Monthly Archives: November 2009

Faith is the Embrace, Not the Thing That Is Itself Embraced

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The good news of what it means to be “in Christ” must be combined with the good news of how one can be “in Christ.” It is by grace, not because of our works. It is by grace through faith. Spirit-granted faith is the means that brings us into the glorious reality of union with Christ. Faith is not the end and it is not our hope. Faith is the embrace, not the thing that is itself embraced.

Calvin writes,

We compare faith to a kind of vessel; for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our soul open to seek Christ’s grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ. From this it is to be inferred that, in teaching that before his righteousness is received Christ is received in faith, we do not take the power of justifying away from Christ.[1]

 

[1] Calvin, Jean, ed. John T. McNeill, and Ford Lewis Battles. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol 1., III:XI:7, (Westminster: John Knox Press, 1960), 734.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! (We need to get this)

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My cup overflows. Thank God for His immeasurable grace in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Thank Him for Himself and for all the gifts that point me to Him. For Melissa and our children, Elizabeth and Hannah. I do not deserve them. That is grace.

Thanksgiving could not exist if it were not for grace. We are not thankful for our wages–for him who works his wages are counted  as a gift but as his due. In the cultural mindset, we are not especially grateful for our due. It is what we are ‘owed.’

Some people don’t know what to do with a holiday like today. Others have all these feelings of gratitude and need to connect the dots. You are grateful from the heart because something in you admits that you have good that you didn’t work for. Where did that good come from then? Connect the dots and humbly bow in gratitude before your Maker who is the Giver of all good things. Bow before Jesus and call on Him in faith to be your Savior and King.

Gratitude is a life-transforming virtue that we in ourselves cannot muster up or put on. It comes from the outside. It grows in our hearts and is watered by grace. And may it grow more and more today.

The Effect of the New Perspective on the Church Within the Next 50 Years

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There are many positive effects that could come from N.T. Wright’s work, specifically.

His Christology could influence a more central view of Christ in the ‘nuts and bolts’ of salvation.

His emphasis on the corporate reality of salvation could influence greater global partnership within the church as the gospel implications of decimated racial barriers are applied and the wonder of our kinship in Abraham is embraced.

His understanding of the gospel’s cosmic aspect could result in greater humanitarian initiatives and environmental care.

His concern with the final judgment and the necessity of Spirit-enabled works could increase the church’s integrity by eradicating the ‘easy believism’ that has compromised the church’s witness in the West, especially America.

His allegiance to the text of Scripture as opposed to human tradition could propel a generation of zealous interpreters that splinter off in New Perspective subsets, each claiming validation from an unpopular document recently discovered from the Second Temple period (wait, is that positive?).

The short answer is that it is hard to make a real conjecture. To be sure, a church that undermines the glory of God’s sovereign grace in Jesus Christ for our salvation will be a church that is askew. To emphasis corporate over individual, works over faith, and final justification over present justification will distort grace and deter the church’s mission in the world. And my prayer, assuredly as well as N.T. Wright’s, is that this does not happen.

“Elizabeth, Obey Your Daddy” is Actually a Call to Faith in Jesus

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Both of my hands are gently gripped on the shoulders of my toddler. As I try to square up our eyes, she squirms and looks away. I say with a Spirit-granted firm tenderness, “Elizabeth, obey your daddy.”

She doesn’t get this yet, but I am really calling her to faith in Jesus.

It goes this way: I tell her to not grab cups and drink out of them because I want to protect her from pouring hot coffee over her face. When she grabs any cup then I discipline her. It is a necessity. My spanking her is protecting her from burning her face. I want to protect her because I love her. Moreover, I want to protect her because Jesus gave her to me as my daughter; and me to her as her Daddy.

Daddys are supposed to protect their children and when I protect her then I know I am doing what Jesus called me to do. I am not only expressing my love for her, I am expressing Jesus’ love for her, too. My command for her to obey rests on that. “Elizabeth, obey your daddy because Jesus loves you and gave me to you to protect you.”

The fundamental issue here is not her obedience, but her faith. If she would believe in Jesus then listening to her daddy would make more sense.

This is the Thing With N.T. Wright…

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If you would give his ‘argument’ to someone who was from the Reformed tradition then I think they would be able to make it better than he does…

I am torn when I read him. He really has important things to say and we should listen. But it is the way that he says it. The way his writing sounds keeps him from being heard by the people he wants to hear him.

The continual shots at the ‘old perspective’ and the newness that he trumps is embraced more by the neophilia of young wannabe church planters with shallow theology than by those who stand on the shoulders of Luther and Calvin. It is frustrating.

We can and should talk about the corporate reality of salvation, our solidarity with Christ, the Abrahamic promise in reading Paul, and the Spirit in salvation without lumping it into ‘New Persepctivish’ thinking. That is the real danger here. The ‘spit out the bones’ analogy hardly works because most people don’t want that many bones in their mouths to begin with. We’ll throw it all away and label it ‘bad.’ But, despite the sound of demeaning geocentric illustrations and the like, we still should spend the extra energy needed to hear.

Ten Seminary Students and Sword Fighting

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Last night ten seminary students converged for fellowship that was long overdue. We start the semester running and by this point we are coming up on the last lap. Our cohort is scattered–some guys are doing Hebrew, some Theology… but last night, we were all doing the same thing. Meat eating, sword fighting, and bearded tackling.

It was exactly what we needed in preparation for Christian leadership and ministry. It was joy abounding. It was humble. It was glorious.

It was a time together that was bought by the blood of the slain Lamb of God. It was by Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus. How else can ten sinners from all other the country, from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different personalities–how else could these men come together and share in such joy? How else could they come and let their guard down and not care about whether they ‘looked like’ graduate students, husbands, and fathers?

It was not cheap. It was deep. It was the evidence of grace that was bought by Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. We are ten sinners who have been redeemed. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and we want to taste Him more, and more, and more. We want to soak in as much as we can from our studies. We want to treasure Jesus more than anything in the world. We want to be persevering, Spirit-dependent leaders in the church for the glory of God. And, sometimes, we need to grab a Nerf sword and go after one another.

Having Kids Saved My Marriage

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If your marriage is struggling, do not have children in attempt to fix it. That is not what I am suggesting. Let me explain…

It’s my senior year of college during the last semester. Melissa and I have been married right over a month or so and we’re still floating up in honeymoon clouds. We haven’t had a real taste of marriage yet (I was still pinching myself from time to time). Wedding music is still in the background. We are just starting to go through our pictures from the big day. I come home from work and she gives me a present. I thought it was an I-Pod for an early graduation gift (catch the irony– again,  I thought it was an I-Pod). Instead it was a bib that said “I Love Daddy.”

Hmm. I didn’t really get it until I looked at Melissa’s glossy eyes (which is affecting me the same way just remembering it). I exclaimed something (I can’t remember exactly) and we hugged and prayed. We were really excited. It was amazing.

Nearly two years later, Elizabeth Grace is now the big sister to our newborn girl, Hannah Katherine. These are daughters of grace. I could never deserve them, nor could I deserve their Mom. These girls have saved my marriage. What I mean is that I don’t know anything much about marriage apart from fatherhood. I was/am learning about both at the same time. Being a dad makes me a better husband, and being a husband makes me a better dad.

Having kids saved my marriage because being a dad saved me from the type of husband I might be if I had not received the blow that this thing is bigger than me and my wants. The fantasy that the world revolves around you is interrupted enough when you get married, throw a baby into that mix and you have the demise of self-centeredness (or at least a ferocious assault against it). It is a double-dose of sanctifying grace and it is what I needed, when I needed it. Even now.

Assuming the Authority and Calling Good What Is Not: How Humans Become Their Own gods

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Genesis gives us the in-your-face picture of God’s authority. He is the one in the beginning and only from Him does everything else come. He is the Creator who can rightly affirm that all that He has made is good. This is repeated over and over in the narrative. “God saw that it was good.” That is God’s Word on His creation. It is the declaration of His authority. He made it and saw it was good. Who else was there to make such a judgment? He owned that position as well. He was the only One who had the power to create and He was the only One who had the knowledge and authority to see it as good and declare it so.

God created Adam and Eve and he put them in the Garden under His authority. In chapter three is where we find the temptation and fall. The prohibition of 2:17, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” is the test of whether they will submit to God’s authority. In agreement with Goldsworthy, nothing in the text should make us think that the fruit of the tree itself possessed some magical quality that gives the knowledge of good and evil to whoever eats it. Do not be distracted by a picture of a shiny apple hanging from a naughty tree. The issue is authority. God clearly said “freely enjoy all of these, do not eat this one.” There is the good and evil—obey God or turn against Him.

We see this in the text. For the first time since the repetition in chapters 1-2, someone saw that something was good. However, the someone was not God, and the something was not good. The creature saw what God prohibited to be good. This is a clear, definite denial of God’s authoritative judgment and goodness. Adam and Eve became their own ‘gods’ and saw and called for themselves what was good. This is the Fall.

The Glory of God, the Abrahamic Promise, and N.T. Wright

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Knowing God for onself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living. Discovering that God is gracious, rather than a distant bureaucrat or a dangerous tyrant, is the good news that constantly surprises and refreshes us. But we are not the center of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him…

We are in orbit around God and his purposes.

N.T. Wright, Justification, 23ff.

Yes. That is right. That is good. This a good flavor of Wright. I like it. And he should keep that in mind when he thinks about the Abrahamic promise. God doesn’t circle around you and me, and God doesn’t circle around Abraham, either. The Abrahamic paradigm for reading Paul is helpful, but even that needs to be put into a greater context. Keep asking why, why, why.

If God is not doing the circling but everything else is circling around Him, then how did the circling happen? God made it happen. God made things revolve around him. He is the great causation then to all this revolving. His glory is ultimate. His glory is the point. He cares about his glory. He started the circling because he wanted to magnify His glory.

But Wright states:

But the great story of Scripture, from creation and covenant right on through to the New Jerusalem, is constantly about God’s overflowing, generous, creative love–God’s concern, if you like, for the flourishing and well-being of everything else. Of course, this too will redound to God’s glory because God, as the Creator, is glorified when creation is fl0urishing and able to praise him gladly and freely (70).

He admits God’s glory is important, but the flavor is that it is peripheral. He says the main point is “God’s overflowing, generous, creative love–God’s concern, if you like, for the flourishing and well-being of everything else.” Why, though? For His own glory! God’s glory is not “Of course, this too…” It is the point. It is the causation behind the circling.

It is about God’s glory. And that is good news.