Visitors
The Courage to be Protestant, by David Wells.
Awesome.
Read an excerpt here.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Evangelize for the glory of Christ!
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Are not the rich the ones who "passively woo" you into court?
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Recognition of a need for a Savior
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
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:
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.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Luther's Free Beer: on hold
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.
Stay tuned.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Luther's Free Beer, Part 3: "Righteousness is obtained through faith" (part 2)
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:
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:
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:
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:
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 6:44But 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
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