Jesus is the Word of God
Continued from here...
In his book, "Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace", James Torrance sums up much of the teaching we're considering, especially as he highlights the difference between Unitarian and Trinitarian worship.
According to Torrance these are the two broad models of worship. Unitarian worship is not necessarily that offered by Unitarians – most often it simply reflects the functionally monadic doctrine of God latent in our congregations. Worship on this model sees only two parties – the LORD who is simply the recipient of worship; and the human worshipper (or congregation) who may be divinely enabled and empowered but who, nonetheless, is wholly responsible for performing the worship.
As against this, Trinitarian worship recognizes that God the Father has set forth God the Son to be the True High Priest who, by God the Spirit, offers to the Father that which He demands. Worship is therefore not the efforts of humanity in approaching God but a participation in Christ’s perfect worship of the Father, graciously offered through the Spirit.
This, in turn, leads to different accounts of intimacy. On the Unitarian model, intimacy is an ideal to be reached (if only we can raise our moral and mystical games). We are external to God and must figure out how to approach Him in an acceptable way. The only priesthood here is our priesthood. The only offering involved is our offering. The only intercession is our intercession. And if we get all these things right, then, perhaps, we will attain to a measure of intimacy.
On the Trinitarian model, adoption into the life of God through the Son and by the Spirit is the incomparable intimacy which guarantees true and acceptable worship. The order is thus reversed. Worship does not bring us near to God. Rather ‘the blood of Christ’ has brought us near (Ephesians 2:13) that ‘through Him we… have access to the Father by one Spirit.’ (Ephesians 2:18). Blood-bought intimacy with God is the beginning of true worship – not an added bonus when the mood is right.
The Perfect and Eternal Priesthood of Christ guarantees our acceptable worship before the Father. Therefore we're always late to worship. We're always joining something that is already under way. We begin our worship in the embrace of the divine love – our worship is merely God’s appointed means of experiencing such intimacy.
When we think of "intimacy with God", what do we picture? Probably we're thinking of a private experience. But in the Bible our intimacy with the Father, through the Son and by the Spirit is expressed corporately. In community we reflect the Triune life to which we have been called. As a community we are Christ’s Body and Bride. A merely private intimacy with God is a rejection of the terms on which we have been offered fellowship. It's true that worship of God is 24/7 (Romans 12:1ff). And it's true that I am continually 'one with Christ', whether by myself or with others. But consider the marriage analogy. I may be 'one with my wife' even when we're separated by oceans. Yet our experience of intimacy comes with setting aside times and places. So it is with our experience of intimacy - the Scriptures envisage corporate fellowship with God, as we gather.
Acts 2:42 gives four characteristic marks of the post-Pentecost church: the Apostle’s teaching, the fellowship (koinonia), the breaking of bread and prayer.
Firstly, the Word is set forth. This is essential. The Spirit brings us Christ through the Word since, as Calvin would say, Christ comes clothed in His promises. There is no unmediated or self-generated approach to God. It is of the essence of grace that God approaches us at His initiative and by His appointed means. In the Bible, Christ is offered to us freely in words of promise. God has ordained that ‘faith comes by hearing’ (Romans 10:17), thus the Bible must be at the absolute centre. There ought not to be any meeting without the Word. When Luther wrote ‘Concerning the Order of Public Worship’ he advised: ‘Let everything be done so that the Word may have free course… We can spare everything except the Word. Again we profit by nothing as much as by the Word.’
‘The fellowship’ is an objective, Spirit-created, communion to which believers are to be ‘devoted’. This fellowship subsists in the organic union we share as the Body of Christ. In it we are given various gifts and roles for our mutual edification and mission to the world (cf 1 Cor 12-14). To be devoted to this involves the exercise of gifts in ministering to one another (cf Romans 12:4-8) and practical, costly service (eg 1 John 3:17-18).
'The breaking of bread' we take to be sacramental (hence the). Along with the preached Word, the dispensing of the sacraments was taken by reformers as the other defining mark of a true Church. Christ has given us Himself in this supper through 'visible words' (Augustine's phrase). Via these, we ‘feed on Christ in our hearts by faith, with thanksgiving’ (Cranmer's phrase). This sacrament is communal by its very nature – uniting us with Christ and each other. It ought to be a genuine high point in our gatherings though always attended by the Word, by clear teaching on its purpose, and eaten in peaceable fellowship with all (1 Corinthians 11:17-22).
Corporate prayer is an essential part of worship. The prayer Jesus taught His disciples was corporate – ‘Our Father’. The Spirit equips the Bride to call on her Husband ‘Come’ (Revelation 22:17). Prayer is an activity of the Church and one that expresses our complete dependence on, and devotion to, the Lord. Our intimacy with God could not be more evident than when the Father sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts “who calls out ‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4:6). All kinds of prayers should therefore be made in our services – prayers of praise (Revelation 5:9-14), of thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:20), of confession (Nehemiah 9) and of supplication (1 Timothy 2:1ff).
Right worship is possible only on the basis of our intimate union with Christ, under-written by His blood and sealed by His Spirit. Intimacy should not be held out as the goal of Christian worship but the ground. Our experience of intimacy with the Triune God comes as we appreciate that which is already ours in Christ.
Grace, therefore, is the very atmosphere of Christian worship since Christ, our great High Priest, has already performed the perfect service to God. Even worship is a gift that comes from on high – not a work to be generated by us. We receive the benefits of His priestly worship through faith-union with Him, and we experience, understand and deepen that union especially in corporate worship.
The Communion of Father, Son and Spirit is known most fully in the communion of His people. This happens as the Spirit works through word and sacrament, through a communal lifting of our hearts in prayer and through mutual encouragement, to awaken us to Christ’s presence in and with us. As we grasp and appreciate Him we know our exalted position, caught up in the intimate life of God Himself.
Continued from here.
“But now in Christ, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)
As we speak about intimacy with God we must never forget the way into divine fellowship. Ever since humanity rejected the LORD Christ and trusted Satan instead, the way back to fellowship has been blocked by fiery judgement (Genesis 3:24). This fallen flesh and blood cannot participate in the life of God (1 Cor 15:50). Only 'the Man out of the Heavens' could ever belong in the inner circle of God’s life (1 Cor 15:15:47-49).
Yet, with infinite grace and condescension, this Man came out of the heavens. He took the very flesh and blood of our humanity and He redeemed it. Where we had failed, He succeeded, where we had sinned, He obeyed, where we had fled, He stood tall, where we had hated, He loved, where we had erred, He taught, where we were enslaved, He set free, where we were ashamed, He gave dignity, where we grasped at glory, He gave freely, where we clung to life, He poured it out.
On the cross, God’s Man took on Himself all the sin, guilt and shame of this fallen humanity. He endured the divine fury at sin, passing through that fiery judgement which bars the way into God. And now, in His glorious resurrection body, Christ, the True Man, sits at the Father’s right hand. He is beyond death and judgement. Our Brother is now in the inner circle of the life of God. We, in ourselves, would be swept away by God’s righteous anger at sin. Yet Christ is the Way to the Father and in Him, Who "quenched the wrath of hostile heaven", we have obtained access.
Why do I recount these gospel truths? A) Because they are glorious! B) Because sometimes people (and I'm sure I'm guilty of this too), manage to speak of "union with Christ" as a warm 'n' fuzzy truth. Often the Fatherhood of God, adoption into His family, one-ness with Jesus can be articulated without the blood and fire of the Bible's presentation. But we desperately need the grit and grime - the sweat and tears - of Christ's atonement if we're going to experience true intimacy with God. A toothless, bloodless message about a heavenly Father-figure doesn't connect with people who live in the midst of suffering and sin. It can't connect, because the only real point of connection is a Bleeding Sacrifice choking to death on a cross. But He's who we really need if we want intimacy with God. Because He actually meets us in the godforsakeness of life as we know it.
If all our talk of intimacy with God is not dripping in the blood of Christ we're just holding out "a nice idea" to people who are burdened by shame and guilt and who will never connect with our words of "divine participation" - no matter how warm or inviting we sound. More than this, if our talk of divine intimacy is not utterly cross-shaped then people will play off "taking up our cross" against enjoying life in God. Which would be absurd - yet it happens all the time! But no, triune glory is cruciform glory. Therefore participating in God means participating in the cross. The way to God is through Christ and Him crucified.
Our Great High Priest, Jesus, does not simply bring God's life down to us. He also offers our life up to God. He is not just God-for-us, He is also Man-for-God. Thus, from Christ’s representative humanity (for us) there is a presentation to the Father. This is Christ’s Priestly work – again a work done for us.
By the Spirit, Christ has made the perfect offering to the Father:
‘Christ, through the eternal Spirit… offered Himself unblemished to God.’ (Hebrews 9:14)
Christ’s worship constitutes the fullness of all acceptable worship to God. Without participation in His perfect obedience, His perfect sacrifice and His perfect Priesthood, there is no worship worthy of the name. To offer true sacrifice to the Father we must be in Christ. Only then do we have a share in acceptable worship. Yet, in Him, we are pure, spotless and holy – as acceptable as Christ Himself (Colossians 1:22).
If Christ is our Great High Priest, where does my worship fit in?
Worship is the gracious invitation which the LORD makes to us to share in His own worshipping life. Just as Christ is the Righteous One (for us) and yet invites us to share in His holy life, just as Christ is the Great Sufferer (for us) and yet allows us to share in His sufferings, so we, His people are to share in His worship.
Hebrews 8:2 calls Christ our Leitourgos – ‘the leader of our worship’. Calvin, following Psalm 22:22, called Christ ‘the great choirmaster’, tuning our hearts to sing the Father’s praises. Worship is the participation in Christ’s perfect worship. As James Torrance says,
“Whatever else our worship is, it is our liturgical amen to the worship of Christ.”
Every act of worship or devotion that we perform is grounded in and surrounded by Christ’s prior and perfect offering. Thus we do not worship as those attempting to gain intimacy with God, but as those who have been gifted it. And the ‘direction’ of the activity is the gracious movement of God coming to us in Christ. Any ‘upward’ movement is that done by Christ and we participate by faith. Thus, the focus of all worship must be on the LORD Jesus. In other words:
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no-one comes to the Father except by me. (John 14:6)
Next post...
Continued from here.
The God who is an eternal communion is a God who wills to share. He does this through creation and maintains His offer in redemption.
The Father, by the Spirit, has created a love-gift through and for the Son – the creation (Col 1:16). His desire is that the Son be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8:29). The Father wants many brought into the life of God through the Son and by the Spirit (Gal 4:4-7). This is the goal of all His creating and redeeming purposes.
As Christ says Himself:
‘Father, I want those You have given me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world… I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me will be in them, and that I myself may be in them.’ (John 17:24-26)
The glory of our Triune God expresses itself in His will to share His divine life with us. The love of the Father for the Son – that which defines both God and the creation – cascades over to His people when they are united, by His Spirit, to the Son.
By our union with Christ (discussed below), we are thus adopted as sons and daughters in the same Family. In this way, we do not simply share in a favoured status external to the LORD, we share in the Father-Son relationship which is constitutive of the divine life itself. To know and appropriate the love of God is to participate in that which forms the very being of God.
2 Corinthians 1 tells us that God bellows an exultant YES towards His Son (v19). The incarnate Son answers with a mighty AMEN on our behalf (v20). By the Spirit we are sealed into Jesus and find ourselves responding to God with Christ's own AMEN (v21-22). In the Bible, we do not simply admire the LORD from afar, we participate in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
The way in to this divine participation is the Son. As John Owen says in his classic book "Communion with God":
‘Scripture shows us that we hold communion with the Lord Jesus in grace by a marriage relationship… This spiritual relationship is accompanied with mutual love, and so in this fellowship with Christ we experience and enjoy all the excellent things which are in Him.’
Christ is the Bridegroom, we (the Church) are His Bride. In this union we enjoy all His benefits as though they were ours by right. Not least of these is His status as the Father’s beloved Son. Therefore Christ can say to His Father, ‘the love You have for Me will be in them.’ In this way we are caught up into God.
The bible speaks of our union with Christ at different levels. In one sense, we share in Jesus’ benefits as co-beneficiaries:
As Christ is the Son, we can be called sons (Galatians 4:4-7)
While Christ is Heir, we are co-heirs (Romans 8:17)
While Christ is the Living Stone, we are living stones (1 Peter 2:4-5)
In this way we are graciously allowed to come alongside Jesus, to be treated to His blessings on the same level.
Yet, at times, Scripture tells of a higher level of identification. Often we are said (in the plural) to be exactly what Jesus is in the singular:
While Christ is the Seed, we are the seed (Galatians 3:16 <=>3:29)
While Christ is the Light of the world, we are the light of the world (John 8:12 <=> Matthew 5:14)
While He is the Vine, we are the branches (John 15:5)
Note that, with this last example, it is not that Christ is the root structure and we are the branches. Rather we form part of the Vine Himself! The Vine is One, we are others, but in this organic relationship that He creates and sustains, we become part of Him.
This leads naturally to a third category by which the bible speaks of our union. That is, in the sense of a symbiotic relationship.
Thus, Christ is the Head, we are the Body (Colossians 1:18)
Christ is the Groom, we are the Bride (Isaiah 54:5; Ezekiel 16; Ephesians 5:21-33; Revelation 19:6-9)
When the bible speaks in these kinds of terms, we are on hallowed ground indeed. Christ unites His Church to Himself that our union might redound to His greater glory. As He says in John 17:10, He is glorified in us.
This is not to say that we sinners complete Christ in the sense of contributing our worth to the equation. In ourselves we could only bring shame to Jesus. Yet Christ redeems and cleanses a Bride and then (Eph 5:26) presents her to Himself. In this way Christ becomes more truly who He is because of His union with us. After all, must not the Head have a Body? Should not the Vine have branches? Ought not the Bridegroom to have a Bride? If He did not have a Bride, would He not have to give up the glory of being Bridegroom? Therefore Christ is very committed to His covenant partner – His own Person and glory is bound up in the fate of His Church.
Christ takes His own marriage advice and loves Himself by loving His Bride (Eph 5:28). Thus when the infinite powers of the Father have been committed to the Son, He employs them solely ‘for the church’. (Eph 1:22). All divine power in heaven and earth is employed for the good of Christ’s Bride. Thus the Church has its immeasurable status both conferred by divine right but also under-girded by divine commitment even to death. No wonder Paul can ask ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’ This is more than impossible.
Our union with Christ could not be closer. The Apostle Paul can speak of our history and identity as entirely bound up in Jesus: ‘When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.’ (Col 3:1-4) The believer is in fact seated with Christ in the heavenly realms and has not actually appeared yet. We are hidden with Christ in God.
In this way, we are more united to Christ than we are to ourselves. Certainly His identity and not our own determines our standing in God’s eyes both now and in eternity.
Next post...
“Those who receive and bear the Spirit of God are led to the Word, that is to the Son. But the Son takes them up and presents them to the Father, and the Father bestows incorruptibility. Therefore one cannot see the Word of God without the Spirit, nor can anyone approach the Father without the Son. For the Son is the knowledge of the Father, and knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy Spirit. But the Son, in accord with the Father’s good pleasure, graciously dispenses the Spirit to those to whom the Father wills it, and as the Father wills it.” (Irenaeus of Lyon)
“Christian worship is therefore our participation through the Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father.” (James Torrance)
Participation in the life of God is cherished by some as the very goal of God’s Gospel and it's mistrusted by others as a spurious Hellenization of the truth. In the next few posts I will outline a biblical case for divine participation. I'll examine the precious doctrine of union with Christ that brings us such participation, and I'll highlight the work of Christ as Mediator, guaranteeing and grounding the free offer of this relationship.
I want to show that intimacy with God is not an optional extra for the more ‘emotional’ among us. To ‘know’ the Father and the Son is eternal life (John 17:3). When we understand "knowing" in the biblical sense we cannot deny that profound intimacy with God is the essence of our Christian lives. It is not a carrot to be held out for the pious, nor a bonus given in response to particularly ‘successful’ worship. Intimacy is guaranteed to the Christian in Christ. It is therefore the indispensable starting point of the Christian life – not an optimistic goal.
Any talk of intimacy with God must begin with the intimacy that is within God. As a community of Persons united in self-giving love, the Triune God knows worship and intimacy within Himself. The creation does not give rise to relationship, rather relationship gives rise to the creation. In other words, the Father creates for the Son (Colossians 1:16). Thus, worship is not the self-willed response of creature to Creator but rather an eternal dynamic within the being of God.
Before the foundation of the world the Father delighted in the Son in the bond of the Spirit. Virtually every verse regarding the pre-creation life of God describes the Father focussing His affections and purposes on the Son: (Prov 8:22-30; John 3:35; 5:20; 17:5, 24; 1 Pet 1:20; Eph 1:4-6; Col 1:15-17; Romans 8:29.)
Likewise the Son, in the power of the Spirit, commits Himself to the service of the Father: John 17:4-5; 5:17; 12:27f; 14:31; 17:24; Hebrews 10:5-7; Revelation 13:8.
The Persons of God commit to one another in a common love and purpose. To use the technical terminology of Trinitarian theology, these inter-relations are referred to as the perichoresis of the Persons. To get a sense of the meaning of this Greek word, think of a choreographed dance around a perimeter. The Trinity is described as performing a round dance, each of the Members committing to the Others in love, service and empowerment. The divine life is a dance of giving and receiving in joyful communion.
Now this dance is not simply something the Persons do. It is not a part-time hobby of the Persons. We must not think of the Persons in isolation, deciding to come together. If we could ever conceive of a time when the Father was not committed to the Son or when the Son was not obedient to the Father we have imagined the Father not being the Father and the Son not being the Son. We have imagined false gods. The Persons are who they are IN the relationships that they share with one another in this dance of love.
To "see" this dance is to witness the divine being. As Colin Gunton says, ‘the ousia – general being – of God is constituted without remainder by what the persons are to and from each other in eternal perichoresis.’
Without Trinity there is no intimacy with God. Without this give-and-take to God's being there would be no room for us to participate. We must say this. But we must say more than this.
It is not enough to say that "God is a dance" and then expect the worshipper to "link arms and join in." It's not enough to say "God is an intimate community - we should follow suit." We can't just say "There's room to God, come on in." If we did then intimacy with God would be our doing. And it could only ever be as solid as our own feeble hearts.
No, there's better news than that. God does not leave us to make our own way to the party. If He did, then our intimacy would depend on us. It would be about our ability to spiritualize our humanity up to God. But God in Christ does something much more profound. He incarnates His divinity into our humanity. He earths His own intimacy into our very being and raises it back up to the highest heaven.
At Christmas, He moves down into our life. At the ascension, He sweeps us up into His life: really, substantially, eternally, irrevocably. As we'll see in the next post - the triune God does not make participation something that's up to us. The triune God takes the whole intimacy thing into His own hands. And that's the only safe place for it to be.
Next post...
6 minute extract:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ofj4nhwhWQ]
I got nothing.
Except this...
And maybe this...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBluUZ4NnZg]
What have you got? Links in comments please :)
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This from Katie P:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4Rnba85o8]
For Sermons...
It's an annual tradition at Christ the Truth to listen to Dev Menon's Classic Sermon.
[audio https://christthetruth.net/audio/AscensionSermonDevMenon.mp3]Paul Blackham's teaching is equally fantastic
John B recommends Scott Hoezee’s sermon, “How We See Things–Psalm 47″
And an essay by Stephen T. Davis, “The Meaning of the Ascension for Christian Scholars”.
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For Prayers...
The Collects from BCP:
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
or this
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell; who liveth and reigneth with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
The South Indian Anglican Collect:
O God, whose blessed Son, our great high priest, has entered once for all into the Holy Place and ever liveth to intercede on our behalf: grant that we, sanctified by the offering of his body may draw near with full assurance of faith by the way which he has dedicated for us and evermore serve thee, the living God; through the same thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
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For Songs:
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C1mlV0HQeo"]
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8faTDmvue9M&playnext_from=QL"]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4d4UXSJXig]
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfT4nc72QIs"]
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYUmiUvE3o"]
We thank Thee Jesus, Dearest Friend
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And here are a couple of my own:
A kids song about the ascension
A kids song about Jesus moving house (eventually to heaven)
"He Rose Up"
[audio https://christthetruth.net/audio/HeRoseUp2.mp3]
(lyrics below)
He rose up among us, as told.
He rose up the Promise of old.
My Brother in strife,
Assuming my life.
Exalted, the Father’s Decree
He rose up, He rose up for me.
He rose up humanity’s Last
Man’s Answer in life unsurpassed
My Champion living,
God’s life of thanksgiving.
Exalted as I’m meant to be
He rose up, He rose up for me.
They raised Him, my Saviour, on high
Man lifted, accursed, left to die.
My Priest in atonement,
My Lamb in enthronement.
Exalted on destiny’s tree,
He rose up, He rose up for me.
He rose up from death He arose,
Immortal to crush all His foes.
The Lord of all history,
My Christ has the victory.
Exalted the darkness must flee,
He rose up, He rose up for me.
He rose up to heaven, He rose,
Ascended beyond other thrones.
My Friend in high places,
My Fountain of graces.
Exalted, my heavenly Plea,
He rose up, He rose up for me.
I rise up, I rise up in Him,
Emboldened in spite of all sin.
In Jesus attaining,
My destiny – reigning.
Exalted, with angels to sing,
I rise up, I rise up in Him.
When evangelism is discussed among conservative evangelicals, 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 is never far away. In particular, verse 2 is a favourite:
We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
This is a vital reminder - especially when you consider the manipulative techniques of some "pedlars" of God's word (2 Cor 2:17). Evangelists must preach without trickery and without compromise. But sometimes setting forth the truth plainly can become a justification for dry, cerebral legalism.
I was at a meeting of evangelists yesterday afternoon where a leading conservative evangelical mentioned a tendency that's crept into some pulpits. The tendency is to 'by-pass the heart' so that the sermon runs straight 'from the head to the will'. It's a shrewd insight and I think the kind of preaching he described takes unjustified refuge in these verses.
Here I want to examine each of the terms in "setting forth the truth plainly" (the NIV's translation). I want to ask whether we have taken these words (and this paragraph) out of context and thus skewed our thinking on preaching.
Let's consider the first term: "setting forth"
It's the Greek work phanerosei and it's related to the Greek word 'to shine' (phaino). It's about bringing something out into the light, making it blindingly obvious, revealing it for all to see. Paul will use the same word in chapter 5:10-11 to speak of the way we will be "made manifest" before the judgement seat of Christ. He also uses the word to describe how Christ is "made manifest" in our mortal bodies (4:10-11). Christ shines out of our cracked earthen vessels. Crucially, it's also related to the way God shines His Light into our hearts in conversion (2 Cor 4:6).
So Paul is linking the preaching of our lips with the preaching of our lives and linking it with the shining of God in salvation. Paul does not envisage a hard and fast division of labour between God's work and our work (as is sometimes taught). God reconciles us by His mission and reconciles us into His mission (which 2 Corinthians 5 spells out). We are co-opted into God's work. Therefore He shines His Light into people precisely as we shine it out to them in gospel preaching. God shines through the Christ we proclaim.
Therefore the "setting forth" of the evangelist is not a deliberately staid and human effort, sharply demarcated from divine, saving activity. It's actually a vibrant, radiant participation in God's gospel mission.
The second term is "the truth."
All too readily we consider "the truth" to be a harsh, unpleasant reality - a bitter pill to swallow. In Ephesians 4:15 when we're commanded to "speak the truth in love", we imagine brutal honesty with a smile. But 'truth' for Paul is the truth that is in Jesus, the truth of the gospel.
Verses 4 and 5 explicitly tell us the truth to be preached: "it's the gospel of the glory of Christ", or to put it another way, it's "preaching the Lord Jesus Christ". Yet sometimes an evangelical commitment to preaching 'truth' becomes divorced from the gospel. However, this is precisely the danger about which Paul has been warning us in chapter 3:
God has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)
Paul goes on in verses 7-18 to warn us of old covenant preachers who preside over a "letter-of-the-law" "ministry of death". Here's something very scary. It is possible to pursue a "truth telling" ministry that's not Paul's sense of "truth-telling" in 2 Corinthians 4 (i.e. the gospel). Instead, in the name of another definition of "truth", preachers might well fall foul of Paul's starkest warnings from 2 Corinthians 3. Some, misunderstanding Paul's use of 'the truth', might well find themselves simply killing their flocks with "the letter of the law".
When we imagine the "distortions" of the false teachers (2 Cor 4:2), what do we picture? Well, whatever errors Paul has in mind, we know for a fact that simply 'laying down the law' is chief among them. In other words, Paul might have some liberals in mind as he warns us in chapter 4, but what we know is that he's warning us about legalists.
So easily, though, "setting forth the truth plainly" can be taken out of context in 2 Corinthians. It becomes a license to be a legalist (if that's not a contradiction in terms). In other words, 2 Corinthians 4 becomes a mandate for simply sifting through a body of text, noticing items of theological interest and enjoining various commandments as we go. The thing is, this is not the truth of the gospel, it's not proclaiming Jesus. It's simply 'the letter'. And it kills.
The third term is "plainly"
This term is not even there in the Greek. The ESV has "the open statement of the truth". The KJV has "manifestation of the truth". The NIV inserts this adverb to help translate the verb "setting forth." There is no "plainly" in the Greek, but there are many preachers grateful to the NIV for offering them some justification for dull sermons.
"Thank you brother," comes the encouragement after the service, "that was plain. Very very plain indeed."
But Paul, in the surrounding chapters, goes out of his way to tell us how intensely emotional he is in his gospel ministry. He's "very bold" (2 Cor 3:12); motivated by the terror of the Lord he tries to persuade people (2 Cor 5:11); he's out of his mind (2 Cor 5:13); he is compelled by Christ's love (2 Cor 5:14); he is Christ's ambassador, God making His appeal through him. Paul is imploring the world to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).
"Thank you brother Paul, that was plain." Can you imagine such feedback? Unthinkable.
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So what am I saying? Well 2 Corinthians 4 is a fantastic passage on evangelism. But it comes in a context - a context in which the truth to be preached is Christ and not simply a death-dealing ministry of law... A context in which "setting it forth plainly" is about bold, passionate, gospel appeals. The truth-telling of chapter 4 is the persuasive imploring of chapter 5.
The great irony is that 2 Corinthians 4 - rightly understood - is a very effective critique of so much preaching that seeks shelter under its wings.
