one of two things. One of them, not both. Nobody can do both of two things without straining themselves. You can do one or you can do the opposite.
Jesus or the devil, the boy said.
No no no, the stranger said, there ain't no such thing as a devil. I can tell you that from my own self-experience. I know that for a fact. It ain't Jesus or the devil. It's Jesus or you. (Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear it Away)
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Don't get "left behind"!
I've been doing this plan where you read through the OT once and the NT and Psalms twice in a year, and right now is my first go-around with Revelation. I'm becoming more aware of how bogus I think current pop eschatology is. Everyone is trying to find out when the "rapture" is going to take place and what the signs are for how things are progressing toward The End. Movies, books, and TV shows have all been dedicated to this and received with lots of fanfare and dollars. I think it's a total circus. Jesus' disciples asked him, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" His reply: "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1.6-8). In other words, "Don't waste your efforts trying to figure it all out. I'm gonna come like a thief in the night and--Shazzam!--the shit's gonna hit the fan. Instead, spend your efforts doing the one thing that must happen before the end: making disciples all over the globe" (Matt 24.14).
Here's the reality, folks: You want to figure out the "millenium"? You're wasting your time. It's right now. During the "thousand years" Jesus will restrain Satan's sphere of influence so that he no longer deceives the nations. ("Bound" means restricted, not impotent; cf. Paul in 2 Tim 2.9.) If you're a Christian and not Jewish, you and I are living proof that this is happening. Satan is bound, so now we can and should do the one and only thing that will determine when Christ will come back: preach the gospel and plant churches in unreached places.
And yet, with all my brash talk, I'm still a pansy at heart, unwilling to give up the comforts of the English language, other Christians, and my library. Dang it.
Here's the reality, folks: You want to figure out the "millenium"? You're wasting your time. It's right now. During the "thousand years" Jesus will restrain Satan's sphere of influence so that he no longer deceives the nations. ("Bound" means restricted, not impotent; cf. Paul in 2 Tim 2.9.) If you're a Christian and not Jewish, you and I are living proof that this is happening. Satan is bound, so now we can and should do the one and only thing that will determine when Christ will come back: preach the gospel and plant churches in unreached places.
And yet, with all my brash talk, I'm still a pansy at heart, unwilling to give up the comforts of the English language, other Christians, and my library. Dang it.
Thursday, June 9, 2005
We need to get drunk at church
Here we are, supposedly a nation full of "evangelicals" -- whatever that means nowadays. Our forefathers over in Europe, the first evangelicals, "went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered...a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two hundred proof grace--of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyonethat God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel...suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started" (Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three, quoted in Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel; emphasis mine). The evangel, Greek for "good message," was found not in a higher-up's teachings, nor in some day's poet or songwriter, but in the written Word of God.
Last summer I left the church I attended for my first two years as a disciple of Christ down at MSU. Why? There was something off about the preaching, er, sermons. What once appealed to me had become bland, like pop (not soda) gone flat. Messages about the Christian life were okay, but they weren't about Christ. I learned a lot about how men are like microwaves and women are like ovens when it comes to sex, and I heard lots of entertaining jokes and movie quotes, but where was the Object of our faith? In this church's earnest desire to draw people to God, I believe they were short-circuiting their own goals.
Baptist pastor John Piper, commenting on Albert Einstein's indictment of the 20th-century church, wrote that "in our worships services God simply doesn't come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribably magnitude of what God has made [referring to astronomers and physicists such as Einstein], not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical how-to's and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality--the God of overwhelming greatness" (Let the Nations be Glad).What we need today in preaching is not self-improvement or some pastor's vague insights from the latest box office smash (with a few over-paraphrased scraps of Scripture thrown in for good measure). What we need is the raw Word of God, opened up and laid bare. It was only in his detailed study of the Greek New Testament that Martin Luther said he found the true gospel. I'm sure you're thinking, "C'mon, Drew, you nerd, get real. Do we really need to know Greek? Syntax? Grammar?" No, you may not need to know it per se, but pastors must--and use it.
And here is why: Without faithful preaching of Scripture, no one can come to faith. It is clear that God's Word is the regenerating instrument of the Spirit. "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom 10.17). "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures" (James 1.18). "You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet 1.23). Apart from the Word, no one is saved. And if it the preached Word is the means of salvation and strengthening (2 Pet 3.18) of the church, why not preach it most fully? Who cares about movies and rock music and the like; the Spirit makes no promise to utilize them. We must return to the faithful preaching of men like Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon if we desire to be true to God's mission on Earth.
Last summer I left the church I attended for my first two years as a disciple of Christ down at MSU. Why? There was something off about the preaching, er, sermons. What once appealed to me had become bland, like pop (not soda) gone flat. Messages about the Christian life were okay, but they weren't about Christ. I learned a lot about how men are like microwaves and women are like ovens when it comes to sex, and I heard lots of entertaining jokes and movie quotes, but where was the Object of our faith? In this church's earnest desire to draw people to God, I believe they were short-circuiting their own goals.
Baptist pastor John Piper, commenting on Albert Einstein's indictment of the 20th-century church, wrote that "in our worships services God simply doesn't come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribably magnitude of what God has made [referring to astronomers and physicists such as Einstein], not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical how-to's and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality--the God of overwhelming greatness" (Let the Nations be Glad).What we need today in preaching is not self-improvement or some pastor's vague insights from the latest box office smash (with a few over-paraphrased scraps of Scripture thrown in for good measure). What we need is the raw Word of God, opened up and laid bare. It was only in his detailed study of the Greek New Testament that Martin Luther said he found the true gospel. I'm sure you're thinking, "C'mon, Drew, you nerd, get real. Do we really need to know Greek? Syntax? Grammar?" No, you may not need to know it per se, but pastors must--and use it.
And here is why: Without faithful preaching of Scripture, no one can come to faith. It is clear that God's Word is the regenerating instrument of the Spirit. "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom 10.17). "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures" (James 1.18). "You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet 1.23). Apart from the Word, no one is saved. And if it the preached Word is the means of salvation and strengthening (2 Pet 3.18) of the church, why not preach it most fully? Who cares about movies and rock music and the like; the Spirit makes no promise to utilize them. We must return to the faithful preaching of men like Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon if we desire to be true to God's mission on Earth.
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Here, catch this!
I wish I could relate to a blind old beggar who desperately cried, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 18.38). This word for "mercy", eleos, means kindness toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. This man knew the dire straits he was in and acknowledged that he had no hope but for this wandering rabbi. Yet, if I understand this word eleos, he also looked to Jesus as one who would indeed pity his wretchedness and help him.
Mercy and grace: two things about which I know little, if nothing at all. The fact is, I was dead in trespasses and sins, in which I formerly lived, breathed, and had my being. I used to live only to gratify the desires of my flesh and my mind (notice that both are totally f'ed) and was by my very nature a child of wrath (Eph 2.1-3). But do I believe this? Do I understand it? Not at all. Maybe it's because I've believed in Jesus as, somehow, the One who provided relief from God's wrath my whole life long. Not that it made much of a difference, though.
I wish I could understand how very dead we all are apart from Christ and God's sovereign grace. I know that we don't just limp along, wheezing and coughing, flailing for breath. We were dead. Flatliners. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" (Eph 2.4-5). We were made alive, you see? God didn't just make some great offer to each of us, saying, "Look, I'm throwing you this life preserver. Just take hold of it and you won't drown!" Gaseous, bloated, floating corpses do not take hold of life preservers. And dead men do not resuscitate themselves! It's entirely God's work, start to finish.
This is so hard for me to grasp. Yes, I can explain it in rather precise doctrinal detail--first comes rebirth by the Holy Spirit, which enables us to see the light of Christ, then God grants us faith in this Christ, etc. etc.--but its effects on me seem lost. Donald Miller wrote in Blue Like Jazz about a friend of his who "didn't know how to live within in a system where nobody owed anybody else anything" (p. 83). This is what I don't get. When I find myself faced with sins that won't go away, I can't even take my own advice (see the previous post). Instead of believing I am just as fully loved by the God who proved the full measure of his love on a cross while I was still a sinner and a God-hater, and that he is immutable and that my sins can't change or affect his kind disposition toward me, I believe in some man-like God who gets upset when I sin and will withhold some part of his approval of me until I get my act straight. I pervert grace and the fact that none of this redemption bit was ever my doing or choice. Duh, Drew! We all need to get this, to know this, to believe this. We need to cry, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us", knowing full well that he longs to be gracious to us and have compassion on us, changing us and healing us and showering his free love on us (Isa 30.18).
Mercy and grace: two things about which I know little, if nothing at all. The fact is, I was dead in trespasses and sins, in which I formerly lived, breathed, and had my being. I used to live only to gratify the desires of my flesh and my mind (notice that both are totally f'ed) and was by my very nature a child of wrath (Eph 2.1-3). But do I believe this? Do I understand it? Not at all. Maybe it's because I've believed in Jesus as, somehow, the One who provided relief from God's wrath my whole life long. Not that it made much of a difference, though.
I wish I could understand how very dead we all are apart from Christ and God's sovereign grace. I know that we don't just limp along, wheezing and coughing, flailing for breath. We were dead. Flatliners. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" (Eph 2.4-5). We were made alive, you see? God didn't just make some great offer to each of us, saying, "Look, I'm throwing you this life preserver. Just take hold of it and you won't drown!" Gaseous, bloated, floating corpses do not take hold of life preservers. And dead men do not resuscitate themselves! It's entirely God's work, start to finish.
This is so hard for me to grasp. Yes, I can explain it in rather precise doctrinal detail--first comes rebirth by the Holy Spirit, which enables us to see the light of Christ, then God grants us faith in this Christ, etc. etc.--but its effects on me seem lost. Donald Miller wrote in Blue Like Jazz about a friend of his who "didn't know how to live within in a system where nobody owed anybody else anything" (p. 83). This is what I don't get. When I find myself faced with sins that won't go away, I can't even take my own advice (see the previous post). Instead of believing I am just as fully loved by the God who proved the full measure of his love on a cross while I was still a sinner and a God-hater, and that he is immutable and that my sins can't change or affect his kind disposition toward me, I believe in some man-like God who gets upset when I sin and will withhold some part of his approval of me until I get my act straight. I pervert grace and the fact that none of this redemption bit was ever my doing or choice. Duh, Drew! We all need to get this, to know this, to believe this. We need to cry, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us", knowing full well that he longs to be gracious to us and have compassion on us, changing us and healing us and showering his free love on us (Isa 30.18).
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Drew, where is your victory?
Here in Saginaw, there is a huge church in the middle of the hood called Victorious Believers. But about a year ago I began to rethink this whole "victorious Christian life". As you may know, Romans 8 is probably my favorite chapter in the Bible. Verse 13 has been both a source of comfort to me and also a total scare at times: "If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." This is a comfort in that sin is not to be totally dead in us, but rather we are to be putting to death our misdeeds, just as we are being renovated after the image of our Creator (Col 3:10). Neither is to be a finished work yet. But we should, can, and must press on toward this end.
Yet how much more often do I feel like Paul in chapter 7 instead? Yesterday was a prime example. Victory? What do I know about that? I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, after all. It's just scary how polarized our sanctification can be portrayed in the church. Some places it's like, "Hey, dude, Jesus loves ya, so just do your thing. In time you'll come around. No sweat. Wanna play some disc golf?" In others, scalpel-armed surgeons are standing by to literally gouge out the eyes that cause us to sin. The former bastardizes and dilutes grace; the latter denies it.
So I think we are so naturally confused and alarmed when sin still lives in us. Listen, my friends! Only those indwelled by the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8.9) can put sin to death. And something can only be killed if it is currently alive! Therefore sin must be alive in us for us to be Christians. Sounds funny, huh? Well, that's what it says, at any rate (see 7.17,20). So do not be entirely alarmed when you find yourself prideful, lustful, envious of others, gossipping, lazy, indulging in too much chocolate, or even ungrateful. But do not be complacent, either.
Now where do we find the victory? "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15.56f). Here's what I realized last summer: it is not we who are victorious over death and sin. We will never experience our own victory over our sinful nature; but we have Christ's! You see, it was given to us by God. Therefore it cannot be our own. We have been given his life, his power, his righteousness. We have the Spirit of him who lived sinlessly and beautifully, who loved and forgave rather than getting even, who rose from the grave, living inside us. Only when we stop thinking about ourselves (which is the reason for all wrongdoing anyway) and think about Jesus can we put sin to death with for real, because only then can we worship God aright.
Solo Christo!
Yet how much more often do I feel like Paul in chapter 7 instead? Yesterday was a prime example. Victory? What do I know about that? I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, after all. It's just scary how polarized our sanctification can be portrayed in the church. Some places it's like, "Hey, dude, Jesus loves ya, so just do your thing. In time you'll come around. No sweat. Wanna play some disc golf?" In others, scalpel-armed surgeons are standing by to literally gouge out the eyes that cause us to sin. The former bastardizes and dilutes grace; the latter denies it.
So I think we are so naturally confused and alarmed when sin still lives in us. Listen, my friends! Only those indwelled by the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8.9) can put sin to death. And something can only be killed if it is currently alive! Therefore sin must be alive in us for us to be Christians. Sounds funny, huh? Well, that's what it says, at any rate (see 7.17,20). So do not be entirely alarmed when you find yourself prideful, lustful, envious of others, gossipping, lazy, indulging in too much chocolate, or even ungrateful. But do not be complacent, either.
Now where do we find the victory? "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15.56f). Here's what I realized last summer: it is not we who are victorious over death and sin. We will never experience our own victory over our sinful nature; but we have Christ's! You see, it was given to us by God. Therefore it cannot be our own. We have been given his life, his power, his righteousness. We have the Spirit of him who lived sinlessly and beautifully, who loved and forgave rather than getting even, who rose from the grave, living inside us. Only when we stop thinking about ourselves (which is the reason for all wrongdoing anyway) and think about Jesus can we put sin to death with for real, because only then can we worship God aright.
Solo Christo!
Welcome to my rants, raves, and ramblings
At the inspiration of a man whom I love and respect much, I've decided to start a second weblog as a venue for my "theological voice" you may have come to expect from me. This way, I can be somewhat helpful to others (or at least whine a lot) without creating super-long posts on Xanga, which I'll leave for my everyday events. I hesitate to separate theology from daily living, though. After all, real spirituality is taking what we know of God and ourselves and living our every moment by it. Not only is the ongoing incarnation of Jesus Christ the most important reality in history, but also that we who belong to Christ are indwelled by his Breath, his Spirit as well. Incarnational or "sacramental" living is how we are all to live, too. This type of separation was exactly what saints of old, such as the elder John, fought against so vehemently against. But for the sake of brevity and convenience in this gotta-have-it-my-way-now world (Anyone up for Burger King?), this journal will be restricted to my theological musings.
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