Doggedly Pursued

Christ be about His business as Prophet... habitually.

2010-04-11T14:51:00.009-05:00

So, I'm teaching Sunday School again this year. I'm so glad that our church has decided to use a curriculum created by Children's Desiring God (part of Desiring God ministries), because whenever I plan for a lesson using this SOLID curriculum I feel that I'm even more blessed and amazed at God's grace than the kids are. The curriculum for the class I'm teaching this year is called "How Majestic is Your Name". Every week we discuss a different name of God: what it means, why it applies to God, how God manifests the characteristics of this name in Scripture, how it affects us as God's people, etc. Last week, for example, we talked about Jesus as "The Lamb of God", so we discussed things like sin, blood atonement, temporary vs. perfected sacrifice, etc. Pretty common conversation topics with 10-year-olds, right? Diggity.

The name for this morning's lesson was "High Priest". We talked about the Tabernacle, the separation of the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, the role and duties of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, and so on. The discussion got me thinking about the awe-inspiring nature of the fulfillment of the threefold office of the Christ of God: Prophet, Priest and King.

There were three offices to which God appointed men of Israel under the Old Covenant. These three offices fulfilled distinct roles as servants to both God and His elect in that they, respectively, brought God to His people (Prophet), interceded on behalf of the people to God (Priest), and united the people under God (King). In each of these offices, Christ is seen as perfectly and infinitely glorious because He both inherits each office eternally, as well as redeems and completes the glory of the office by fulfilling it to its perfection. I'd like to do a post about each of these offices*, starting with Christ as Prophet.

The prophets of the Old Covenant served as God's voice to His children. God chose specific men to fulfill specific roles as the ones who were to declare the great and glorious "thus says the LORD" to the people of Israel. This is how God revealed His nature and will to His chosen people. However, Jesus has become the final and perfected Prophet of God the Father to His people, as it is written:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
-Hebrews 1:1-2

God spoke to His chosen people in order to reveal Himself to them. In what better way can He choose to do this than by sending His very self to His people to live among them, and die in their midst as an atonement for their sin? There is no greater way, and God has done precisely this:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
-John 1:14

Christ is the very Word of God, the absolute reflection of His character to His people, because Christ is at the same time both fully human and fully God: the perfect communication from God to mankind! Indeed, there is nowhere other than to God the Son that we need look in order to find God the Father:

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
-John 14:8-9

The incarnation of God in the flesh has perfected the ministry of the prophet of God. Because of the revelation and ministry of Jesus on earth, God has now fully revealed to His creation all that is necessary for men to know about their Creator in order to be reconciled to Him. Jesus Himself has shown that the revelation of God's Word in the Old Testament served as a witness to Him (John 5:39-40). Possibly without even knowing it, God's prophets of old were giving glory to Christ and pointing the way to him! And now that Jesus has been revealed to the world, the ministry of the prophet has been fulfilled, since the entirety of the Holy Scriptures, all of God's word that He has chosen to speak to His people, points to Jesus. And Jesus continues to speak to men and women as the final, perfected Prophet through His Spirit, convicting the world of sin and revealing Himself to the sheep of His fold through the Scriptures that have been written about Him.

The revelation of God to mankind began with creation (through Christ), continued with selected dispensation of prophecy (about Christ), has been fulfilled in the revelation of God's Word on earth (in Christ), and now draws men and women to redemption as found in the Gospel (by the Spirit of Christ).

Soli Deo gloria, yo.

*If you want to read more about Christ's roles in the threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King, you can read about John Calvin's thoughts on the matter here. It was Calvin who first brought this idea to a prominent light in Christian doctrine.

God has been broken

2010-04-07T01:59:00.005-05:00

I was reading in Ezekiel again today. The first part of the book is talking about God's judgement on the sin and idolatry of Israel. I was particularly struck by a part of chapter 6, verse 9:

"...I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols."

There were three things here which really caught my attention, and kept it throughout the day.

Firstly, God uses some pretty strong language to describe Israel's idolatry: it's whoredom. Promiscuity at its dirtiest and its worst. This is what idolatry is, plain and simple.

Secondly, idolatry breaks God. I don't know what that looks like, for God to be broken, to have His heart crushed. I'm not sure that I can fit that kind of thing into my puny theological framework. But God is saying this about Himself here, so whatever it is, it's true. And it sucks. Idolatry breaks God... and that sucks.

Thirdly, Israel was no worse than I am. Sure, their idols might have been more concrete than mine, but look at the simple language that's used here... a heart that has departed from God?... eyes which turn away from God and onto other things? That's me. That's what I do. That's my M.O., as a sinner. I can easily be a whore, just like Israel was.

...but that's not where the story ends, thanks be to God!

The Lord has already poured out His wrath against my idolatry on His own Son. Because of this sacrifice, He has removed my heart of stone and given me a heart of flesh (11:19), He has become my God (11:20), He has atoned for all that I have done (16:63), He has redeemed me for His name's sake (20:44), and He has put His Spirit in me and raised me from the dead (37:13-14), He has established an everlasting covenant of peace with me (37:26), and He has become my inheritance (44:28).

He is risen indeed... and that actually matters!

2010-04-04T13:42:00.011-05:00

Who could have ever possibly guessed that I would do a blog post about the Gospel on Easter Sunday? WHO, I ask, WHO?!

What can I say? I'm predictable.

Easter Sunday is one of 365 days in the year when it is important to remind ourselves and others of the significance of the work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eternal Lamb of God.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
-1 Corinthians 15:3-5

Paul was a major stud. Along with Luther, I'm definitely going to be buying a beer for this brother after I'm resurrected (You hear me, Martin and Paul? I'll keep the tab open; Brother Martin, you find Jesus; Paul, go grab a table at the back of the pub.). Paul was a stud because, no matter what happened to him, he kept it real. He was focused on one thing after his conversion: preaching the Gospel to whoever was put in his life. The brother preached, and preached, and preached, and he never watered down the message that Christ had given him on the road to Damascus!

Paul received from Jesus Himself, and preached to others, a message of first importance: a Man who had claimed to be God was put to death by the local government, was buried in a tomb, and was then raised back to life. Why was this message so important to Paul? What was it about this bizarre series of events that turned Paul from one of the greatest persecutors of the Body of Christ into one of its most vocal members? He gives his reason just a few verses later:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
-1 Corinthians 15:17-19

For some reason, the resurrection of Christ was a big deal to Paul. Such a big deal, in fact, that he actually believed that the entirety of his religion hinged on this singular event. But why? Why is it necessary for Jesus to literally have been raised from the dead? Wouldn't it be enough for Him to be raised "in our hearts"? Can't it be simply alright that Jesus was a good moral example and leader? Can't this be good enough for Christianity to be the one truth?

NO, IT CAN'T.

That's largest font size Blogger is capable of, by the way, so I don't know how to make this point any clearer: Christ had to be raised from the dead. If He wasn't resurrected then, as Paul said, we are of all people most to be pitied, because our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

So what's the reason for this? Why did Paul believe that the physical resurrection of Christ was necessary for his faith? Read on:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
-1 Corinthians 15:20-23

Ahhh, I see... it has to do with sin and redemption! The first Adam brought all mankind under the rule of sin and death, but Christ, the second Adam, will one day bring those who belong to Him into eternal life! Christ had to die in order to become sin in our place, so that we might receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). And He had to be raised in order that He might raise us as well when He returns to complete His conquering of sin and death.

Furthermore, the resurrection of Jesus is proof that His atoning sacrifice for the sins of those who belong to Him was actually accepted by God. If Jesus was not who He claimed to be, if Jesus was not God, if Jesus was not sinless, then His sacrifice would have been a pointless death. It would have been pointless because it wouldn't have actually paid for anything: not my sin, not yours, not anyone's. God demanded the sacrifice of a spotless lamb to atone for sin. Jesus was that Spotless Lamb, the final sacrifice for sin. His resurrection on that wonderful Easter morning was proof of this, because it meant that the sacrifice was a good one, that it pleased God, and that it fulfilled the demands of the Law... forever.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! And I thank the Lord that this actually matters.

Creation: like a beautiful book

2010-03-29T21:51:00.002-05:00

(From the Belgic Confession)

Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God

First, by the creation, preservation, and government

of the universe,

since that universe is before our eyes

like a beautiful book

in which all creatures,

great and small,

are as letters

to make us ponder

the invisible things of God:

his eternal power

and his divinity,

as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.

All these things are enough to convict men

and to leave them without excuse.

Second, he makes himself known to us more openly

by his holy and divine Word,

as much as we need in this life,

for his glory

and the salvation of his own.

My only comfort

2010-03-29T16:37:00.003-05:00

(From the Heidelberg Catechism)

1 Q. What is your only comfort

in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,

but belong -

body and soul,

in life and in death -

to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,

and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way

that not a hair can fall from my head

without the will of my Father in heaven:

in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

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.

Ahhh... it is so good.

2010-03-29T14:56:00.005-05:00

(From the Heidelberg Catechism)

56 Q. What do you believe

concerning "the forgiveness of sins"?

A. I believe that God,

because of Christ's atonement,

will never hold against me,

any of my sins

nor my sinful nature

which I need to struggle against all my life.

Rather, in his grace

God grants me the righteousness of Christ

to free me forever from judgment.

6th century BC, 1st century AD, 21st century AD... let's keep preaching!

2010-03-16T11:59:00.015-05:00

Six centuries before the revelation of God in the flesh, the Lord GOD spoke the following words to His prophet Ezekiel:

"And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

Moreover, he said to me, "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' whether they hear or refuse to hear."
-Ezekiel 2:7-8,10-11

Seven centuries later, Paul, "an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus", wrote the following to the evangelist Timothy:

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
-2 Timothy 4:2-4

And yet another two millennia later, I don't believe that anything has changed for the people of God, who are charged with proclaiming the glory of the LORD on His earth, and who will find true joy in nothing else.

There always have been, and always will be people who refuse to listen to the word of God. There always have been, and always will be people who will persecute those who bring that word. There always have been, and always will be seasons when the Gospel of Christ will be received, and others when it will be abhorred.

But we must not forget that there also always has been, and always will be a great and sovereign God whose ultimate ambition is to proclaim His great worth, drawing men and women to experience His everlasting glory. We must not forget that the Gospel of Christ has been sovereignly planned and executed by this glorious God. And we must not forget that the Gospel will go forth, because it is a manifestation of God's glory. The Gospel will not fail, because God cannot fail.

So let us preach the word of God, in season and out of season, whether they hear or refuse to hear. It is God's Gospel that we bring, not our own. He will ultimately sustain it, but He chooses us to be blessed by being the messengers.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
-Romans 1:16a

The Scripture testifies to Jesus

2010-03-14T17:01:00.008-05:00

Genesis: He's the One who will crush the serpent's head. He's the Lamb that God provides in the place of Isaac. He's the Joseph who goes down into Egypt and suffers to save the world.

Exodus: He's the Passover Lamb.

Leviticus: He's the Scapegoat who carries away our sins on the Day of Atonement.

Numbers: He's the Star that shall come out of Jacob.

Deuteronomy: He's the Prophet who will arise like Moses.

Joshua: He's... Joshua! He's the second Joshua who will give His people rest.

Judges: He's the One who, like Sampson, will, in His death, deliver His people from their oppressors.

Samuel: He's the Son of David, who will reign forever.

Kings: He's foreshadowed by Elisha's healing ministry.

Isaiah: He's the suffering Servant.

Jeremiah: He's the Lord, Our Righteousness.

Ezekiel: He's the Prince, who inhabits a new temple.

Hosea: He's the Bridegroom.

Jonah: As Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, so Jesus spent three days in the belly of the earth.

Micah: He's the King who will be born in Bethlehem.

Haggai: He's the Signet Ring.

Zechariah: He's the Priest-King, who builds the church.

Malachi: He's the Lord, who will suddenly come to His temple.

Psalms: He's the Anointed One, who is established on Zion.

Job: He's the Redeemer and the Intercessor.

Proverbs: He's Wisdom.

Ruth: He's the Kinsman Redeemer.

Daniel: He's the One like a Son of Man.

Chronicles: He's the Son of God, who will go up to the temple of the Lord and lead His people home from exile.

(Taken from Mike's sermon today on John 5:31-40)

A good name (or two!)

2010-03-09T23:40:00.020-06:00

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.
-Proverbs 22:1

A friend asked me tonight what "M" stood for.

It took me a while to realize that she was referring to the "M." of "Christopher M. Carignan", in my email signature, which stands for "Michael". Christopher was the most popular name the year I was born and Michael was the second most popular. But the question itself got me thinking about how much I appreciate what my first and middle names actually mean...

Christopher: From the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ", derived from Χριστος (Christos) combined with φερω (phero) "to bear, to carry".

Michael: From the Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el) meaning "who is like God?" This name is commonly misunderstood as meaning "one who is like God". However, the name is actually a rhetorical question, implying that nobody is like God.

I like my names because they remind me of...

Who I am: I am a redeemed sheep of Christ's flock, whom He has brought back to the fold by the effective call of His voice. The love of Christ shown to me in His atoning sacrifice creates a gratitude in me which is such a compelling force that I cannot help but preach the Gospel, in season and out of season. I am called to be a Christ bearer.

Who I am not: I am not God. I cannot do the work that only God can do. I may be called to be a Christ bearer, but I recognize that none of my words, none of my logic, none of my convincing can ever turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. It is the Holy Spirit alone, regenerating a person to understand the oral or written proclamation of the Gospel, which can do this. When people believe on this message, they are saved, both instantly and eternally. I am nothing more than a redeemed sheep who is blessed to be a part of this work by bringing the message to those who will listen.

So, thanks, Nina, for the reminder. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me these two awesome names. And thanks, God, for all You have done to give these names meaning!

The EFCA Statement of Faith has it goin' on!

2010-03-08T21:16:00.008-06:00

Just got back from a very long, very difficult church meeting. We will be needing guidance from God on some key issues over the next few months, so please pray for our elders and for the rest of our congregation.

I was very encouraged tonight by our ratification of the CEFC church Constitution as per the recent changes to the Evangelical Free Church of America's statement of faith. I am constantly blessed and encouraged that I attend a church which is so biblical in its teaching, and believes whole-heartedly and openly, among other things, the following (taken from the EFCA Statement of Faith):

4.101 God: We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

4.103 The Human Condition: We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God's saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

4.105 The Work of Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

Amen, EFCA. Amen, CEFC. Amen!

Are We Still The Body Of Christ Without The Full Armor of God?

2010-03-07T07:46:00.002-06:00

Here's a very good read over at the Sacred Sandwich. A small excerpt:

It is time, therefore, to make no more apologies to the world for Christ and His Gospel and start acting like the Church… the Body of Christ, that Jesus promised would not be overcome by the gates of Hades. We must gladly display our spiritual armor and be prepared to be vilified by the world just as Christ was vilified, and to suffer just as He suffered. Remember, the world is not really directing their attacks against us, they are directing their attacks against Jesus, their Stumbling Stone and Rock of Offense.

Be blessed on this Lord's Day, brethren, fellow members of the Body of Christ. Let us gladly display our spiritual armor, not only individually, but corporally, on this day and all others to come.

I bring near my righteousness

2010-03-06T17:37:00.014-06:00

"Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,'
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.

Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
you who are far from righteousness:
I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
and my salvation will not delay;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory."
-Isaiah 46:8-13

There is so much to learn about God in just these 6 verses. One could spend their entire lifetime writing whole volumes of books on the truths to be found here. I, on the other hand, don't have that kind of time... sooooo... here's just a little bit... :o)

The uniqueness of God

The God of Israel, of Abraham and Isaac, of the New and Old Testaments, of the fool-hearty Simon Peter, of the chief of sinners, and of the thief on the cross, stands alone in His holiness. The divine glory of the triunal Godhead is, indeed, not only second to none, but completely unique: God alone is the great I AM, and there is no other.

The infinite glory of God

The unique God of Israel is shown to be glorious in countless ways, including His infinite nature. Having spoken all things into existence, even time itself, God always has been I AM. He has always been I AM, because He has always been. There was never a time when God was not God, and therefore there will never be a time when God will ever not be God. He is unchanging in all of His ways, His character, and His glory.

The sovereignty of God

Since God has created all that is, all that is belongs to God alone. There is nothing that ever has been, currently is, or ever will be, over which God cannot claim sovereign right. God needs nothing, because everything is His. God lacks nothing, because He is everything, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Therefore, when He wills to do something, His council is perfect and blameless. When He wills to do something, it will be done, because all of creation is His creation, and is a manifestation of His own will. When God speaks, God does, because God alone is sovereign.

The sinfulness of man

God is holy, man is not. The effect of sin stretches from Adam to all of his offspring, creating in each of us a stubborn heart which will not, which cannot seek the glory of God. As sure as it is that every person is born into a state of inevitable physical death and decay, we are all also born into a state of spiritual death and decay. As helpless as we are to overcome the death of our body, we are equally unable to save ourselves from the spiritual effects of our fallen race. Man is far from righteousness, every single last one of us.

The graciousness of God

Because of our fallenness, the distance between us and righteousness cannot be covered by our own striving. We, who are unrighteous, cannot become righteous on our own, since we have no righeousness to find within ourselves. "But God, being rich in mercy..." (Ephesians 2:4) "But God! But God!" is the song of the redeemed; there is none other which we can sing! For God has brought His righteousness to us in Christ. The righteousness which God demands from us He gives to us in the Gospel. We are not righteous... but God... has given His righteousness to us in the atoning sacrifice of His Messiah, His Son, His very Self.

The objective of God

Why would the great and holy I AM do the unthinkable? Why would God have mercy on a messy bunch of unrighteous sinners, who have defamed His name and played the whore, turning after every kind of conceivable idol, stealing the glory which the eternal Creator rightly deserves and giving it to things that He has created instead? God has done this not primarily for me, not primarily for you, but primarily for His own glory. "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name..." (Ezekiel 36:22a) God exists eternally to glorify Himself, not to glorify His creation. Worshiping the glorious I AM is the only source of true joy for all created things; for God to glorify anything less than Himself would not be the most loving act. But God, who is love, always has, always is, and always will make it His sovereign prerogative to bless and glorify His own great name.

Sermon Interruptus

2010-03-04T22:10:00.002-06:00

Blessings, blessings, blessings.

2010-03-04T13:47:00.003-06:00

Thank you, brother, for meeting with me today. It was a blessing and an encouragement, and a good excuse to grab a cup of coffee and share about God's work.

Thank you, Lord, for being who You are and for doing what You do. You never cease to amaze me.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
-2 Corinthians 1:3-5

A time of perspective... God knows what I don't.

2010-03-02T01:28:00.007-06:00

It's 2:30 am. I've just finished having two long, very difficult conversations with two good friends. I grieve for both of them, and they know that I will be seeking our Lord on their behalf.

As I prayed with one of them tonight, there are so many times when we simply don't, simply can't understand what God is doing. We don't understand why God allows certain things to pass. We don't understand His reasoning in doing so. We don't understand how any good could come out of these situations. But there is one thing that we understand, and that we cling to in times of hardship: God is good and He is sovereign.

I've been thinking recently about Job (no, not this one). I've been thinking how, at the beginning of all of the trials that he faced, his response was simply "the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21), and "shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (2:10). But, over time, he seems to turn the focus a bit more on himself, and how he will remain faithful through the tribulations. However, starting in ch.33, Elihu comes along and says, "Dude, Job... hang on, man. It's not about you. It's about God's glory." (paraphrase...)

Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.
-Job 34:12-15

It is good for us to seek the Lord in confusion, doubt, frustration, even sometimes in anger, asking Him why He sovereignly ordains some of the things that He does. It's okay that we don't understand God's will, and it's okay that we run to Him in times of trouble, pressing hard into Him with questions which grieve our souls. But in the end, we have to come to the realization that we're dealing with the Creator of the entire universe, the One who lifts His voice to the clouds, that floods of water may cover the land, and Who can send forth lightnings, which obey His every command (38:34-35). In the end, we have to realize that God is God, and that we are not.

So, I will be praying for my friends. I will be seeking God, asking Him earnestly that He may answer the prayers in the way that I ask them. But, ultimately, I will ask God that His glory may shine forth, and that these situations - no matter their outcome - will turn men and women to Christ, so that the Godhead may be blessed and glorified more fully through these trials. God knows what I don't, and I will trust that this is a good thing.

This is what graduate school does to you.

2010-03-01T19:15:00.003-06:00

nm jnhj nhj jhnuuuuuuuuuumkjn,ujhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhnuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu juhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnjnuh vbcccccccccccccccccccccc vbcccccccv bfcv bfcgv bcfffv bcfggggggggggggggggggggggggggvgb ffffffffffffff

What you have just witnessed is me pressing my face against the keyboard a few times... because I don't want to do anything else but exactly that.

This is what graduate school does to you.

Come! Join the mighty chorus!

2010-02-28T20:19:00.005-06:00

I'm in a café (surprise, surprise). I should be working on a speech production research scholarship proposal (surprise, surprise). Instead, I'm hyped-up on caffeine (surprise, surprise) and distracted by the music I'm listening to (surprise, surprise), which is currently Charlie Hall's rendition of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" (awesome, awesome). I'm listening to it on repeat, and I keep smiling every time the song comes to these two lines:

Mortals, join the mighty chorus
Which the morning stars began

It's beautiful to me to think about how the whole of creation is glorifying God even before I wake up, and that I get to have the blessing of joining that worship during the day. It's beautiful because it makes me realize that God doesn't need me to worship Him. All He has to do is be God and make cool stuff (like the entire universe), and everything that He has ever made explodes with worship just by being in existence! But God gives me the mind-blowing blessing of joining in that worship, an act which I wouldn't even be able to do if God hadn't first turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), and the result of which (i.e. giving God glory) is the source of the only true joy I can ever experience in this mortal world, and beyond.

So, when you wake up tomorrow, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began! And be blessed by doing so.

How do you summarize the beauty of the Gospel in 15 lines?

2010-02-28T20:02:00.004-06:00

Sing the 5 lines of the chorus of "I Come by the Blood" three times over, that's how!

I come by the blood, I come by the cross,
where your mercy flows from hands pierced for me.
For I dare not stand on my righteousness.
My every hope rests on what Christ has done,
and I come by the blood.

Unbelievably amazing...

Stop trying to be someone you're not!

2010-02-23T17:03:00.007-06:00

I'm beginning to memorize a chunk of Ephesians with a friend from church, and here is the first part that I was working on today:

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! - assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
-Ephesians 4:17-24 (my emphases)

Paul is writing here to Christians, encouraging them to not go on sinning like they use to do, and like the Gentiles continue to do. But notice how Paul doesn't say, "Stop sinning or else God will disown you!" or, "You'd better stop sinning or else you'll cease to be a Christian and then you'll go to hell!" No, Paul simply says, "Stop being controlled by sin... because that's not who you are anymore."

If you are a Christian, this doesn't mean that you're not still a sinner in a fallen world. What it does mean, however, is that you're no longer a slave to sin:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
-Romans 6:17-18

This freedom from the reigning power of sin is the beginning of the release from sin that Christ's atoning sacrifice purchased for you 2000 years ago. It means that your sin no longer keeps you under God's judgment, because it has been paid for. It also means that God has given you the ability to turn away from sin, to resist temptation, and that He is strengthening that ability in you as He sanctifies you and grows you. One day, when you are finally in the presence of Jesus, the release from sin will be completed, and at that time you will no longer be under any effects of sin. But until that day, remember what the true Gospel is, remember what it has purchased for you, and remember what it has made you: a person free from the reigning power of sin.

If we are people who have been freed from the reigning power of sin, then let's stop letting sin reign over us. Let's stop trying to be people we're not.

Wanna share the Gospel? Then pray.

2010-02-22T22:57:00.006-06:00

Very often, we spend so much time trying to figure out how to pray for God's will in certain situations, because we don't know what His will is concerning the matter. And yet we seek Him anyway, asking that His will be done.

However, there's at least one thing in which we can be absolutely certain of His will... but so seldom do we (or, at least, do I) actually pray for it: personal evangelism.

God has been teaching me in the last couple of years the importance of praying for very specific, providentially ordained situations which God would use to allow opportunity to point others to the cross. I started doing this, praying for specific people, that God would use me that month, that week, even that very day to speak to them about Christ.

And you know what? He has.

He's been answering those prayers... in a fury of humbling, awe-inspiring blessing to others and to me.

But the funny thing is that I've actually been kind of surprised by how readily He answers these prayers (literally within hours, in some cases)... yet, I shouldn't be. I know that God wants me to preach the Gospel, because it brings glory to His Son, His very Self. It's not as if He's going to have something better for me to do than to give Him glory, after all... because spreading the glory of God is the greatest activity that we could ever hope to be involved in.

Consider this as an encouragement. Are you feeling stuck? apathetic? discouraged? The atoning sacrifice of Christ at the Cross is the answer to these ails, and telling others of this glorious news will bless you as it blesses them.

So pray for opportunities to proclaim of Christ's work, remembering that it is not of your power to reap the growth, only to sow the seed. But remember as well that God wants to give you opportunities to sow the seed... so just ask Him to give you what He already wants to give, and be blessed, brothers and sisters. Be blessed.

Keep it on Christ, Chris... keep it on Christ.

2010-02-18T21:36:00.007-06:00

God has certainly taught me much in the past year... it has been a difficult year, to be sure... but I've understood lately just how much this difficulty was necessary for God to grow me just a bit more.

As many who might read this may already know, my relationship with my ex-girlfriend was ended a little over a year ago. This has been incredibly difficult for me to deal with, because I was moving towards making the relationship a bit more... ehh... permanent, if you will. Yah. Almost bought the ring, yo. Almost bought it.

Having that kind of relationship taken from me rocked me to the core, I have to admit (mostly because she was yet another one of the idols of my idol-factory heart). I was shaken and beaten, and didn't know what to do with myself. I was so sure that marriage was where that relationship was supposed to go. But God has taught me a good thing lately, a thing which - among other things - I'm not sure I would have been able to learn without being shaken so thoroughly (coffee, anyone?).

I have been thinking about my pastor's view on evangelism, which is that the fruit of his ministry isn't really his concern, it's God's. He's always said that, as he preaches the Gospel, if God decides to fill the church with 1000 people, he will praise God. If God decides to fill the church with 10 people, he will praise God. Whatever fruit God decides to bear from his ministry should have no effect on his calling to preach the Gospel and nothing but the Gospel. He keeps it on Christ.

In meditating on this, I have realized that I was focusing so intently on the fruit that I thought would be reaped from being in a Christ-glorifying relationship with a godly woman (namely, marriage), that I completely lost sight of the fact that I had been in a Christ-glorifying relationship with a godly woman. I was part of something which brought glory to the name of the Son of God, and seemed to have forgotten how much of a blessing this was, and how both of us can now glorify Christ more fully and deeply in our separate lives, having been a part of that relationship for a time, than if it had never happened.

Praise God for His faithfulness and goodness, and for His glory! Lamentations 3:37-38, Job 1:21, 2:10.

So, my prayer is that God would continue to remind me of this as He grows me. No matter what the fruit may be that He decides to bring about in my life, that is His business to deal with, not mine. My business is to bring glory to the name of Jesus, by the power of God's Spirit, and to lead others to the foot of the Cross in any and all ways that God will choose to use me to do so. As I do that, I pray that I would remember that anything that comes about in my life as a result is simply God's will unfolding, and that His will is good.

Keep it on Christ, Chris... let God take care of the rest.

Blogging...

2010-02-15T20:32:00.001-06:00

...I'd like to do it again.

Yeah.

I think I'll do that.

Not overthrown by scholarship

2009-07-01T19:14:00.002-05:00

The conviction was growing in me that life is too short and the church is too precious for a minister of the Word to spend his life trying to recreate a conjectured Jesus. There was work to be done—very hard work—to see what is really there in the God-given portrayal of Jesus in the New Testament Gospels. [... T]he portrayal of Jesus in the four Gospels has not been overthrown by scholarship. The appearance of overthrow arises from the unwarranted creation of criteria of authenticity that by definition will rule out aspects of the New Testament portrayal. Thankfully, God has raised up several generations of careful, rigorous, and faithful scholars who are not cowed by the radical critics and who patiently go about their work establishing the historical credibility of the four Gospels. I thank God for them. I don’t mean that they provide proof of the Gospels. I mean they show that the attacks on the historical validity of the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels are not compelling.

-John Piper, "What Jesus Demands from the World" (pp. 32, 33)

The peculiar notion that he alone is Lord.

2009-07-01T19:05:00.002-05:00

So, I'm not sure what my exact thoughts are on Mark Driscoll's (alleged) pulpit "etiquette", but what I do know is that the sassy truth he speaks is, at times, very refreshing... not to mention that it just makes me laugh out loud!

I just started reading John Piper's "What Jesus Demands from the World" today, and here is what Driscoll had to say about the book (taken from the back cover):

"This is a peculiar book. It assumes that the four Gospels are true and unified. It assumes that Jesus not only does things for us but also makes demands of us. And it assumes that Jesus has authority over everyone regardless of their religion, gender, race, income, sexuality, nationality, or culture. You will likely not agree with every point. But you will hear from a Jesus who is more than a soft-spoken, effeminate, marginalized, Galilean hippie-peasant in a dress and has the peculiar notion that he alone is Lord."

Piper on the Prosperity "Gospel"

2009-06-29T09:31:00.005-05:00

The prosperity gospel is alive and well in America... but it is "a gospel contrary to the one [we] received" (Galatians 1:9) and a message which "will turn [people] away from listening to the truth" and cause them to "wander off into myths" (2 Timothy 4:4).

It is good to our souls to hear truth spoken out against it:

Bad day

2009-06-24T00:42:00.003-05:00

What happens when I don't want to trust in God? What do I do when I don't want to accept the possibility that things won't go my way? Where do I go when laying things at His feet means I might experience more pain?

Trusting in God has always seemed so easy to me, because all of the possible outcomes were at least "acceptable" in my mind.

It's easy to trust God when you don't have to fear what He might do with your life.

But what about when I don't want what He might give to me?

That's hard... and it is a test of faith that requires prayer. Help me in prayer, whoever might be reading this.

In Christ Alone, the Remix

2009-03-13T10:53:00.001-05:00

I love hymns. They are God centered, glory driven, grace distilling, time tested, biblically rooted gold mines of truth that we sing back to God in response to what He teaches us through the ministry of the preached word. But sometimes, the truth to be found in hymns is a bit tough to find because of the difficult wording... so I like to take some liberties of translation in my head sometimes to get at what the author of the hymn was actually saying. I did this here before with one of my favorite hymns, Before the Throne of God Above, and I'd like to do the same with one of my other favorite hymns, In Christ Alone.

------------

My one and only hope for salvation is only ever found in Christ,
He is the source of all good and strength in me, and the reason why I worship;
He is my Cornerstone, He is the support of all that I am, He is my solid Ground,
And it is He who stands firm through even the fiercest drought and storm, both physical and spiritual.
How high His love is shown to be, how deep His peace is proven,
When my fears are calmed, and when I no longer have to struggle!
He is my Comforter, He is my Everything,
So it is here, in the love of Christ, that I stand.

Only ever in Christ! He became a human:
The complete fullness of God in the form of a helpless baby!
He gave Himself to us as a gift of love and righteousness,
And was despised by the very ones that He came to save.
And on that cross, as Jesus died,
The just wrath of God toward our sin was answered for, and satisfied,
Because every single sin of God's people was put on Jesus.
I have become alive, and continue to live, in the death of Christ.

His body laid there in the tomb:
The Light of the world, put to death by the darkness of sin.
Then, bursting forth in the fullness of His glory,
He rose again from the grave!
And now, since He stands victorious over sin and death,
The curse of sin and its ability to kill me no longer have any control over me,
Because I belong to Christ, and He belongs to me;
My life and soul have been purchased forever by the precious blood of Christ.

I no longer am bound by guilt in this life, and I no longer fear death:
This is the power of Christ in me.
From the beginning of my life, to my final breath,
Jesus is Lord over my life and my destiny.
And none of Satan's power, nor any plan made by man,
Can ever take me away from His hand.
Until He returns again, or decides to take me home to heaven,
I will stand here in the power of Christ!

His Superior Beauty and Worth

2009-03-13T10:28:00.003-05:00

The glory of Christ is seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take pleasure in the greater glory of Christ.

-John Piper, "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" (p. 82)

God knows what He's doing...

2009-02-05T12:03:00.004-06:00

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."
-James 4:13-15

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
-Proverbs 19:21

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.
-Proverbs 16:9

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
-Jeremiah 29:11

Jesus and Politics

2009-01-23T20:49:00.003-06:00

If we were to remove all of the biblical teaching on caring for the marginalized and the significance of social justice, we would be left with a rather slim book. If we took away the role of stewardship of creation and of cultivating natural resources, Adam and Eve would have been left with very little to do in the Garden. It would be too easy to simply identify Jesus with a political party, to simply put him on the left or on the right. The ethic of the new community demands humble participation, maybe even realizing that the solutions to complex social issues and problems transcends party platforms. The ethic of the new community may demand that - like all things for its members - we recognize that we now see dimly, and not so clearly as those who have put Jesus on the left or on the right would like us to think.

-Stephen J. Nichols, "Jesus: Made in America" (pp. 220-221)

Cream of Wheat

2009-01-21T17:49:00.002-06:00

Christian music, originally called Jesus Music, once fearlessly sang clearly about the gospel. Now it yodels of a Christ-less, watered down, pabulum-based, positive alternative, aura-fluff, cream of wheat, mush-kind-of-syrupy, God-as-my-girlfriend kind of thing.

-Steve Camp, thesis 41, "A Call for Reformation in the Contemporary Christian Music Industry"

Reducing Jesus

2009-01-11T23:06:00.003-06:00

To those fundamentalists and evangelicals who singularly focus on giving invitations, the image of Jesus standing and knocking on the doors of hearts, drawn from Revelation and not from the Gospels, assumes iconic status. To evangelicals of a pacifist stripe, Jesus turning the other cheek reigns supreme. To the socially conscious, Jesus embodied in the poor becomes the rallying point. To just about all American evangelicals Jesus becomes the best friend, the Savior next door. All of these are biblically based images. The problem comes when such a focus on a particular episode in the Gospels or a particular characteristic or trait of Jesus leads one to downplay or even dismiss other episodes of the biblical narrative and other aspects of his character. Jesus comes to us as a complex figure, and reducing him does an injustice to the Gospel accounts. Reducing him does an injustice to Jesus himself.

-Stephen J. Nichols, "Jesus: Made in America" (p. 88)

2 x 2 = 4 ?

2008-10-23T15:30:00.003-05:00

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason... The new skeptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn... There is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it's practically a more poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of the ascetic... The old humilty made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humilty makes a man doubtful about his aims, which makes him stop working altogether... We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.

-1908, G. K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy" (pp. 31-32)

God is Love

2008-10-19T19:13:00.002-05:00

God's love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but His giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever. In other words, God's love for us keeps God at the center. God's love for us exalts His value and our satisfaction in it. If God's love made us central and focused on our value, it would distract us from what is most precious; namely, Himself. Love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God. Therefore God's love labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.

-John Piper, "Pierced by the Word" (p. 13)

The Object of our faith... not the Example.

2008-09-09T11:00:00.005-05:00

Here is found the most fundamental difference between liberalism and Christianity—liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man's will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God. [...] Liberalism regards [Christ] as an Example and Guide; Christianity, as a Saviour: liberalism makes Him an example for faith; Christianity, the object of faith.

-J. Gresham Machen, "Christianity and Liberalism" (pp. 47, 96)

Cozy Theory Into Troubling Experience

2008-09-06T15:37:00.006-05:00

Paul had heard horror stories about sin all his life. He had seen countless bony fingers waving in his face to warn him of sin's power. But in Romans 7:21 he moved from cozy theory into troubling experience: he found this law. It is one thing to sit in a group and critique dissertations on original sin; it is something else to find yourself subdued by its strength and madness. It is one thing to listen to a lecture about AIDS - how it spreads, what it does to a body, how invincible it is; it is another thing to hear your doctor say to you, "HIV- positive - I'm sorry."

-Kris Lundgaard, "The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin"

The Gospel According to Ezekiel, Part 2

2008-07-24T12:15:00.002-05:00

37:1-14
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.
And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.
And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD."
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.'
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.
And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it," declares the LORD.

The Gospel According to Ezekiel, Part 1

2008-07-24T11:57:00.004-05:00

16:4-8
"And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.
And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'
I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.
When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine."

16:15
"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his."

16:22
"And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood."

16:60-63
"Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.
Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you.
I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD,
that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done," declares the Lord GOD.

36:25-27
"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."

36:32
"It is not for your sake that I will act," declares the Lord GOD, "let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel."

Glory which ravishes the heart

2008-07-22T10:57:00.002-05:00

In His cross were divine holiness and vindictive justice exercised and manifested; and through His triumph, grace and mercy are exerted to the utmost. This is that glory which ravishes the hearts and satiates the souls of those that believe. For what can they desire more, what is farther needful to the rest and composure of their souls, than at one view to behold God eternally well pleased in the declaration of His righteousness and the exercise of His mercy, in order to their salvation? In due apprehensions of it let my soul live; in the faith of it let me die, and let present admiration of this glory make way for the eternal enjoyment of it in its beauty and fullness.

- John Owen, "The Glory of Christ: His office and grace" (emphases mine)

Blessed Jesus!

2008-07-20T20:50:00.002-05:00

Blessed Jesus!

We can add nothing to you, nothing to your glory; but it is a joy of heart to us that you are what you are, that you are so gloriously exalted at the right hand of God; and we do long more fully and clearly to behold that glory, according to your prayer and promise.

- John Owen, "The Glory of Christ: His office and grace"

I will pay that which I never took

2008-07-20T19:54:00.007-05:00

When Adam had sinned, and thereby eternally, according unto the sanction of the law, ruined himself and all his posterity, he stood ashamed, afraid, trembling, as one ready to perish for ever, under the displeasure of God. Death was that which he had deserved, and immediate death was that which he looked for. In this state the Lord Christ in the promise comes unto him, and says:

Poor creature! How woeful is thy condition! how deformed is thy appearance! What is become of the beauty, of the glory of that image of God wherein thou wast created? How hast thou taken on thee the monstrous shape and image of Satan? And yet thy present misery, thy entrance into dust and darkness, is no way to be compared with what is to ensue. Eternal distress lies at the door. But yet look up once more, and behold me, that thou mayest have some glimpse of what is in the designs of infinite wisdom, love, and grace. Come forth from thy vain shelter, thy hiding-place I will put myself into thy condition. I will undergo and bear that burden of guilt and punishment which would sink thee eternally into the bottom of hell. I will pay that which I never took; and be made temporally a curse for thee, that thou mayest attain unto eternal blessedness.

To the same purpose he speaks unto convinced sinners, in the invitation he gives them to come unto him.

- John Owen, "The Glory of Christ: His office and grace"

An addition to Jesus?

2008-07-20T17:17:00.004-05:00

Please read this thoughtful and convicting post that my pastor linked in his blog.

Brothers and sisters, it's hard for me to know what is in my own heart. I know that, at this very moment, there is stuff lurking in there that, if I could get even a dim glimpse of it, I would cringe with horror. The closer I draw to Christ, the more I want to cry out with Isaiah, "Woe to me! I am ruined!" The more I understand and grow to love Jesus, the more I understand that what He truly did for me once and for all was something that I could never do for myself.

I believe in the Doctrines of Grace, and I follow the doctrinal convictions that Martin Luther confessed during the reformation of the Church. It is in this sense that I am what may be unfortunately labeled as a "Reformed Christian". But I want to confess to you that what pastor Ortlund is talking about in his post has lurked in my heart from time to time in the past... and may lurk there still. I am sorry, and I would ask for your forgiveness if I have treated you in a way that is not glorifying to Christ, or have made you feel that I have placed a barrier between you and myself because of doctrine.

This is why I no longer discuss doctrine with many. But the times when I cease to put into words how I feel may be the most dangerous, for even if my heart no longer makes itself be heard, it may still grow in silent ways away from a faith that places Christ completely in the center, where only He should be. If my heart is still harboring these thoughts without my knowledge, I am sorry, and I ask that God would graciously continue to refine my heart.

But Christ truly is deeper still, and it is the work and glory of Christ that is at the center of my faith, just as He was at the center of Brother Martin's faith and his reformed view of the Church.

Christ... and nothing else. Amen.

I'm dying.

2008-07-06T13:53:00.010-05:00

Good, that got your attention. Now that I have it, I would like you to take the time to read this post and take it seriously. Not seriously, as in an overly cliché "look-at-him-he-thinks-he's-so-emo-who-does-he-think-he's-trying-to-fool" kind of way, but in an honestly serious way. I'll try not to make any jokes, to help you take it seriously. Just take the time to read, and think, whoever you are, even if I don't know you. It may be long, but please read it all, and think.

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For one reason or another, I've been thinking about death lately. I'm not entirely sure why. It's not that it's been crowding my thoughts, in an unhealthy, morbid sort of way. It's just that I've been having an abnormally sober judgment of my own life and the fact that it's ending.

I want to tell you that there will come a day when I'll close my eyes for the last time, my heart will pump its last bit of blood through my body, and my lungs will release their sustaining hold, never to expand again. It will be at that moment that I will no longer be alive, and I will never spend another waking moment in this world as I now know it. A couple days later, perhaps even a week or so, there will be a small section in the newspaper that will try to explain why it happened. It will say that my life ended because of a heart attack, or some sort of cancer, or an incurable disease, or even a car wreck. Who knows, maybe if I'm lucky it will say that I died of natural causes in my old age.

But whatever it says, it won't be true. I want to tell you that right now. Whatever the doctors say is the reason for my death will not be the truth. The true reason why my body will no longer function on that day is because I'm related to you... and because you're related to me... because we're both related to a man named Adam who lived, and died, a long time ago. I'm going to die because of the fallen state that I was born into. I was born to die, actually. I guess it won't really make sense for me to ever have to tell anyone, "I'm dying", or even for anyone to ever react to that statement. The fact is that I am dying now. I've been dying for 26 years. Nothing a doctor will ever say to me can change that.

Because I'm a Christian, I think that people believe that I'm not supposed to be afraid of that day, that I'm supposed to be happy because that's the day when I will get to see my Savior Jesus Christ in all of His glory. But I want to admit to you that that's not true. I'm kind of scared for that day, and it makes me sad to think about it. No matter how much I may think I know about resurrection and heaven, the fact is that I don't really know what it will be like. Will death hurt? Will I be scared on my death bed? What will I think about? Who will be with me? What will they be thinking about?

I get sad sometimes when I leave somebody, not knowing when I will ever see them again. But there will come a day when I will leave everyone around me forever, in a sense. My wife, my children, my friends, my family: I will never again get to see them in the same way that I see them in this life. Sure, I hope to see them in heaven, but I don't even know what that will be like. My wife won't be my wife anymore. What will she be to me? Will I remember the time I spent with her during this life? What will happen to those memories? Will my children know that I'm their father? If not, how will I feel about that?

What about the people I knew and loved who didn't look to Jesus' work on the cross for their eternal salvation, who were misled by the people around them, by their culture, and by their own hearts into thinking that God would have mercy on them because they were "pretty good people"? They will not be with me. Will I cry for them? What will I feel? I don't even want to think about what they will feel.

There's a part of me, deep down inside my emotions, that doesn't want to go, that doesn't want all of this to end. I know that I should want it to end, that I should want all of the the hurt, disease, war, hate, hunger, and worry of this world to be nothing more than a faint memory of something that once happened long ago. I know that I should want to leave and be with God now. But I don't yet. There's so much to do still. There's so much time to spend with my friends and family before I'm gone, or before they're gone. And there are so many people to talk to about Jesus. And I'm scared.

If you're reading this, and you don't know of the good news of ultimate salvation from the sting of death and from the curse of sin, and I talk to you someday (hopefully soon) about it, please don't take offense. Please don't be angry with me for it. The truth is that if I talk to you about it, I will be very scared. My heart will be beating fast in my chest, my palms will be sweaty, and my body will be warm with adrenaline. This will be happening to me because, if I talk to you about Jesus, I will be afraid of what you might think of me, of what you might say back to me. I'm afraid that you will think I'm a freak, or some sort of a brainwashed nutjob. But the very real truth, as honestly as I can tell it to you now, is that for me to find the courage to talk to you about Jesus anyway, in spite of my fear, is because I care for you. If I try to talk to you about your eternal salvation, it's because I wonder about it, and I care about it, because I care about you. If I ask to talk to you about the gospel, it's because I love you. Please don't be mad, because I'm going to be scared enough as it is. But please listen to me, because I love you. If you know that I love you, please listen to what I have to say.

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If you're reading this and you don't know what's going to happen to you on the day that you die; or you think you do, but you're not really sure; or you try not to ever think about it, and put it in the far back of your mind; or even if you once did, but you don't have a confidence or an assurance about it anymore... please talk to me. Send me an email. It doesn't matter if you don't know me. I would like to talk to you about it, even if I'm scared. If you're scared, I won't think you're silly, because I'll be scared, too, but please talk to me anyway. If you do know me, don't be alarmed if I send you an email sometime, or give you a call to talk. Please don't think I'm silly, but talk to me.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." -Romans 1:16

carignanc@gmail.com

Before the Throne of God Above, the Remix

2008-06-04T13:50:00.006-05:00

I've posted lyrics from hymns on here before, and I'm sure that I've posted the lyrics from the hymn "Before the Throne of God Above", specifically, but sometimes reading lyrics just can't convey the same information as well as good synopsis in prose!

We sang this hymn again this last Sunday, and I was, yet again, struck by how great the almost unbelievable truth of the Gospel is. So, I'd like to put forth my best attempt at rewriting this hymn in prose, and expanding parts that might benefit from clarification. I hope this might make it a bit easier to read, and strike the point home more clearly!

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In the holy court of God above, before His throne, I have a case that is not only good, not only strong... but perfect. My argument is a Person: He is a great High Priest, whose name is "Love". This Priest lives forever, and He always intercedes for me. I am not only comforted by this case against my sin, but I am assured, because my name - my own name, Chris Carignan - is carved into His hands, and it is written on His heart. And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that while He stands in heaven - which will be forever - nobody can bring any charge against me to try to cast me from His presence.

When I am tempted by Satan to give up because of my sin, and when he tells me how I should feel guilty for the things I have done, currently do, and will do in the future, I look up to heaven, and I see this Priest standing there, this Priest who made an end to all of my sin! Because this Savior, who was completely without sin, died in my place, my own soul, sinful as it may be, is considered to be as free as His. I am completely confident in this because God is not only merciful, He is also just, and His wrath against my sin is appeased when He looks at His Son, and pardons me because of His righteousness. Since I am united with Christ, it would be unjust for God to sentence me to a death that His Son already died.

Look at Him there! He is the risen Lamb! He is my own perfect, spotless righteousness! He is the great, unchangeable I AM, Jehovah God Himself, the King of glory and of grace! Since I am united to Him, it is utterly inconceivable, even impossible, that my soul should die, for that soul has been purchased once and for all by His blood. My own life is kept with Christ, on high, in heaven; it is kept with Christ, my Savior and my God!

Is Jesus really God? (part 4)

2008-05-22T18:01:00.005-05:00

Whew... it's been a very long day of studying concordances and references, searching Scripture, praying, working out ideas, and writing them here... but it's been an extremely powerful blessing for my faith! Praise be to God for His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, my Lord!

I only have a couple more important things to say about this topic.

If you took the time to read the first three posts, you have seen that much of the biblical evidence that has been persuasive for me in trying to understand how God's Word depicts the deity of Jesus involves the holy titles that are reserved for Jehovah God, but are also used for Jesus. There are two more important titles, and may be even stronger than the ones I've already looked at.

First, the name "Immanuel". The book of Isaiah is wonderful, and if you haven't had the chance to read it yet, I encourage you to try to do so as soon as you can, because it just screams "Gospel!!" at the top of its lungs. In chapter 7, verse 14, a prophecy of the coming Messiah is made:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

For some of you reading this, you may know immediately the significance of this name; however, for others, it may pass you by. The name Immanuel literally means "God with us", and this point is made explicit in the beginning of the gospel of Matthew, as Matthew is setting up the genealogy of Jesus, and the prophecies concerning Him:

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

Now, why would Matthew go through the trouble of transliterating this Hebrew word for Greek readers if it did not hold special importance? And, God be praised, it does! This may be one of the strongest pieces of biblical support for the deity of Jesus yet, since the gospel account of one of His own disciples, a man who spent over three years by his side, begins with an establishment of who Jesus was in his eyes: "God with us"

And yet there remains one more title that is used for Jesus that is the most persuasive for me concerning His deity, and it consists of two famous words: I AM

In Exodus, chapter 3, God (Jehovah God) comes to Moses in the form of a burning bush, calling him to be used as a vessel for God's power and glory, in order to free the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Here is just a short portion of this holy interaction, verses 13 and 14:

Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

This name is about as holy as they come, my friends. I know of no other being in creation who has ever dared claim this title other than Jehovah God... except for One: Jesus

In the gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 48-59, it is recorded that Jesus is speaking with "the Jews", and, in responding to their accusation that He is "a Samaritan and [has] a demon", He speaks of His Father, and honoring Him. In the debate that ensues they ask if He believes that He is greater than their "father Abraham." In responding, He mentions that Abraham saw His day and was glad, to which the Jews respond:

"You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"

The response?

Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

Wow. This is clear as it gets. Jesus didn't claim to be a mere mortal man, nothing more than a good moral teacher. He claimed to be Jehovah God incarnate. And that's what I believe He is.

The New Word Translation translates "I AM" in this verse as "I have been." This is obviously a gross mistranslation of the Greek text, since the original phrase is "ego eimi", which is the present indicative tense and mood, and most definitely not the past progressive, which is the grammatical form of "I have been."

Furthermore, beyond grammatical arguments (which, for a linguist like me, are very strong!!), there is the immediate reaction of the Jews to these two words (beginning of verse 59):

Then they took up stones to throw at Him.

Jesus had said many things up to this point, but nothing to instill this type of spontaneous act of anger from his opponents. As careful as the Jewish leaders were to keep the crowds from turning on them, eventually planning an undercover plot to arrest and kill Jesus, these words from Jesus caused them to lash out in immediate reaction. Simply stating that He was a being who existed before the world began would not have caused these religious leaders to try to kill Jesus, for they believed in the existence of angels in the temporary form of men on earth.

However, the claim to be God Himself... now that's something completely different...

Be blessed, brothers and sisters.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Is Jesus really God? (part 3)

2008-05-22T16:32:00.004-05:00

To continue with the biblical evidence that Jesus, while being fully man, is also fully God, and is, in His essence, one with Jehovah God, I'd like to look again at Isaiah 44:6-

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God."

Aside from the points I already mentioned, that both God the Father, and "his Redeemer" refer to Themselves as "the First and the Last" (a title which, as we already have seen, Jesus also uses for Himself in the book of Revelation), and that this two-facet portion of the Godhead says, "besides Me there is no God" (which not only confirms that the "Redeemer" is God, but also that there are not individual, separate gods in heaven), there is also this other interesting title used for the Godhead here: "the Lord of hosts"

According the Strong's concordance of the Bible, the Hebrew words Jehovah ("Lord") and Elohim ("God") occur in some combination with Sabaoth ("hosts") over 285 times in the Bible to refer to God, all of them in the Old Testament, but I would like to look at just a couple of these instances.

Jeremiah 46:25 begins with the following words:

The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says...

There is absolutely no doubt that "the Lord of hosts" here is Jehovah God, for the title given at its side is that of "God of Israel". Furthermore, the very word used for "Lord" here is Jehovah, which is used in traditional scripture translations, as well as in the New World Translation, to designate God the Father.

Again, in Psalm 46, the title "the Lord of hosts" is used to refer to Jehovah God, since there is a repetition of the following lines:

The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

So, what I see in comparing these verses is another instance of a term reserved for God the Father being used to refer to Jesus, since "the Lord of hosts" of Isaiah 44:6 refers to the King of Israel's "Redeemer", but hundreds of other times elsewhere to refer to God the Father.

But, again, if this type of connection is not persuasive enough for you, or if you don't believe that the title "the Lord of hosts" in Isaiah 44:6 actually refers to Jesus (the New World Translation is slightly ambiguous here) let's look at one of the other occurrences of this title used in the Bible, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 8, verse 13:

The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

The use of "Lord" here is, without a doubt, a reference to God the Father, since the Hebrew word is Jehovah. That being said, let's look at the larger context of verses 13-15:

The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.

What's important to understand here is that this "stone of stumbling", this "rock of offense" is Jesus Himself! The evidence for this can be taken from the historical context of God's covenants, specifically, in the reason why this stone would be a "snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem"; but it is also explicitly noted in the New Testament. Beginning in Romans 9:32, we see Paul referring to Jesus in this way. After explaining that the Gospel of Jesus as the Messiah does pose a problem for the Jews, since the Gentiles, and not the Jews, have attained righteousness through Him and not through the law, he continues and says:

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written:

"Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

It's true that the verse that Paul references here is not Isaiah 8:14, but, rather, Isaiah 28:16. But this is of no consequence, for, in context of the entire book of Isaiah, the terms "stumbling stone" and "rock of offense" in 28:16 refer, themselves, to the same terms in 8:14!

There's even more convincing references than those that Paul makes. First, Peter groups all of these "stumbling stone" verses together in 1 Peter 2:6-8, using them all in reference to Jesus. And you know what? He groups Isaiah 8:14 with them! Yes, Peter recognized that Jesus, being the "stone of stumbling", is the same God who is referred to in Isaiah 8:14 as "the Lord (Jehovah) of hosts."

Furthermore, if you question the validity of the epistles, Jesus refers to Himself as "this stone" onto which men would fall and be broken in Matthew, chapter 21, verses 42-44:

Jesus said to them*, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:

'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."

I hope that these posts are an encouragement to any who read them, and will serve to strengthen your faith in the ability of Jesus to be a propitiation for the sins of man, since it is God, Himself, who fulfills His own righteous requirements of His own law! But, there will be one more post to follow, in which I will try to provide even more encouragement for your faith in this way.

*The "chief priests and Pharisees" (Matthew 21:45)

Is Jesus really God? (part 2)

2008-05-22T16:18:00.006-05:00

In the last post, I looked at an evidence of the deity of Jesus in the fact that He refers to Himself as "the First and the Last", a title which is only ever given to God the Father. I focused on some verses in Revelation, and stopped at chapter 1, verse 17:

"Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last."

As clear as this connection maybe be in my mind, it may still be insufficient for others, because Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that all of these verses in Revelation are spoken by Jesus, but that it is rather God the Father who is using these terms for Himself, so there is no problem raised with Him using this title. Okay, fine. Let's look at verse 17 again, but in conjunction with the following verse:

Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Wait... what?! If the title "the First and the Last" is referring to Jehovah God... when did He die? I know that Jesus died and was raised to life, but when did this happen to Jehovah God? This verse makes no sense unless Jesus is, in His very essence, one with God the Father, who is "the First and the Last."

And this is not the only place where this claim appears. Again, Jesus says in chapter 2, verse 8:

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, "These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life."

What is interesting to me is the fact that - with all of the differences between the New World Translation and the standard, traditional, labored over, and heavily studied translations of the Bible - the New World Translation still contains these words. For one to deny the deity of Jesus, they would have to tackle the issue of God dying... especially if it exists in their own doctrine-specific translation.

Hopefully, this information is even more convincing than the fact that Jesus uses the title "the First and the Last" to refer to Himself, but if not, stay tuned, because there will be more, which, to me, is actually more persuasive still.

Is Jesus really God? (part 1)

2008-05-21T23:23:00.010-05:00

Yes. Yes, He is. I'm more convinced now than ever.

I spent another weekend in Tennessee with some of Alli's family. They are Jehovah's Witnesses, and although I disagree to the highest extent with the majority of their doctrines, I do think that they are wonderful people, and I had another great weekend down there!

Sunday morning, before I went to the service at their Kingdom Hall, I got into a discussion with Alli's aunt about the deity of Christ. As I see it, among the many doctrinal heresies, the denial of Jesus as God is the greatest one, and the key that unlocks the rest of what seems to be an extremely legalistic and man-centered religion. I had happened to go through the first few chapters of Revelation during my quite time earlier that morning and read some interesting verses. They spurred me on to do more research when I returned back home... and it turns out that there is more biblical evidence that I had ever imagined! I'd like to present my findings here as a personal reference, but also as a reference that might possibly encourage and help anyone else who might read this.

Another multi-post series. Consider it a short "Why I am not Jehovah's Witness" series to precede my soon-to-be-completed "Why I am not Catholic" series!

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The first point from the first two chapters of Revelation deals with the names that Jesus uses for Himself, and then a certain claim that He makes. Chapter 1, verse 8 reads (NKJV):

"I am the Alpha the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

The New World Translation, which is used exclusively by the Jehovah's Witness organization, leaves out "the Beginning and the End", and translates "Lord" as "Jehovah God". Now, I'm not quite sure why this is the case, since archē ("beginning") and tělŏs ("end") exist in the primary manuscripts, and the word used for "Lord" is kurios, which is used to designate Christ, not God the Father. Regardless, we'll move on with the word study...

Again, in verse 11, Jesus says:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last."

The New World Translation has taken this entire sentence out of the text, and claim that this is still Jehovah God speaking, but we'll leave that alone for the sake of argument, because I believe that my point will still hold true. The word here for "First" is prōtŏs, and the word for "Last" is ěschatŏs.

Now, in verse 17, Jesus says:

"Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last."

The New World Translation does also keep in these words "First" and "Last", which are the same Greek words used in verse 11, and recognizes that these are the words of Jesus, which is important. Jesus is naming Himself as "the First and the Last."

We're almost at the interesting part here, but let's first consider why the fact that Jesus refers to Himself as "the First and the Last" is important. Let's read a passage from the Old Testament, Isaiah, chapter 44, verse 6:

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God."

Now, it is true that the words for "First" and "Last" here are not the same as those found in Revelation, but this is no solid argument against this connection because... well... the words are from different languages! What is also true, however, is that the Hebrew words used here are only found two other places in the Bible: both also in the book of Isaiah, and both also used to refer to God the Father, Jehovah. Furthermore, the verse states that it is not only Jehovah God, but also his Redeemer who say this about Themselves. And what do They say next, after They claim this holy title?...

"Besides Me there is no God."

So much for Jesus just being a separate god-man beside Jehovah. And yes... the New World Translation retains all of this valuable insight in Isaiah... :o)

In naming Himself "the First and the Last", Jesus is claiming a relationship that is much closer than being only the Son of God. He is using specific language that is reserved for Jehovah God, the King of Israel. In doing so, He reveals that He is, in fact, God Himself at the same time that He is also His Son.

Stop the presses!!!

2008-05-16T18:40:00.010-05:00

I know that this may come as a shock to anyone who has read my posts before, so you may want to sit down before you read this next part.

Are you sitting down? Okay... here goes...

I may disagree with John Piper on something.

Now... get the smelling salts, clear your head, and continue on reading, if you can muster the energy.

Now that classes are over, I'm trying to get back to reading Piper's "The Pleasures of God", and I just finished chapter 5, titled "The Pleasure of God in Election". Toward the end of the chapter (pp. 150-151), Piper discusses that our assurance of salvation is ultimately rooted in our election. I agree with this. However, I don't think I agree with why Piper says that this is the case. According to Piper, our assurance is rooted in our election because:

"Divine election is the guarantee that God will undertake to complete by sanctifying grace what his electing grace has begun... Election is the final ground of assurance because, since it is God's commitment to save, it is also God's commitment to enable all that is necessary for salvation." (P. 150, emphases mine)

I most certainly agree that God will surely sanctify those which He has justified, and that this will be done unto perfection for each one of God's children, continued until the day when he or she enters the presence of God, and perfected there. This is the biblically sound teaching of a perseverance of faith, which I have posted about before, and will write about more extensively in the last of my series of posts on "Why I am not Catholic".

So, it is true that I believe that God will slowly, but surely, mold me into the image of His Son. With all the sin that is still in me, I love God, and strive to follow His will, more today than a year ago, and pray in faith that I will do this more a year from now than I do today.

However, I do not believe that my continued sanctification is what "is necessary for salvation." I believe that I am no more justified, or even assured, today than I was a year ago, nor do I believe that I will be any more justified or assured a year from now than I am today. If I were to drop everything I am doing right now to become a lifelong missionary in some foreign land, I do not believe that this work for God's kingdom would make me any more justified in His sight than if I continue to work in research as a phonetician. If God were ever to call me to become a missionary my response would be, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). But if that were to be the case, my salvation would be no more secure than that of the thief on the cross.

Rather, as I have written about many times, I believe that the assurance of my salvation is rooted in my election because it is in my election that God has chosen to open my eyes and ears to receive the truth of the Gospel, has given me the ability to repent of my sin, and has given me the desire to turn to Him by my own free will. And it is through all of this that my justification comes, because, by the power of God, I have turned to Christ to receive His righteousness, which clothes me in a spotless garment, and I know that my salvation is assured, not because I see the daily evidence of sanctification in my life (although it's true that this is a very real evidence of my justification), but because the wrath of God toward my sin has already been poured out on Christ, and it is His righteousness, and His holy obedience to the law, not my own imperfect sanctification, that assures that I will one day see Him in glory.

Edit 5/20/08: Well, now I'm just confused. Piper definitely believes in the doctrine of imputation (i.e. Christ's righteousness imputed, through faith, to God's elect), so I'm not quite sure what he was talking about here...

Where are all the yellow stripes?!

2008-05-15T17:23:00.005-05:00

Well. Everything's finally wrapping up to a close this semester... and this has definitely been the veritable semester from "you-know-where"! Sooooo glad it's just about over!

But that means that I'll have more time on my hands now. And you know what that leads to? Right! More blogging! I'll finally finish the series of posts on Protestantism (I promise), but I'll first give just a little sump'n sump'n today.
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Charles Spurgeon (Go, C.H.! Go!), a firm believer in Paul's view of election, was known to say the following in response to the common question "If God elects people unto faith, then why bother evangelizing?":

"If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around lifting shirts. But since He didn’t I must preach 'whosoever will' and when 'whosoever' believes I know he is one of the elect."

I just read 1 Thessalonians yesterday, and this last point that Spurgeon makes - that he would know the elect by their belief in the Gospel - is a clear allusion to 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5a-

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

It is interesting that Paul (along with Silvanus and Timothy) does not say "We know that God has chosen you because you live a good Christian life, and He owes it to you", nor does he say "We know that God has chosen you because you first chose Him". No, Paul says that he recognized that the members of the church at Thessalonica were first chosen by God because they believed in the Gospel.

But look closely at the way that Paul says this. What is the root of the act of believing in the Gospel, according to Paul? Power, and that, through the Holy Spirit. The Gospel was preached to many people in Paul's age, as it is today. However, Paul recognized that to some, it only came "in word". It fell on deaf ears. Empty words falling on dry soil. However, to others, as was the case for the church at Thessalonica, the Gospel came in power. And how was this power able to be recognized? Because the fruit of this power working in the elect was full conviction. And where did this power come from? The Holy Spirit gave men the ability to do that which they were incapable of doing on their own: namely, repenting of their sin, and accepting the Gospel.

If sin has corrupted the heart of man to the point that he is unable to choose God over sin (which I believe the Bible clearly shows) then repentance and faith are not something that man can give to God by his own ability. Man cannot reach into the treasure chest of his heart and pull out faith... because it simply isn't there to pull out! If we, on our own, do not possess the ability to choose to love God, then it is rather God who chooses to first love us:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
-1 John 4:10

A propitiation for whose sins? The sins of the elect, for this epistle is written to the believing Jews (2:7), but includes believers from all nations (2:2). And what is the initial sign of this electing love? Belief in the Gospel, plain and simple. For belief in the Gospel requires full repentance and love toward God... two things which are impossible for man to do without the power of the Holy Spirit.

The elect show themselves to be the elect by believing in the Gospel.
-Mike Shea

Standing before God clothed in the righteousness that is our own faith?

2008-05-08T10:17:00.005-05:00

Mike Shea on Romans 5:1 and 5:9-

Faith does not merit you justification on some kindler and gentler New Testament sliding scale. No, faith receives the gift of perfect righteousness, purchased for you by the blood of Christ. Faith doesn't purchase the righteousness, faith doesn't merit the righteousness, faith simply receives the gift of righteousness purchased by the blood of Christ, and so Paul can say we are justified by His blood. We do not stand before God clothed in the righteousness that is our own faith; we stand before God clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, received through faith. And it makes a difference! If you don't get this, you'll have a very shaky assurance, because you'll be in danger of trusting in your own faith, rather than trusting in Christ. If you think that your faith merits the justification, that God's lowered His standards and says, "Okay, just believe," and you worry, "Well... do I believe enough? Is my faith strong enough?!" Your assurance will only be as stable as your own faith, rather than your assurance being as stable as the faithfulness of Christ.

I just threw up in my mouth...

2008-05-03T21:09:00.003-05:00

Ugh.

I think I'm gonna be sick.

Click here... if you dare...

Justifequation

2008-05-02T12:37:00.009-05:00

Here are some simple equations from one of pastor Mike's earlier sermons on Romans. They are given as an illustration to rectify the seemingly incompatible views of faith and works given by Paul and James. I've already talked a little bit about this in this post.

F= faith
W= works
J= justification

F + W --> J ?
false (Paul)

F - W --> J ?
false (James)

J --> F + W ?
TRUE (Paul and James)

I won't comment on these illustrations other than to say this: somehow, somewhere in the Church's history, the understanding of the order of these three elements got switched around in general American Christian doctrine. I'm not sure how, why, or when this happened, but don't you think it's about time we return to the roots of the Gospel?

(edit: 100th post! Woo hoo!)

I think I'm probably going to buy this book!

2008-04-25T08:15:00.002-05:00

The Courage to be Protestant, by David Wells.

Awesome.

Read an excerpt here.

Evangelize for the glory of Christ!

2008-04-25T00:24:00.009-05:00

So last weekend I drove down to Tennessee with Alli and her sister (yes, in my Prelude... which now has 240,000 miles... and is still going strong!!); their cousin was getting married on Sunday. Great weekend, and a beautiful part of the country, by the way!

Before going down there, however, I guess I didn't pay too much attention to the fact that the majority of that side of their family are Jehovah's Witnesses. I had never before spent any time sitting down with a Jehovah's Witness to discuss their personal beliefs, so I decided to go to one of their services, and spent a good while over the weekend talking with a couple of the cousins, an aunt, an uncle, and various other people in their congregation. When asked what my thoughts were, I was honest with all of them in saying that, although I appreciated the Sunday service and their genuine hospitality, I disagreed greatly with their doctrines... especially their view of Jesus: not as God, but as the first-created of the angelic beings, Michael the Archangel.

During these discussions, I found myself getting frustrated at my lack of ability in pulling specific Scripture references to support my beliefs on various points. Now, this frustration was not due to me not being able to win over another person in a theological debate. No... I don't believe that it was not that kind of prideful frustration. Rather, I was frustrated that the glory of Jesus was not being shown to its full extent during these conversations, and lifted up in adoration and praise for what it truly is. At least it wasn't to my eyes, at any rate; but I'm not a faithful judge of that. Who knows how God used/is using/will use those conversations to glorify His Christ.

Long story short, though, God used these discussions over the weekend to put a renewed fire in my soul to continue learning Scripture as much as I possibly can, and to preach the Gospel with less timidity. I feel frustrated that Jesus' glory is being trampled on everywhere we turn! In short, God gave me a renewed vision for evangelism this weekend. And I wanted to share this here because I believe this vision is important not just for me, but as an encouragement to any brothers and sisters who might read this.

In our spreading the good news of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross, His glory is at stake. God does not "need" our help in order to declare the glory of His Son; He can certainly make rocks cry out, or raise up Abraham's children from among them. However, as Christians, we have the extreme privilege of being able to bless, and be blessed, by declaring God's plan for salvation, and in this, to not only see souls brought into eternal glory... but to also see the glory of Jesus Christ be declared as the perfected, divine, awe-inspiring, mouth-stopping thing that it is! This, alone, should give us reason to preach the Gospel to every person that we meet!

When the truth of Christ's work on the cross as a divine propitiation for the sins of mankind is not preached, His glory does not shine forth as splendidly as it should. So, let's ask God that He would give us monthly, weekly, even daily opportunities to preach of the cross to others, and when we do so, let us remember that we preach not only of personal salvation, but of the glory of Christ!

Are not the rich the ones who "passively woo" you into court?

2008-04-22T18:05:00.009-05:00

ὲλκύω or ὲλκω

The Greek dictionary of the 1990 edition of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible defines this word as "to draw", stating that it is "probably akin to αίρέοαι", which means "to take for oneself, i.e. to prefer: - choose."

I recently read through the epistle of James this last weekend, and found that it is the word that is used for "drag" in James 2:6-

But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?

What's my point in taking the time to mention this? The point is that it is the exact same word used for "draw" in John 6:44, spoken by Jesus himself:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

If this is the same word used for the rich oppressors who "drag" their defendants into court... then the action that God uses to "draw" His own unto Christ is no mere passive wooing, my friends! It is surely a powerful action, one that God uses effectively to bring men to salvation... and no one can come to Christ... unless God the Father first draws them.

Recognition of a need for a Savior

2008-04-09T22:36:00.003-05:00

I was converted by seeing a man executed; for, thought I, if a man be thus punished with death for breaking one of the laws of men; what do I then deserve, who have broken all the laws of God?

-Anonymous, telling the story of his conversion, in A Lifting up for the Downcast, by William Bridge

Luther on repentance

2008-04-09T21:07:00.006-05:00

Still going to finish my posts on "Why I'm not a not a Catholic"... I promise!

But here's a little something to tide over while my busy semester wraps up. It's a quote from Martin Luther on what true repentance is, why we are not forgiven on the basis of our wanting to "do better", and how we find assurance in this:

A Christian remains firmly attached to Christ and says, "If I'm not good, Peter wasn't either, but Christ is good." Such are the elect. Others say, "God is gracious to me because I hope to amend my ways," but this is only a gallows repentance; the heart isn't in it. Although the wicked sometimes have compunctions (so they call them) - that is, promise themselves that they will be good - they soon depart from the straight path and seek to merit a reward. But a Christian says, "I wish to do as much as I can, but Christ is the bishop of souls. To him will I cling, even if I sin." It is thus that one has assurance.

Luther's Free Beer: on hold

2008-03-30T20:17:00.001-05:00

Looks like Brother Martin is going to have to wait a bit for that cold one... the semester hit a busy spell, so I'll be out of blogging commission until things slow back down a bit!

Stay tuned.

Luther's Free Beer, Part 3: "Righteousness is obtained through faith" (part 2)

2008-03-17T22:39:00.002-05:00

There are many who would disagree with me on these points, though, and would oppose the idea of the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us. Many believe that our own righteousness is to be obtained as a result of our own works, or rather by some combination of Christ's work and our own. We have already looked at some of the verses that one might use to oppose imputed righteousness, so I won't go back over them, but I would like to look here at one more passage:

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."
-Matthew 7:21-23

Surely this is good evidence that God doesn't justify us through our faith alone, but also through works! Jesus Himself is saying that those who say "Lord, Lord," won't necessarily be saved, but that they must also follow God's will in order to be saved, right? I don't think so... again, I see this approach as a reversal of what God has actually revealed in these passages. Just like with the passages that we looked at in James, I think that this is a question not of works as the basis of justification, but as the evidence of true faith. To make this more clear, let's look at the six verses leading up to what Jesus will say in verses 21-23:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
-Matthew 7:15-20

It seems more clear in this context that Jesus is not claiming that one must follow God's will in order to be saved, but that those who are saved will inevitably follow God's will! Just because somebody does a good deed does not mean that they have the Spirit of God working in them to glorify Him through these actions. Salvation is not ultimately about works, even works done in the name of God. However, again, as Jesus says here, justification will necessarily lead to sanctification... but sanctification can never lead to justification! There may be some who would ask me, "What's the big deal, Chris? This is just a small difference in meaning. There's no need to cause a fuss over this!"

Ahh... but I would disagree greatly with that disagreement! :o) There is great need, indeed!

Firstly, an interpretation of these passages of Scripture which allows us to believe that we are ultimately saved by the things that we do (i.e. our sanctification leads to our own justification) builds a doorway for legalism to enter in with great ease. This is not in the spirit of Christianity, for in the words of John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Secondly, and more importantly, the very glory of God is at stake here! When we begin to get our eyes off of ourselves and our own works, we turn them to Christ, and see the wonderful nature of His holy majesty and perfect righteousness! God must get the glory in our salvation, not us. However, this opens up many questions that are debated among Christians, which I will not get into here here and now, but I will say this about my personal experience here: when I started to understand more of how the Bible declares that I was saved from my sin, my eyes were opened to see the beauty of salvation, and what an amazing thing it is to even be called a child of God! Here are just two of the many verses which show why it is that I feel unending gratitude to God for being His son:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
-John 6:44

But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
-John 10:26-27

Or take also the words of Christ that we have already seen from Matthew. What is Jesus' reaction to those who claim to follow Him, and even do good works in His name, yet will not see salvation? "And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Jesus didn't know them? But Jesus is God, right? So shouldn't He know everything?! It's clear that Jesus is using a different definition for the word "know" here when referring to these people. It's the same "know" that is used in Amos 3:2 when God says of Israel, "you only have I known of all the families of the earth." God certainly knew about all of the families on earth... but there were only certain people on whom He chose to set His divine love. Or, when the Bible records that Adam "knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain", we can be sure that Adam did a lot more than have intellectual recognition of his wife in order for her to become pregnant!

The point I'm trying to make here is not only that the people who come to God saying, "Lord, Lord," yet are rejected by Him, are not justified by their works, but that these people do not follow Christ because they are not of His chosen adopted children, not of His flock. It is this adoption which gives the Spirit, it is this Spirit which gives true sanctifying power, and it is this sanctification which is the fruit of true faith, not the basis of justification. The sheep of Christ's flock make themselves known by the transforming power that is in them, and by their love (John 13:35), but it is not these signs which allow them to be in the flock in the first place. Christ's sheep are not His flock because they do what He says... they do what He says because they are in His flock!

Well, if we are not saved through our own works, but through our faith in Christ, how can it be that one can receive this faith? That question will be tackled in the next part, "Faith is a gift", but I would ask you to ponder over these verses until then:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
-Ephesians 2:8-10

Luther's Free Beer, Part 3: "Righteousness is obtained through faith" (part 1)

2008-03-17T15:55:00.007-05:00

If the Bible teaches that our righteousness is not obtained through works of the law, then how is it possible for one to be justified and declared as righteous in the sight of a perfectly holy God?! Thankfully, it seems that Scripture is a bit more clear on this point. There are many passages in the Bible which attest to justification by faith alone, but let's start with just a couple which, by themselves, could be considered the veritable battle cries of the Reformation:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
-Romans 3:28

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
-Romans 10:10

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
-John 6:47

It may need to be reiterated at this point that justification by faith alone is true not only because it is how justification is presented in the Bible, but also because salvation by faith alone is absolutely necessary for God, who is just, to be able to declare us to be righteous. "Righteous", by definition, means "without guilt or sin". We are humans who are sinful by our very nature, and therefore, we have never had, we do not presently have, and we will never have any righteousness of our own. Because of this, if we are to ever be labeled as "righteous", this title needs to be obtained by another on our behalf, and given to us. This process - a transaction, if you will - is called imputation:

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."
-Romans 4:5-8

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
-Romans 4:3

The only righteous being to ever walk this earth was our very God Himself who came in fully human form as Jesus Christ. It was His righteousness, not our own, that not only appeases His own holy wrath against sin through obedience to the law, but also fulfills the demand for worship that is required of a perfectly glorious and awesome creator being (i.e. Jesus not only never committed any sin of commission, He also never committed any sin of omission). This fulfillment of the requirements of righteousness is then given to us through faith, and makes a propitiation for God's wrath against our sin:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 5:1

This transaction, this imputed righteousness, was at the very heart of the Gospel for the reformers. Martin Luther was once tormented by Paul's letter to the Roman church, particularly by one key passage:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed...
-Romans 1:16- (first half of) 17

Luther simply couldn't understand how God's own righteousness being revealed to us could ever possibly be "good news" to us who have no righteousness of our own! And his torment was very understandable, because during Luther's era, verses like these were interpreted by the Church in this way, as God's own actively righteous state being displayed to us, and his anger being set against us, compelling us to do good works to appease His wrath. This also made Luther angry against God, because in this verse Luther viewed God as crushing us with the impossible requirements of the law and threatening us with punishment through the Gospel!

But then Luther continued to contemplate the rest of this verse:

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17

It was upon reflexion of the full meaning of this verse that Luther realized that God's "righteousness" named here did not refer to His active righteousness by which He sets His anger against all sin, but rather His passive righteousness that He reveals to sinners by giving it to them, ascribing His own righteousness to those who were once completely unrighteous:

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

Furthermore, he saw that this imputed righteousness is the way by which the spiritually dead are made alive and given salvation:

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

And what are the means by which God chooses to give His righteousness to us sinners?

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

Luther's Free Beer, Part 2: "Righteousness is not obtained through works" (part 2)

2008-03-14T18:27:00.000-05:00

In closing, however, I would like to quickly address the fact that there are some texts in the Bible that have been used to support the idea that justification is obtained through both faith and works. I believe, however, that this reading of the passages is a case of misinterpretation, or rather, misapplication of the text. Let's just look at one section of the Bible, which contains some of the most famous passages of this sort, James, chapter 2. The main prooftexts for perfected justification by works are verses 14, 17, 20, 22, and 24:

14: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

17: So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

20: Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

22: You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works

24: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

However, I don't believe that what James is referring to here is the basis of justification, but rather the fruit of justification. He has already noted, along with Paul, that we are all sinners and have transgressed the law of God, and, therefore, should justly be under His wrath: "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." (verse 10) Therefore, James did not believe that we humans can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, because we have all transgressed it. Moreover, James was speaking this truth about Christians, because it was to "the twelve tribes" that he wrote this epistle. He recognized that even those who had the Spirit in them could not keep the law perfectly.

In verse 14, it seems that James is referring to a question not of works as the basis of justification, but as the evidence of true faith. "If someone says he has faith", James writes, and continues, "can that faith save him?" What kind of faith is it that this person says he has? Is it merely a knowledge of the facts of the Gospel? "I believe in God," one might say. Can this belief alone save them? No, for even the demons believe this (verse 17), and they are certainly not of God's children. What if someone says, "I believe in Jesus"? Are they saved by this kind of faith? No; for, again, Satan and his own know who Jesus is better than we do (Mark 1:24). What, then, if someone says, "I not only believe in Jesus, but I also believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came to earth to be an atoning sacrifice for those who have faith in that sacrifice. I also believe that He was raised to life by God and now sits in heaven at His right hand." Surely, this person, with this kind of faith must be saved! Right? Still, I say no, not necessarily, because these are all facts of our world that Satan himself is fully aware of. However, saving faith is the kind of faith which allows a person to say, "I believe that all of these things are true... and that they apply to me! Not only do I believe that Jesus came to die, but that He came to die in my place!"

And it is this kind of faith, the kind of faith which can only be obtained through the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Corithians 12:3), that will save a person. Furthermore, because this kind of faith comes by the power of the Spirit, it is a transforming faith, a faith that will necessarily produce the fruit of the Spirit. I believe that this is the important framework of knowledge to have while reading these passages. For surely, faith, without the fruit of the Spirit, without the ability and desire to obey the commands of God, is not a saving faith, but a dead faith. This faith is not the kind of faith which saves, it is not the kind of faith which is living, and it is not the kind of faith that produces works... because is not the kind of faith which is given to the children of God by the Holy Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel!

Luther's Free Beer, Part 2: "Righteousness is not obtained through works" (part 1)

2008-03-14T18:11:00.003-05:00

This second part of the reason why Martin Luther's gettin' a frosty pint from me in heaven is very closely related to the first. We've already seen that, due to original sin, there is no person who has a righteousness of their own. We are all contaminated by sin (Romans 8:23) and cannot possibly give ourselves as a pure atonement for ourselves, nor for others. Nevertheless, just as the sin-atoning sacrifices of the covenant of Abraham in the Old Testament required the shed blood of a spotless sacrifice in order for the sin of the people to be forgiven, so the covenant of Christ in the New Testament requires the shed blood of a spotless sacrifice to the same end. This has already been accomplished by Jesus Christ's righteousness and sacrifice... because it could not be accomplished by us.

Well, this often doesn't ring too well with the individualistic nature of us humans, since we like to do things on our own. We like to try to be autonomous creatures. We like to think that we are able to do enough so that we can work our way from sinfulness to a righteous, holy state. We know intrinsically that we are not perfect, so we want to try to do things in order for God to forget our sinful state, and justify us based on our works. "If I'm just good enough," we say, "I'll surely go to heaven when I die." This common desire to atone for our fallenness by human means is clearly opposed in Scripture. Here are just a few passages to look at, but there are many others to be found-

1) Works will not justify us before God:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
-Romans 3:20

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith."
-Galatians 3:10-11

Again, we must recognize why this is impossible, in order to get ourselves out of a legalistic mindset. As the Apostle Paul indicates clearly in Romans 5:18-19, all human beings are justly under condemnation because of the original sin committed in the Garden of Eden. We did not take the fruit ourselves, but it was taken for us by a just and fair representative of the human race, and the judgment rendered in response to this rebellion was rightly imputed to each and every one of us. Therefore, each and every one of us is contaminated by sin, and cannot fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.

2) Christ died to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law on our behalf:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
-Romans 10:4

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
-Galatians 2:21

The beauty of the Gospel is that the very same God who demands that which we cannot possibly do fulfills His own perfect requirement by Himself. We cannot do it, but God did it for us. And for each and every one who looks not to their own efforts to be saved, but places their faith in the righteousness of Christ, this fulfillment of the righteous requirements of the law by Jesus is ascribed to them. This is what is meant by imputed righteousness... a concept which is opposed by the Catholic church, and the "New Perspectives" movement... but is, itself, the very heart of the Gospel! How can the news of a requirement which we cannot fulfill ourselves possibly be "good"?! If our justification were to be obtained through our perfect obedience to the law, then the Gospel would cease to be good news. But furthermore, if our salvation were even to be maintained by our obedience to the law... this still wouldn't be good news! Our sanctification cannot be made perfect until our glorification, which will not happen in this world. Therefore, even for those who are in Christ, who are given the power of the Holy Spirit to sanctify them, to conform them to the image of the Son, they cannot possibly be made sinless this side of heaven, and so cannot fulfill the righteous requirements of the law even after their conversion! This is the very problem that the early church in Galatia struggled with, and Paul properly rebuked them for:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
-Galatians 3:1-3

The answer to Paul's rhetorical question is an emphatic "no!" He realized that, even after the commencement of human sanctification, the "flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63), and our salvation is not perfected by it. What then is Paul's answer to the bondage of law that the Galatians were placing upon themselves? It was Christ who fulfilled the law, that we might be free from it:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"
-Galatians 3:13

It was Paul's correct understanding of the Gospel that lead him to preach that "the righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17, Habakkuk 2:4). You see, Christianity in fact is a works-based religion... it's just not our works which count! Christ has done the work that we could never do. It is through the faith which is given to us, not through our works, that our salvation is both begun and perfected. This, then, leads me to the next discussion, "Righteousness is obtained through faith".

Luther's Free Beer, Part 1: "Man has no righteousness of his own"

2008-03-11T15:17:00.013-05:00

Okay, let's start this...

At the heart of the dividing line between the Protestant and Catholic belief systems is the question of how man is made righteous before God. Both sides recognize that we, as human beings, are sinful, and that our sin needs to be atoned for in order for us to be justified in God's sight; however, they differ greatly in their views of precisely how this justification is obtained.

It seems that Bob Dylan might be a Protestant:

You can't get to glory by the raising and the lowering of no flag.
Put your goodness next to God's and it comes out like a filthy rag.
In a city of darkness there's no need of the sun
And there ain't no man righteous, no not one.
-"Ain't No Man Righteous (No Not One)"

Why do I say that I think Dylan is a Protestant based on these lyrics? Well, he's alluding to Isaiah 64:6 when he compares our goodness and God's goodness ("We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment."), and to Psalm 14:1-3 and Romans 3:10-12 when he declares that no man is righteous ("As it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.' ").

But don't both Catholics and Protestants believe this? What's the problem, then? Well, to understand the full effects of the truths of these verses, we need to understand how the Bible presents the concepts of original sin, justification, and sanctification.

The term "original sin" means that, since the fall of mankind to sin, we humans - as descendants of Adam - are no longer born holy, righteous, without sin. More than that, we are not even born morally neutral! Rather, we are born in a state of sin (Psalm 51:5) and, as an entire race, are condemned and justifiably under God's holy wrath. Paul states clearly this condition of our inevitable condemnation in Romans 5:18-19. However, in the same breath, intertwined in those very same sentences, he gives a hope for us condemned sinners, the righteous life of Christ:

Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

The importance of recognizing the truth of original sin for the full understanding our own justification is found in the fact that, as the Bible teaches the hopelessness of man's condition (if left to himself!), it shows us that man can do nothing to bring himself to righteousness, to justify himself in God's sight. God requires perfect holiness - not just our best effort! - in order to proclaim a human being as righteous. I will say it again: God requires perfect holiness, not a single drop of sin, to proclaim a person to be righteous. If we are born in sin, condemned by the fall of Adam, we cannot, absolutely cannot have this righteousness on our own! Therefore, if we cannot justify ourselves, then it must be God who justifies (Romans 8:33), and He must justify on the basis of something outside of us, since He requires an absolutely perfect holiness for the atonement of sin, and such a holiness cannot be found in any one of us.

A couple more verses to ponder over:

Do not enter into judgment
with your servant,
For in Your sight no one
living is righteous.
-Psalm 143:2

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good – except God alone."
-Luke 18:19

Relevant to the discussion of original sin and justification is sanctification. This term refers to the very real life transformation that every Christian begins experiencing from the very moment that they believe upon the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for their sins. This is an ongoing process of conforming us to "the image of the Son" (Romans 8:29) that enables us to turn from sin and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, begin living a life that glorifies Christ. However, this process is not perfect: sanctification does not make us perfect like Christ is perfect. Rather, it is a word (which means, literally, "to set apart") given for the very gradual process by which we are given the power to choose holiness over sinfulness... but it will not be perfected in this life. We cannot become perfect beings who never commit sin while we are still living on this earth, in these bodies.

I stress this point of understanding the Biblical definition of sanctification (Paul makes his stance on this matter very clear in his epistle to the Romans, if you would like to know more) because there are many who seem to confuse sanctification with justification, or will even collapse the two categories into one. The latter is the stance that the Roman Catholic church takes, which I do not believe is Biblically sound. Justification and sanctification are two very different things that happen in the Christian life! Rome would have us believe that we are justified not only by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, but also by a life-long process of sanctification. I believe that this is simply not true, and that it is not supported in the Bible*. Our sanctification is the fruit of our justification, it is not the basis for our justification! Justification will inevitably lead to sanctification, but sanctification can absolutely never lead to justification.

If we are to believe that the Bible teaches that no man is righteous, that God demands an entire life of perfect living in order to justify, and that what semblance of righteousness that man might have within himself is as filthy rags in the sight of God, then we must concede that man cannot be justified on the basis of something that God might see inside of him. This point leads me to the Biblical teaching that our righteousness is not based on works, which I will discuss in the next part.

*There are some texts which have been used to support the idea of justification based on human works, but I will discuss this later.

"Why I am not Catholic" (or "Why I am going to buy brother Martin a beer when I get to heaven")

2008-03-11T00:18:00.012-05:00

If you’ve ever read any of my blog posts before, it is most likely completely obvious to you that I am a Protestant Christian - even an Evangelical Christian if you will… but that I am certainly not of the Catholic persuasion.

If pressed to answer the question, “Why are you Protestant?” I might respond with a simple, “Because I’m not Catholic.” And to a prodding, “Why, then, are you not Catholic?” I would probably retort with a resounding, “Uhh…”

Needless to say, this is not exactly in the Berean spirit. When Paul and Silas brought to the Bereans the good news of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of those who would believe in him through faith, the book of Acts tells us that the Bereans “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Ah, so that’s what that big Book is for!

So, when a friend recently asked me why I am of the Protestant faith, and determinedly not of the Catholic faith, I decided to become a Berean on this matter. And let me tell you… it has been a very eye-opening experience for me, to say the least! Not only has my belief in the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to my eternal being been strengthened, but I had no clue how much our God has revealed to us in His Scriptures concerning this matter!

What will follow in the next couple of weeks is a six-part blogging session on “Why I am not a Catholic” (alternative title: "Why I am going to buy brother Martin a beer when I get to heaven"). I will attempt to look at many Scripture references, but these are only the ones that I was able to find in a single night of searching. After compiling six whole pages of texts, I finally decided to give up, figuring that what I have found might be sufficient to “give a defense for the hope that is within me” (1 Peter 3:15). But trust me: there is much more to be found!

The six parts will be “Man has no righteousness of his own”, “Righteousness is not obtained through works”, “Righteousness is obtained through faith”, “Faith is a gift”, “Christ’s righteousness justifies, not man’s”, and “Perseverance of faith”.

I invite anyone who might be reading this (do I hear crickets?) to dialog with me as I present what I believe to be God's plan for salvation, as it is revealed in the Scriptures to be the righteousness of Christ's active obedience to the law, imputed to us by grace, through faith.

I’ll leave you with the following verse to chew on before tackling these topics in the coming weeks:

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
-Colossians 2:8

Our pardon is an act of justice

2008-02-27T19:09:00.001-06:00

There is probably no passage in the Scriptures in which the doctrine of justification is more concisely or clearly stated than [this]. Our sins were imputed to Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins; we are clothed in his righteousness... Christ bearing our sins did not make him morally a sinner... nor does Christ's righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral quality of our souls... Our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so that they were a satisfaction of justice; and his righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with God... [so that] our pardon is an act of justice.

-Charles Hodge, on 2 Corinthians 5:21

The Gospel is for believers!

2008-02-25T12:32:00.007-06:00

Now, here's the point that feels most important to me this morning:

I want you to see that the Gospel is the power of God... for all of that! Not just for conversion, not just for justification; for salvation, for the whole thing!

And so we need to hear the Gospel again, and again, and again, because it is not only the power of God that converts us. It is the power of God that sanctifies us! It is the power of God that sustains us! It is the power of God that keeps us persevering in the faith!

Faith comes from hearing the message, and that doesn't just meant justifying faith. Sanctifying faith comes from hearing the message! Persevering faith comes from hearing the message! And that's why Paul said in verse 15 that he is so eager to preach the Gospel to believers! The Gospel is for believers!

-Mike Shea, on Romans 1:16

The Gospel is the POWER of God!

2008-02-25T12:18:00.005-06:00

Now, does not this understanding of the Gospel motivate you to proclaim it? Don't you just wanna tell it to someone?! Just to see what happens?! I became more liberated to preach the Gospel when I came to understand that the Gospel is not a product that you pitch! It is the power of God!

I don't wanna overstate the point, and say that all persuasion and apologetics is unnecessary, but primarily your job is not to persuade, and convince, and cajole people into believing! Your job as an ambassador of Christ is simply to deliver the message, and the message is able, all by itself, to give sight to the spiritually blind, and awaken the spiritually dead!

-Mike Shea, on Romans 1:16

God's response to Moses's request to see His glory

2008-02-21T20:51:00.006-06:00

Another snippet from Mike's second sermon:

"So in chapter 9 Paul will teach us about God's election with these words:

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

Now, that's a quotation from Exodus 33, which tells the story of Moses going up on the mountain to intercede for the salvation of idolatrous Israelites and to receive the new tablets of the law. And while he's up there enjoying God's presence he makes a bold request. I'll read from Exodus 33:18 and 19-

Moses said, "Please show me your glory." And [God] said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name (for the sake of His name)... my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Now get this; get this! ...

Moses asked for glory... and God showed him election!"

God is the Gospel

2008-02-21T20:36:00.004-06:00

So, I haven't had much time lately to do much reading outside of preparing for my M.A. exams (ahh!! next week!!), but I have been able to listen to some sermons on the way to/from school. I thought I might start posting some excerpts of stuff that I hear. Right now, I'm starting from the beginning of the several-year series on Romans that my pastor is currently doing. Here's something he said during the second sermon:

"In Isaiah 48:11, God says:

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.

We're going to encounter some difficult doctrines as we go through the book of Romans: total depravity, election, predestination. But the glory of these difficult doctrines will begin to appear to you when you understand that God does everything for the sake of His name! The Gospel is not ultimately the gospel of salvation, it's the gospel of God. It's all about His glory among the nations... and He saves people in a way that maximizes the display of His splendor!"

Daily employing the Spirit and new nature

2008-02-18T20:05:00.001-06:00

Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin, is to neglect that excellent succour which God hath given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more. His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.

-John Owen, from The Mortification of Sin

The still, deep waters of sin

2008-02-18T20:02:00.003-06:00

Sin doth not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still labouring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone: but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times, in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

-John Owen, from The Mortification of Sin

The Soul and Substance of All False Religion

2008-02-16T14:32:00.003-06:00

The principal efficient cause of the performance of this duty is the Spirit mentioned (v. 11), the 'Spirit of Christ', the Spirit of God that dwells in us (v.9), that quickens us (v.11), the 'Spirit of adoption' (v.15), the Spirit that maketh intercession for us (v.26). All other ways of mortification are vain; all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit. Men, as the apostle intimates (Rom. 9:30-32), may attempt this work on other principles, by means and advantages administered on other accounts, as they always have done and do: but (saith he) this is the work of the Spirit; by him alone it is to be wrought, and by no other power is it to be brought about. Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.

-John Owen, from The Mortification of Sin, on Romans 8:13

The Ultimate Christian Hedonist!

2008-02-15T00:23:00.018-06:00

"Christian hedonism"?!

Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, huh? The word hedonism certainly doesn't naturally bring to one's mind the word Christian... and most Christians I know are hardly ever accused of being hedonists!

Well, hang on with me here for a bit; let's break it down. American Heritage Dictionary gives the following definition for hedonism:

he·don·ism (hēd'n-ĭz'əm)
n.

.
2.

Philosophy

3. Psychology

And - at the risk of being labeled naive - let's assume that whoever is reading this has formed an appropriate definition for the word Christian*. So, then, what is this Christian hedonism?

The first question/response of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is as follows:

1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.

This is what man was created for. Period. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing else will do. God created us that we might glorify Him, and experience our greatest enjoyment when we do so. Or, as John Piper puts it: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

So, then, hedonism, in this light, can be defined as the pursuit of pleasure, as it is ultimately found in the satisfaction of doing that which one is created for. If we believe that, as men and women who were created in the image of the holy Godhead, we were created for the glorification of our Creator, then Christian hedonism can further be defined as the pursuit of pleasure, as it is ultimately found in the glorification of Christ.

Christian hedonism. Wow. Yeah... that sits right with my soul.

What brought up the idea of posting on this was reading through Psalm 104 a couple of times tonight while in a bar, of all places (Psalm 104:15 is also pertinent here for Christian hedonism... but for different reasons! ;) ). Here are the verses that hit me:

This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan which You have made to play there.
-Psalm 104:25-26

I think I remember my pastor preaching on these verses sometime this summer, but I don't have my notes with me here in the bar, and I can't for the life of me remember exactly what he said off the top of my head (sorry, Mike!), so much of what I'm going to say about this passage may or may not be a repetition of what he already said. But hey... nothing new under the sun, right?

As far as I understand it, the Leviathan was a beast of unknown identity that was really, really big. And I don't think that it is mere coincidence that we don't know exactly what species of animal this creature was. In fact, it seems that those who lived during this time didn't even know exactly what the Leviathan was. There's a reason for this: God made it to play in the great and wide sea.

Do you see where I'm going with this? The Leviathan, one of the largest creatures recorded in the holy Scriptures, was unknown to man, and yet still gave God glory. How? How could this creature possibly glorify God if nobody was around to witness the glorification?! By playing in the sea; by simply doing that which it was created to do.

You see? God's own self-glorification is not all about us: we don't even have to be around for it to happen. God was glorifying Himself, His Son, and His Holy Spirit since before the creation of all known worlds! That we even get to participate in this glorification is, in itself, an act and manifestation of pure grace!

For the Leviathan, it's as if God was saying, "Go forth, my creation: play in the deep. No one will ever see you, yet you will glorify Me simply by being you, as you are meant to be, as I have created you."

For us, we have the same divine calling. However, our playground is not the depths of the sea, but the depths of Christ. When we swim in these depths, and find our deepest satisfaction therein, God is glorified in the highest way that we humans can possibly glorify Him!

*This word is often misrepresented/misused. All kidding aside, if you are unsure of what a "Christian" truly is, please shoot me an email... I would be more than happy to talk about it!

An old fresh perspective on money

2008-02-13T00:54:00.004-06:00

"Jamais l'argent ne me parut une chose aussi présieuse qu'on la trouve. Bien plus, il ne m'a même jamais paru fort commode; il n'est bon à rien par lui-même, il faut le transformer pour en jouir."

"Money has never seemed to me as precious as people think it is. Moreover it has never even seemed very useful to me; for it has no value in itself and must be transformed to be enjoyed."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, Book 1

Expository Notes: Psalm 2

2008-02-07T11:10:00.000-06:00

What is the structure of this psalm?

1) The nations rage against the Lord and His anointed (1-3)

kinds

bonds

freedom

bondage

2) The Lord in heaven holds them in derision and wrath (4-6)

laughs

-He doesn’t even bother to rise up against them in battle, for He knows the futility of their reaction against His holy Anointed One!

speaks

-His words alone are completely effective, bringing distress even to those who do not trust in Him!

declares

yet

In spite of your plans

vain thing

3) The Son proclaims the decree of His anointing and inheritance (7-9)

God’s Son

more powerful:

His own Son

begotten of YHWH

shall certainly not

needs but ask

already prayed:

be part of the holy communion of the saints

be sanctified

be protected from sin

receive Christ’s glory

give Christ glory in heaven

well pleased

nations

ends of the earth

all glory

all things

given

broken with a rod of iron, and dashed to pieces likes a potter’s vessel

wrath

against sin

glory in merciful salvation

“That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory.”

4) Advice is given to the kings to yield obedience to the Lord’s anointed (10-12)

How

as wisdom

-It is wise to receive instruction and advice… especially when it leads to a soul’s salvation!

When

Now

Not later

His own terms

His own timing

now

might never come

What

serve

rejoice

fear and trembling

to rejoice

have been purchased by the blood of the Anointed Lamb

as a gift

-“Fear, without joy, is torment; and joy, without holy fear, would be presumption.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Why

just sentence

othing greater than this truth

Who

what

put their trust in Christ

be blessed eternally

imputed to us

Expository Notes: Psalm 1

2008-02-06T22:21:00.001-06:00

Alli and I have started a weekly Bible study on the book of Psalms, and plan on going through one each week together. I thought I might start putting up my notes that I prepare for the study. Feel free to agree, disagree, or just comment!

----------------
An introduction to Psalms, a preface to the entire book. The themes of the book are already represented here in the first chapter.

How does one recognize the man of God?

-Negatively:

walks not

stands not

sits not

(Note the downward gradation, the corruption of sin: walk, stand, sit.)

-Positively:

delights

under

meditates

How is the man of God blessed?

-Finds delight

always near

bring forth fruit

will not wither

shall prosper

Images of water and growth:

-How is God’s word represented? As life-giving water.

-An ever-flowing stream, one that will never cease to give life.

-Man who meditates on God’s law = tree planted by the rivers of water.

planted

“Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”

-How does a leaf wither?

-From lack of water.

-From lack of fruit-bearing. If there are no nutrients to bear fruit, there will not be any to keep the leaf from withering either.

What about the ungodly?

-They are not eternal, their ways will not stand.

-Like the chaff which the wind drives away.

-They shall not stand in the judgment.

stand up

in the congregation

but in heaven

The righteous are saved because the Lord knows their way.

is knowing

He certainly knows our way

delight in His law

meditate on His word

word and presence is as important and supporting

bear fruit

does not wither

Christ's Ceaseless Love

2008-02-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall be last.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, from "Morning & Evening", February 4

A Righteousness That Is By Faith

2008-02-03T13:56:00.001-06:00

I can't encourage you enough to download this morning's amazing sermon on justification, Law, and faith! Please, please. I'm serious. (Just click, and then go to "File", "Save Page As" when the new page pops up)

Don't think you have enough time right now? Download it, and keep it around until you do.

Think that you don't need to because you already heard a sermon this morning? Well... I ate physical food this morning... and sort of plan on doing it again later today. Why not the same for spiritual food??

I don't want to give anything away by commenting on it here, so I'll just put a verse from "Before the Throne of God Above" (which I've posted here before), followed by a few of my notes from this morning:

My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heav'n He stands
no tongue can bid me thence depart.
Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me.

"The Law, in principle, is able to give life; but the Law, in fact, cannot give life because of sin."

"Righteousness was indeed the goal of the Law, but that goal could only be attained apart from the Law, by faith in Christ."

"We cannot be saved by practicing the Law of Moses, nor can we be saved by practicing the Law of Christ."

Listen, and by most blessed, brethren.

We Are Debtors

2008-02-03T13:51:00.000-06:00

'Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.'
Romans 8:12

As God’s creatures, we are all debtors to him: to obey him with all our body, and soul, and strength. Having broken his commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to his justice, and we owe to him a vast amount which we are not able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God’s justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt his people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God’s grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to his justice, for he will never accuse me of a debt already paid. Christ said, “It is finished!” and by that he meant, that whatever his people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. Christ, to the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God’s justice no longer. But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou owest to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might die for thee. Consider how much you owe to his forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts he loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your death in sin; how he has preserved your spiritual life; how he has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to his immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, he has not changed once. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast—yield thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, "Morning & Evening", January 5

More happy... but not more secure!

2008-01-13T20:44:00.001-06:00

I love, love, love, love, love...

...love hymns!!

There's nothing like the solid meaty truths threaded into the lyrics of a good hymn to get the blood pumping! Whew!

During this morning's service, we sung the hymn "A Debtor to Mercy Alone", by Augustus Toplady, author of the famous "Rock of Ages". My favorite line from this hymn comes at the end of the last verse:

Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

Why is this my favorite line? Assurance, baby!! Those who are already in heaven may be more happy than we on earth, for they now exist in the eternal glory of God, but the fact that they are already there does not make their eternal security any more sure than our own! Some may disagree with the idea of the "perseverance of the saints", but I believe that it is well supported in Scripture, and is a source of great joy for us who are redeemed sons and daughters of the LORD!

The apostle Paul wrote about this security in the eighth chapter of his epistle to the Roman believers, verses 28-30:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also 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.

Notice something very important in the "golden chain" of glorification here: Paul wrote about it in the past tense! Sure, there have been, and continue to be, various debates surrounding the different translations of the Bible, but however you slice it... the past is the past, and it is finished! Paul wrote about the future glorification of those "who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Romans 1:7) as if it had already happened!

At the risk of being deemed a Scripture-meddling heretic, I would like to try something with this golden chain; I would like to put it into the perfected past tense, and add the word already to highlight this perfected action, just to put emphasis on this chain having already been completed:

And those whom he has already predestined he has also already called, and those whom he has already called he has also already justified, and those whom he has already justified he has also already glorified.

Wow. What? Really?! It's as good as done?!?! You've got to be kidding me!!

Nope. Not kidding. God's calling is surely effectual, and He will perfect His own:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
-Philipians 1:6

Wow. Wow. Wow. Assurance of salvation? How is this possible?! Because God is just, that's how:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-1 John 1:9

How is glorification of the redeemed a necessary reaction of a just God? Because our LORD is not a God of double jeopardy: we can't be tried twice for the same crime in the courts of the Almighty Judge! The wages of sin is surely death (Romans 6:23), and God demands payment for offense to His holiness. But I don't believe that Jesus paid for the mere possibility of forgiveness at the cross... I believe that He actually satisfied the payment for the specific sins of specific people at the cross! If my debt has already been paid by Another, how can God, who is just, ever demand that I pay for that debt a second time by my own blood? He can't: for Him to do so would make Him unjust, which He is not. And furthermore, once a judgment of righteous status has been truly rendered by the LORD, how can it possibly be revoked?

But this doesn't mean that we get to continue sinning like we did before our spiritual rebirth! This objection to absolute justification and effectual perseverance was foreseen by Paul, and was therefore addressed in the sixth chapter of Romans, verses 1-11:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We would do well to consider ourselves already glorified even in our present state, for our justification has already been purchased for us by Christ, and "we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." However, because of this holy transaction - this imputation of Christ's justification and righteousness - we should first consider ourselves dead to sin... to live in it no longer... and to then rejoice with the glorified spirits in heaven that we also, being dead to sin, are already alive in Christ! Truly, truly: a new creation!!

Sweet mercy.

And God saw the light

2008-01-07T11:24:00.000-06:00

'And God saw the light'
Genesis 1:4

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness. We now note the special eye that the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light" - He looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, He looks on that light with peculiar interest; for not only is it dear to Him as His own handiwork, but it is like Himself, for "God is light."

It is pleasant for the believer to know that God's eye tenderly observes that work of grace that He has begun. He never loses sight of the treasure that He has placed in our earthen vessels. Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light, and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. It is very comfortable for me to know that I am one of God's people - but whether I know it or not, if the Lord knows it, I am still safe. This is the foundation, "The Lord knows those who are his."

You may be sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, and mourning over your darkness; yet the Lord sees "light" in your heart, for He has put it there, and all the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from His gracious eye.

You may have sunk low in despondency, and even despair; but if your soul has any longing toward Christ, and if you are seeking to rest in His finished work, God sees the "light." He not only sees it, but He also preserves it in you. "I, the Lord, do keep it." This is a precious thought to those who, after anxious watching and guarding of themselves, feel their own powerlessness to do so. The light thus preserved by His grace, He will one day develop into the splendor of noonday, and the fullness of glory. The light within is the dawn of the eternal day.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, "Morning & Evening", January 5

But grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ!

2008-01-04T11:02:00.000-06:00

The devotional reading for this morning was from 2 Peter 3, the first half of verse 18:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are many of these admonishments in the epistles that have often been very dear to my heart, since I find that they are filled - even in their brevity - with many Gospel truths that often escape us. This one is no exception.

Spurgeon, in commenting on this text for the morning devotional reading, says the following:

"He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus - as the heart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, 'Nearer, nearer'. Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. [...] An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us, is one of the best tests of growth in grace."

I believe that this is the flipside of the coin that I tried to look at in July (here and here). It's not an easy coin for us to examine, to be sure, but it is a necessary one. On the one side we find an exhortation to fight against sin, as in the words of John Piper:

"The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. [...] The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior."

On the other side we find a calling to seek after Christ, to know Him more today than we did yesterday, and more tomorrow than we do today. This is why the regenerated believer should seek to fight against sin: not in an attempt to justify himself, but as a means of growing closer to his Savior. We die to ourselves daily so that, daily, we might be able to love Christ more fully.

This is absolutely essential to the Christian life! Our own human attempts at holiness will not gain us anything before the judgment seat of the Almighty God (John 6:63), for the Law was not meant to save, but to point us to a Savior (Romans 5:20-21). Our right living does not justify us before a perfectly just God, for it is impossible for man to be holy in His sight on the basis of his own righteousness. Christ is righteous; we don't have to be...

...but! This striving for holiness is a mark of true regeneration, not because we sons and daughters are holier-than-thou legalists... but because it is sin which keeps us from growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior! This is why we should strive to keep God's commandments, and to exhort others to do the same, not in an attempt to polish our rusty exterior to pass it off as a shiny one, but in order to throw off all that might keep us from from running our race (Hebrews 12:1).

And this distinguishes the sons and daughters of God, for the world can try to appear holy through means of dressing up outward appearances, but only the Spirit of God can give the desire to know the Son more fully by turning from sin, and to Himself, the One who has already paid its penalty. And this can be a great encouragement to us in times of darkness, failure, and holy conviction. We will sin, it is inevitable. But when we sin, let's embrace God's loving rebuke, mourn the sinfulness of our hearts, and turn from our ways, all the while relishing in the full knowledge that it was never our own holiness which ever justified us in the first place. And let us be grateful for the fact that, even when we sin, the desire to turn from our sin, to be made whole, to know Christ more fully, is, itself, a wonderful priceless gift from the Author and Finisher of our faith.

It is good for a man to remain as he is? -Part 2

2007-12-31T18:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I started an idea about Biblical marriage and it's benefits. I began with Paul's... ummm... confusing views of celibacy. I don't think that I have much to comment on that other than what I wrote yesterday.

Today, however, I would like to look at a verse from Song of Solomon (a.k.a. Song of Songs, in some translations). Some people may shy away from this book of the Bible, and might think that it is not much more than an excuse for middle school boys to giggle excitedly over the thought of breasts as two grazing fawns. Others think that the book is not about marriage at all, but is rather a description of Christ, and His love for his Church (the popular worship song "His Banner Over Me" seems to take this stance).

I do indeed believe that it foreshadows the coming Messiah...

...but I also believe that it is about two lovers... and the joys of marriage and of... well... sex.

That's right: sex. I said it. So sue me. :o)

Anyway, the text I would like to look at here is from the fifth chapter, verse 1. These are the words of "The Beloved", the male lover:

I have come to my garden,
my sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh
with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb
with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with
my milk.

(To His Friends)
Eat, O friends!
Drink, yes, drink deeply,
O beloved ones!

No one can read these words and deny that this man finds utter joy in his wife! He has drunk deeply and found that the well is absolutely blessed! And not only that... but he encourages his friends to seek after their own wells that they might find joy in drinking as well.

Now, I also mentioned yesterday that I believe that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are not somehow different in character, as it seems that some tend to think. Rather, I believe that God is never-changing, and manifests Himself in similar ways throughout the whole of the Scriptures... if we are willing to dig deep enough to see it. This is important, because it means that the God who lovingly blesses marriages today is the same unchanging God who inspired Solomon to write these words.

We can even see this if we go back to the beginning of the institution of marriage: the creation of man... and of woman. Every day of Creation, God said two things: "Let there be," and "It is good." The only time that God says that something is not good is when He sees man alone (Genesis 2:18). And note that the reason why this is not good is not because sin has somehow defiled the sanctity of man, because this is before the Fall of mankind, before sin has even entered the Garden of Eden. God looked at Adam, in his perfect, sinless state... and declared that it was not good for him to be alone. Marriage was God's idea. And it was a good idea.

So how is all of this compatible with the idea that marriage was established by God first, and foremost, for His own glory? Well, to answer that, I'm going to have to pull (yes... once again!) from the writings of a certain pastor Piper. John Piper gives a very interesting definition of God's love:

"The reason God seeks our praise is not because he won't be complete until he gets it. He is seeking our praise because we won't be happy until we give it. This is not arrogance. It is love."

The reason why Piper says this is because we were created to serve God and to give Him glory. When God glorifies Himself, it is not arrogance; it is, in fact, drawing us to the very thing which will give us true joy. To Piper, God's love for His children is an outpouring of the everlasting action of God declaring His own glory. When we experience this glory... we find our joy.

So it is with marriage, I believe. As I posted in October, I believe that God created the marriage union in order to give Himself glory, to declare the perfect worth of His Son. For those who enter into a Biblical representation of this union... they see this glory, and they bask in the joy that they find there!

I hope you can see now that my personal view of marriage is not a cold-hearted idea, devoid of emotion. But, rather, I believe that marriage can be a source of extreme joy, in that, being a representation of Christ's love for His spotless bride, it points man to the source of its joy: the very God who created it.

It is good for a man to remain as he is? -Part 1

2007-12-30T16:14:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm back.

And Washington was awesome... as always.

I've got a couple of ideas that I wanted to flesh out on here. This first one will be a bit shorter (2 posts), and the next one quite a bit longer, I imagine (it will probably take me a few days to get it all out and on here).

I wrote a post in October about a "radical" view of marriage. Basically, it was about the idea that God established the institute of marriage first, and foremost, for His Name's sake. I still agree with this view, but I'm afraid that, in reading the post, some of you might have had the idea that I'm a cold-hearted you-know-what... that I view marriage as something which God created only for His glory; that the proclamation of His Name is the only benefit of the marriage union.

Not true. I believe that it fulfills first, and foremost, this role. However, I also believe that God, by choosing to give glory to Himself in this way, also gives joy to His creation... which, in turn, also gives Him glory.

I've got a text from Song of Solomon that I want to meditate on for a bit tomorrow, but I think I'd like to first take a look at some excerpts from the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, which may seem at first to cause a bit of a problem for my view. It starts with verse 20:

Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.

Now, it seems that Paul talks here first of the futility of circumcision as a way of pleasing God (verse 19). However, he then extends his admonition to status of slaves, and then to marriage. Starting in verse 25, he says:

Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy.

I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress - that it is good for a man to remain as he is:

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

Paul says that his reasoning here is that those who are married split their energies between the Lord and their spouse (verses 32-33), and he adds that this counsel of his is given to the brethren not so that they may "have a leash put on them," but so that they may "serve the Lord without distraction" (verse 35).

Now, I have to admit something about my interactions with Paul's writings. Paul seems to have been one hard dude to get. I used to actually get mad when I would read his letters: I thought he was a pompous jerk. But, like many things that are found in Scripture, I started with a default position of acceptance, because I believe that, being in the Bible, they are the divinely inspired Word of the Lord Almighty. However, accepting Scripture and liking what Scripture has to say are often two very different things. But then, after more and more study... I began to find a source of immense joy in discovering their hidden truths. I'm now seeing that Paul's letters contain some of the most blessing-infused words I've ever read in Scripture. A detailed study of Paul's epistle to the church at Rome is rocking my world right now...

Anyway, I still agree with Peter when he says that some of Paul's writings are "hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16), and I would like to just say a couple of quick things before I move on to the Song of Solomon text (tomorrow).

Firstly, I think it is interesting that Paul goes to the trouble of specifically stating twice (verses 25 and 40) that this council is not a direct commandment from God, but rather a personal judgment. He even says back in verses 7-8 that he wishes that all men and women might remain single, as he is. However, he adds the words "But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that" (verse 7). It is clear that Paul recognizes that his personal calling for celibacy may not be the same for everyone.

Secondly, in anticipation of the next post, I would like to say that I would be tempted to disagree with the argument that says that what is written in Song of Solomon and what is written in 1 Corinthians are somehow at odds with one another, one book being from the Old Testament, the other being from the New Testament. I don't believe that there is any Scriptural support for the idea that God changes... that the God of the O.T. and the God of the N.T. are two different Beings in character and in deed. That being said, I would like anyone who is reading this post, and will read the post tomorrow, to share with me the mindset that the same God breathed the words found in both of these books.

I love this place!!

2007-12-17T12:49:00.001-06:00

Back in Washington for a few days! It's nice to see water and mountains again!!!

The pic above is downtown Olympia, the capital of this gorgeous state, and my hometown. Gotta love it!! ;-)

Won't be posting much for a while, but I have a couple of thoughts ready for when I get back...

How to Stunt the Growth of the Soul

2007-12-10T15:16:00.000-06:00

There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.

It is easy to make a mistake here. “If God gave it to me,” we say, “it’s mine. I can do what I want with it.” No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of – if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

-Elisabeth Elliot

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

2007-12-10T12:36:00.000-06:00

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
-Psalm 34:8

I once heard a wonderful analogy that was an extension of this verse. It was a comparison of the knowledge of God's goodness to the tasting of a cake. If you have tasted a cake, and found that it is wonderfully sweet on your tongue, you may try to explain the experience to others. You may try to explain the taste using the most descriptive words that you can find; you may tell of all of the ingredients that are used to make the cake and that give it its taste; you may even write down the recipe so that someone might be able to understand how the cake is made. However, until another person actually tastes the cake for their self... it is impossible that they will fully understand how good the cake actually is.

God continually allows me to taste more and more of Himself as He grows my faith. He is most certainly good, I can assure of you that. But I can also assure you that He faithfully remains good... even when the particular piece of cake that you are about to eat may not look very appetizing...

The Essence of Humility

2007-12-10T00:32:00.000-06:00

Casting your anxieties on God means trusting the promise that he cares for you and has the power and the wisdom to put that care to work in the most glorious way.

That trust is the opposite of pride. It's the essence of humility. It's the confidence that the mighty hand of God is not over you to crush you but to care for you just like the promise says. Don't be proud, but cast your anxieties on him because he will care for you.

Whenever your heart starts to be anxious about the future, preach to your heart and say, "Heart, who do you think you are to be afraid of the future and nullify the promise of God? No, heart, I will not exalt myself with anxiety. I will humble myself in peace and joy as I trust this precious and great promise of God—he cares for me."

-John Piper, "Are You Humble Enough to Be Care-Free?"

Take my life, Lord

2007-12-09T20:09:00.001-06:00

I'm in a coffee shop right now, listening to the hymn "Take My Life and Let It Be", by Frances R. Havergal (1874), on repeat. The lyrics of this hymn are so incredibly powerful for me, because they are at the same time the prayer of the deepest desire of my heart, as well as the desire that I pray that God would give to me: at once, the desire of my heart and the desire for my heart...

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

Hurry up and wait, already!

2007-12-06T23:30:00.000-06:00

Bippity...

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!
-Psalm 27:14

boppity...

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
-Psalm 62:5

boo.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
-Lamentations 3:25

Bam! 'Nuff said.
Chris... best listen up now!

Overwhelmingly fantastic!!

2007-12-06T19:59:00.000-06:00

Wow. When I moved here at the beginning of last year, the pastor of my church was in the middle of an exegesis of the book of Romans.

Well, I just read this sermon that he gave from the year before... and I'm now determined to hit the archives this summer and catch up on all of the pure gold that I missed!

Here are a couple of excerpts if you don't want to read the whole sermon (but I strongly suggest that you do!! It's not that long!):

The reason why people accuse the true gospel of being antinomian (licentious, lawless), is because they are ignorant of the power of the true gospel alone to transform lives. They think they need to add in some law to keep grace from leading people to run wild. But the truth is that preaching grace produces holiness and preaching law does not.
-Mike Shea

Wicked men will drown themselves in the rivers of truth as readily as in the pools of error…Many people think that they ought to guard the gospel, but it is never so safe as when it stands out in its own naked majesty. It needs no covering from us.
-Charles H. Spurgeon

Traversing the Storm

2007-12-04T11:57:00.000-06:00

If you ever have experienced, or currently are experiencing, a spiritual storm, then you know how incredibly difficult, lonely, and disorienting it can be. It's as if everything you once knew to be true has somehow slipped into darkness, and away from your sight. What can we possibly do in the midst of times like these?

I would encourage you all to read this great post by one of the members of Desiring God Ministries. I wish I would have read this a few years ago!

Here's a snippet from the end:

If you or a loved one is flying in a storm and despairing, remember your own perceptions, as real as they feel, are not reliable. As one who has tested them in a number of storms I can say with confidence: fly by the instruments God has provided you. They will not prove faulty.

May God bless you all by incredible means... even in the midst of a storm.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
-Psalm 40:1-3

2:30 am

2007-12-03T02:27:00.000-06:00

I slipped underneath my cold covers at about 12:30 tonight; not really that tired, but determined to get some sleep.

Two hours later, it's quite possible that I'm now even less tired... and that faithful determination is beginning to wear thin. The alarm is set for 7:15, and that's going to come awfully early.

I'm not entirely sure why, but my mind is racing a million miles a minute. It's in one of those misfortunately [sic] active stupors wherein it finds itself too tired to finish a thought before it recklessly storms on to the next one... and the next one... and the next one...

So here I blog now.
Weary as a dog now.

Whoops... there goes my mind again... off to a new thought.

I should probably go catch it before it gets itself into trouble.

Goodnight from Drowsy Town, Illinois. And may peace be with you.

The Reason for Graduate School

2007-11-29T19:43:00.000-06:00

I had an epiphany today.

And it only took me a year and a half, fancy that!

What is the purpose of grad school? I used to think that it was to learn more about your field in order to make you more effective in the work that you do. That's what everyone told me, at least.

You know what? It's a bunch of lies!

No, let me reveal to you, from an insider's perspective, the real reason behind the machine known as "graduate studies"... population control.

That's right. It's a filtering process, weeding out some, while leaving others in the pan.

I see only three possible outcomes for someone who is insane enough to actually go through with the masochism of grad school:

1. They survive.
2. They quit.
3. They die... some mentally, others emotionally... most literally.

Those in the first category will get jobs, those in the last two will not. And there aren't that many jobs floating around, last time I checked.

See? Population control.

Okay, enough of that... I'm off to go get less sleep than 0 hours a night... ha!

P.S. Oh, and by the way... I love it!

Give Men Time

2007-11-28T22:44:00.000-06:00

Wow, wow, wow... wow.

This blog post is great, and was really good for me to read, I think. I'd like to share it with you only because, even though it seems the author is referring to specific doctrines within the beliefs of Christianity, I think it has a direct extension to the whole of the Gospel, and our commandment to preach it to the world:

"It is easy to be frustrated with people for not being able to see and accept the truth instantly... Instead of those realities being seen for what they are (majestic and glorious) they are often seen through a vision that has been distorted by misrepresentations, and by expectations moulded by caricatures of the real thing."

It's funny that I read this today, because I was just having a discussion on this very topic with a friend last night. The Gospel itself is, in its very nature, offensive to the rebellious hearts of men. Until the scales fall from our shrouded eyes, we won't understand it, we can't understand it. What's more, the world sees misrepresentations of it all around. It would do us good to remember this.

We should remember that it is not our job to convert unbelievers, only to preach to them of the hope, glory, and joy of Christ's atoning sacrifice on a wooden cross. We cannot possibly know what kind of soil will catch the seeds that are planted by means of our proclamation of the Gospel: that is not our work, but the Spirit's. We need only plant, plant, plant, and not be impatient with people if we do not see immediate, direct evidence of the growth of those seeds.

The growth is God's business, not ours. We need but plant, be patient, and pray that God would give growth to the seed.

Preaching Quote Quiz - he said it!

2007-11-28T20:01:00.000-06:00

I was hoping for some more responses, but thank you, Peter, for pitching in a guess!

Nope, not Piper... think a little further back in the Church's history...

...actually, to the beginning of the Protestant movement, not to give too big of a hint.

That's right, it was Martin Luther who put such a strong emphasis on the teaching and understanding of doctrines, especially the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It was at the very core of the Gospel for those who believed in a reformation of the merit-based religion of Rome.

But why teach these doctrines, you ask? Isn't that a bit cold? a bit calculating? a bit formulaic?

I don't believe so, no.

Learning, understanding, and preaching solid, Scripturally-sound doctrines is a way of knowing about God.

"But I love God! I don't need to know about Him!"

Hmmm... try that with your spouse or significant other:

"Honey, I love you... but I don't know your birthday, or the color of your eyes, or your favorite song. But I certainly love you, don't I?"

Anyway, I thought it was interesting when I heard it, so I thought I'd throw it up here. Now back to the grind for me...

Preaching Quote Quiz - who said it?

2007-11-23T18:11:00.000-06:00

The following quote is from a well-known minister, and I'd like to see if anyone reading this can guess as to who said it. I will reserve commentary, because I don't wish to offend anyone who reads this, but I will say that it is my opinion that these words cut to the heart of the seemingly lax preaching of the Gospel in the hands of the modern American Church:

I gladly grant the honor to those who are preferred to me as eloquent preachers, and I don’t envy them. But they are praised because the common people admire them when they hear them tell clever stories and illustrations and play with words and allegories. They sleep and cough when we preach doctrines - especially the doctrine of justification - but prick up their ears at stories.

Now, no cheating! Just try to guess who might have said this about preaching in the Church... Post your guess as a comment, and I'll give the answer in a few days.

Oh, oh, oh!! Blessings!!

2007-11-20T14:39:00.000-06:00

Yo.

Feeling like you're not doing much good for the Kingdom if you're not a pastor/missionary/etc. ? Feeling like you can't serve God or show the love of Christ to others unless you're behind a pulpit or off in another country?

Bzzzzzzzz... wrong.

You should all take some time to read this short sermon outline.

Besides... Douglas Wilson is a theological stud-muffin.

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you!

Blood Diamond

2007-11-15T01:30:00.001-06:00

I just finished watching the movie "Blood Diamond" for the second time. Many people think that this movie has been too "hollywoodized" to have any artistic value, but I think it is an important movie, and appreciated it even more the second time around.

(Warning: spoiler coming up. Don't read if you haven't yet seen the film, but plan on watching it!)

There is a scene toward the end of the film which is one of the more beautifully heartbreaking moments I have experienced in cinema: an African fisherman, searching for a large diamond in the hopes of using it to free his son, who has been kidnapped by members of the Revolutionary United Front, has found the diamond, and his son.

However, the son, who has been psychologically ravished by the evils that he has been forced to both witness and perform, has a gun trained on his own father, blinded by the horrors that he has experienced, ready to pull the trigger.

The father calls to him, and reminds him of who he truly is, despite what he has done. The nearly possessive manifest evil that has invaded the child melts away upon hearing whom his father declares him to be.

The parallel to the purging of our own evil that imprisons us, as our Father calls us from the dead, even as we look upon Him with hate in our eyes, is undeniable. His proclamation to us as being righteous and unconditionally loved, despite all that we have done, is all but explicitly asserted in this scene as the father affirms his son. Read this as a son or daughter of the Most High God, as He declares His love for you and your worth in Him:

"I am your father... who loves you... and is ready to take you back as my son again."