Our Greatest Need

I haven’t been writing of late but I did run across the following and thought it was worth posting:

If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior. ~D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers

Read Full Post »

Getting Caught Up in the Culture and Jesus

Robert Webber passed away in April of 2007 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, but his words won’t be forgotten. 

The church has become a business that sells Jesus—the culture of consumerism. Theology has become an analytical discipline that scientifically examines propositions—the culture of reason. Worship has become an entertaining program that presents Jesus in a winsome way—the culture of entertainment. Spirituality has become an experience of transcendence achieved through Christian technique—the New Age culture of generic spirituality. The church’s life in the world is to do good so people can see that Jesus is all about being nice and helpful—the culture of humanism. ~Robert E. Webber, “Who Gets to Narrate the World?” Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2008), 123-124.

Read Full Post »

Advancing to Deeper Theological Waters

 

Some months ago when the Coral Ridge controversy was going in the aftermath of Dr. D. James Kennedy’s passing (1930-2007) I can’t say I paid all too much attention to the squabble.  Tullian Tchividjian writes in “The Everyday Gospel”  at Leadershipjournal.net,  

 

I once assumed the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I’ve come to realize that the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths, but more like the hub in a wheel of truth. As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. In other words, once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it.

 

…After meditating on Paul’s words, a friend told me that all our problems in life stem from our failure to apply the gospel. This means I can’t really move forward unless I learn more thoroughly the gospel’s content and how to apply it to all of life. Real change does not and cannot come independently of the gospel. God intends his Good News in Christ to mold and shape us at every point and in every way. It increasingly defines the way we think, feel, and live.  

 

If that’s any indicator of what kind of preacher Tchividjian is, the grandson of Billy Graham—well, I think they were pretty lucky to have landed him as their pastor.

 

May we be a people who dig deeper, a people who don’t stop at the entry way of God’s storehouse of gospel treasures, those who rush in and search out the gospel’s every nuance, its scope and breadth and the depths of its riches.

Read Full Post »

The Bible’s Silver Bullet

The Bible is God’s word clad in human words… Just as Christ, the eternal word is incarnate in the garments of his humanity. Christ lies in the crib of the scriptures, wrapped in swaddling clothes. ~Martin Luther

 

I recently found myself discussing the nature of the gospel with a close friend, and more specifically, making the case that the bible in its entirety points to and spells out in very careful detail the necassity of the gospel and it’s earth rattling and history altering implications.  In a word, the bible is about the gospel—it’s not a book about finances, child-rearing, relationships, death and even judgement. 

 

While the good news addresses and tackles everything from the rising of the sun to the pleasures of sex within the context of marriage—the good news deals a death-blow to any notions that God is primarily concerned with any of the aforementioned in comparison to the overriding triumph of his gospel.  All things were created to clearly and solely testify and bear witness to the glory of his gospel, not vice versa (and all things includes the fallen people in the bible besides Jesus who we almost make an idol of). 

 

The good news we read about in the bible tells about a God who loves a underserving cast of shady characters so much so that he voluntarily of his own accord and in his own timing—died on a cross for them when they deserved anything but.  The bible was written that we might grasp the gravity of our plight—hence, the good news.  And the bible was written to proclaim the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Chosen One of God, the bearer of our sins (which we see evidenced in plain, graphic and gruesome detail throughout the scriptures). 

 

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. ~Galatians 1:6-7, NLT

 

Making the good news any other news is serious business (see Galatians1:8-9). 

 

During our peaceful conversation, the book of James was mentioned—as if to say James presents a different message than the good news (the gospel that is), and that somehow, the heartbeat of his letter wasn’t testifying to the good news… because he wrote that “faith without works is dead” (see James 2:17-19, and I couldn’t agree much more with James’ assessment about what genuine faith looks like).  In the end, my friend wanted me to see “all the other stuff” in the bible—in addition to the gospel. 

 

My bone to pick is this; the gospel stands on its on two feet and it’s upon this very gospel that everything else rises or falls.  The gospel is faith’s source and centerpiece, and devoid of the gospel, good works are the cart before the horse, an artificial decorative apple without a tree, a useless firearm with no ammunition—wood, hay, and stubble.  Our fruit is proof that we have a bona fide faith no doubt (see Matthew 12:33), yes, serving God and others doesn’t fail to grow out of a Jesus-focused faith. But there is a counterfeit faith, a pseudo gospel, a type of works-righteousness that puffs up and couldn’t save a flea (see Ephesians 2:8-9).  Without the gospel of God’s grace, our finest dressed works are nothing more than a stinking corpse—empty and cold religion.

 

What I’d like to know is, what stuff in the bible doesn’t point to the gospel… that is, the good news that Jesus the Messiah bore our shame and suffered in our place? 

 

Both the Old and New Testaments flesh out this glorious truth page after page,

 

 Surely he has borne our griefs
   and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
   smitten by God, and afflicted.

 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
   and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.  ~Isaiah 53:4-6, ESV

 

Jesus alone is our meal ticket like it or not, he doesn’t need our pennies. In Jesus is our personal and corporate redemption, our healing, our prosperity, our hope, our forgiveness, our strength, our transformation, our mission and our very life-blood—it’s in him we live and move and have our being.  My question is this: If the gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t our silver bullet, what is?

 

Father, in your grace show us the gospel and save us from trusting any message that doesn’t show forth your good news, give us a faith soaked in Christ. May we see in every sentence of scripture the glory of your Son.  Amen.

Read Full Post »

Just Give Me Jesus

Read Full Post »

The Bastard Called Legalism

So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” Galatians 3:11-12, NLT

        

I grew up in a church immersed in legalism and then my failed marriage was severely handicapped by the bastard. Needless to say, I can spot legalism a mile away.  That’s not to say I never fall into its trap.

 

Wikipedia states, “Legalism, in Christian theology, is a sometimes-pejorative term referring to an over-emphasis on law or codes of conduct, or legal ideas, usually implying an allegation of misguided rigor, pride, superficiality, the neglect of mercy, and ignorance of the grace of God or emphasizing the letter of law over the spirit. Legalism is alleged against any view that obedience to law, not faith in God’s grace, is the pre-eminent principle of redemption…”

 

Legalism is what you might identify as “biblical principles” that aren’t based on the good news that Jesus has set us free from a life confined to keeping “the rules.”  Legalism has plenty to say, certainly more than the bible does. For instance…

 

Legalism says that you should be reading a certain book of the bible that I’m currently reading if you want to be truly spiritual.

 

Legalism says you must be a part of my denomination in order to be truly Christian.

 

Legalism says that my behavior is excusable and yours is unforgivable.

 

Legalism says you can’t talk the way you talk and be holy, you should talk like me.

 

Legalism says you can’t hang out with who you hang out with and follow Jesus, you must hang out with the good people I hang out with.

 

Legalism says you can’t eat certain things that I don’t eat if you want to be acceptable to God.

 

When you get down to its roots, legalism has all the room in the world for “the rules”, but no room for faith in Jesus. 

Read Full Post »

The Crucial Significance of the Cradle

Another thought on Christmas and the incarnation.  This one is taken from a 1973 classic…

The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context. The key text in the New Testament for interpreting the incarnation is not therefore, the bare statement…‘the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us’, but rather the more comprehensive statement…‘ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich’.  Here is stated, not the fact of the incarnation only, but also its meaning; the taking of manhood by the Son is set before us in a way which shows us how we should set it before ourselves and ever view it—not simply as a marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace.  ~J.I. Packer, Knowing God 

Read Full Post »

Christ’s Birth is Yours

I wanted to wish my readers and fellow bloggers a very Merry Christmas!

No matter where you are reading in the Bible, faith is the first mystery you should recognize. Faith is not believing that the story you’re reading is true as written. That does nothing for anyone. Even unbelievers can believe this Bible story about Jesus’ birth is true. Faith is not a natural work apart from God’s grace, as the Scripture clearly teaches. Rather the right kind of faith, the kind that flows from grace and that God’s Word demands, is firmly believing that Christ was born for you. His birth is yours and occurred for your benefit.  ~Martin Luther, Faith Alone

Read Full Post »

Singing the Same Old Gospel Song

  As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. ~Paul the Apostle (1 Timothy 1:3-4, ESV)

Luther’s take on the above was spot on—false doctrine must be exposed and the gospel proclaimed in its fullness never gets old .   

There are two hindrances to the gospel—the first is teaching false doctrine, driving the consciences into the Law and works. And the second is this trick of the devil, when he finds that he cannot subvert the faith by directly denying the gospel, he sneaks in from the rear and raises useless questions and gets men to contend about them and meanwhile to forget the chief thing… Thus Satan comes in the back way, people gape with wide-open mouth at these things and lose the chief things. A man does not need much wit to gain the popular applause, let him but preach new and strange things, and people will say that he is more learned than others—they come in droves, with eyes and ears and mouth widely opened. They do not care to have faith and love preached to them, that is too common, they heard and know enough about that—it irks them always to hear the same thing.  ~Martin Luther, (Saint Louis Edition of the Works of Luther IX:863 f. on 1 Tim. 1:3–4)

Read Full Post »