Jesus is the Word of God
Just an excellent podcast (25 mins)
Tim Rudge talks to Mike Reeves on living by faith on an hour by hour basis - applying the truths of the gospel to our sin and cultivating a healthy and happy walk with Christ. I've listened to it twice already. Great stuff.
.
Galatians 1:4: [Jesus Christ] who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.
You will readily grant that Christ gave Himself for the sins of Peter, Paul, and others who were worthy of such grace. But feeling low, you find it hard to believe that Christ gave Himself for your sins. Our feelings shy at a personal application of the pronoun "our," and we refuse to have anything to do with God until we have made ourselves worthy by good deeds.
This attitude springs from a false conception of sin, the conception that sin is a small matter, easily taken care of by good works; that we must present ourselves unto God with a good conscience; that we must feel no sin before we may feel that Christ was given for our sins. This attitude is universal and particularly developed in those who consider themselves better than others. Such readily confess that they are frequent sinners, but they regard their sins as of no such importance that they cannot easily be dissolved by some good action, or that they may not appear before the tribunal of Christ and demand the reward of eternal life for their righteousness. Meantime they pretend great humility and acknowledge a certain degree of sinfulness for which they soulfully join in the publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." But the real significance and comfort of the words "for our sins" is lost upon them. The genius of Christianity takes the words of Paul "who gave himself for our sins" as true and efficacious. We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained. Practice this knowledge and fortify yourself against despair, particularly in the last hour, when the memory of past sins assails the conscience. Say with confidence: "Christ, the Son of God, was given not for the righteous, but for sinners. If I had no sin I should not need Christ. No, Satan, you cannot delude me into thinking I am holy. The truth is, I am all sin. My sins are not imaginary transgressions, but sins against the first table, unbelief, doubt, despair, contempt, hatred, ignorance of God, ingratitude towards Him, misuse of His name, neglect of His Word, etc.; and sins against the second table, dishonor of parents, disobedience of government, coveting of another's possessions, etc. Granted that I have not committed murder, adultery, theft, and similar sins in deed, nevertheless I have committed them in the heart, and therefore I am a transgressor of all the commandments of God.
"Because my transgressions are multiplied and my own efforts at self-justification rather a hindrance than a furtherance, therefore Christ the Son of God gave Himself into death for my sins." To believe this is to have eternal life.
Let us equip ourselves against the accusations of Satan with this and similar passages of Holy Scripture. If he says, "Thou shalt be damned," you tell him: "No, for I fly to Christ who gave Himself for my sins. In accusing me of being a damnable sinner, you are cutting your own throat, Satan. You are reminding me of God's fatherly goodness toward me, that He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In calling me a sinner, Satan, you really comfort me above measure." With such heavenly cunning we are to meet the devil's craft and put from us the memory of sin.
And lo, having spoken thus, He didst ascend from the mount before their eyes. And He spake unto them saying, "Remember this that I have taught you."
And lo, angels didst appear saying, "Why doth ye lookest into the sky? He hath given to thee thy programme of reform..."
Instead there's an unclean wretch who runs to the LORD of Israel even in His uncleanness. And He is cleansed, healed, restored.
Oh, and then there's that whole death and resurrection thing too.
Might be important.
.
We have been thinking about mission grounded in God's own life. God is the Sending God, His Sent Son and the Reconciling Spirit - this is not simply something He does but who He is.
So it is with the Church. We have inherited our mission from the Sent One and we too find ourselves not simply doing mission, but being His sent ones to the ends of the earth.
There is discontinuity between God's mission and ours in that Christ has saved the world therefore we do not. Instead we point to His once for all saving.
But there is also continuity between God's mission and ours. Therefore, just as the eternal Father's concern has ever been the exaltation of His Son in His Spirit-empowered word, so too our mission must be thoroughly evangelistic.
At this point people will often ask, does social justice or care for the environment have a place within such an evangel? The answer is Yes, but we must emphasize that such concerns find their place within the gospel. Not instead of it. And not alongside of it. God does not have one goal for social, political, cultural and environmental well-being and another goal for the salvation of souls. Such a dualism has plagued the church's understanding of mission for too long.
There are some who have simply privileged one side of the dualism. So on the one hand there have been the evangelists like D.L. Moody who famously said: "I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said to me, 'Moody, save all you can.'" Such a view divorces creation and redemption and privileges the latter. On the other hand there has been the 'social gospel' of Walter Rauschenbusch in which mission is "transforming life on earth into the harmony of heaven." This makes the same divorce but privileges creation instead.
In fact both fall into a dualism in which heaven and earth, time and eternity, the spiritual and the physical are pitted against one another. This cannot be the outlook of the Christian who has accepted mission from the hand of the risen Christ. In Him heaven and earth, time and eternity, the spiritual and the physical are united at the deepest level.
But there is yet another mistake to be resisted. We have not solved this dualism by accepting these two concerns for creation and redemption and simply determining to give them equal emphasis. A well balanced two-pronged approach to mission is not the solution, as though some cultural mandate lies side-by-side together with a gospel mandate for the world. Such a view seems to be that of the very influential Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Here is a key statement from them in 1982:
In addition to worldwide evangelization, the people of God should become deeply involved in relief, aid, development and the quest for justice and peace.
It is the phrase 'in addition to' that is so problematic. The authors liken the relation of these two concerns to 'two blades of a pair of scissors or the two wings of a bird.' Yet to accept this two-pronged approach is still to put asunder what God has joined together. These are not unco-ordinated concerns in God's mission. The Father does not have one desire for the lifting up of humanity and another for the glorification of His Son. There is not one will for creation and a separate will for redemption. Yet this seems to be precisely the assumption of Lausanne's authors.
John Stott (the driving force behind the Lausanne declaration) said this in a sermon given the morning before the 1975 Assembly in Nairobi of the Central Committee of the World Council of Church:
"[There are two freedoms and two unities for which Jesus Christ is concerned] On the one hand there is socio-political liberation and the unity of all mankind, for these things are the good will of God the Creator, while on the other there is the redemptive work of Christ who sets his people free from sin and guilt, and unites them in his new community. To muddle these two things (creation and redemption, common grace and saving grace, liberation and salvation, justice and justification) is to plunge oneself into all kinds of confusion." (quoted in Timothy Dudley Smith, John Stott: A Global Ministry, IVP, 2001, p204
With the greatest respect for John Stott, I don't think that's right. Creation and redemption are not separately addressed by the Lord and they shouldn't be separately addressed by His church. No, the Father has one almighty gospel passion that lifts up humanity and the world precisely in the gospel of His Son. So it is with God, so it must be with us. Whatever cultural mandate there is, it is included in and dependent upon the gospel mandate to make disciples of all nations.
Authentic social, political, economic, cultural and environmental renewal happens within the gospel. It occurs within the sphere of Christ's explicit Lordship. This means, minimally, where the word of Christ is proclaimed as authoritative on its own terms (for instance where the church speaks prophetically into the issues of the day). But more usually and concretely it occurs where this word of Christ is received in faith and His Lordship is lived out first in the body and, then, spilling over into the world.
In this way the most radically political, social and environmental revolutions can occur. Yet they occur as gospel revolutions where King Jesus is reigning by the power of His Spirit-anointed word.
More to follow...
.
Ok, Dave's right, blogging's about the quick post. So here goes...
The Ten Commandments are written in the indicative. Did you know that? There's a perfectly straightforward imperative mood in Hebrew. God could easily have said "You must not murder". But God didn't say that. He said "You will not murder." You won't. You're my special people. I've saved you. You won't lie, you won't murder, you won't covet. You won't. These things are not said in the (grammatical) mood of command. They are said in the mood of promise!
Now of course they carry commanding force. When a mother says to two screaming kids "There will be peace in this house", by golly there had better be peace. And when God says there will be peace, well there's a huge commanding force to that. But it's first and foremost a promise.
And because it's a promise, it becomes the most binding command.
"You will" is far stronger than "you must".
"You must" implies that you may not. "You must" puts you in the driving seat. To be sure it stands above you with a threatening tone. But even after "You must" is spoken the reality is that maybe you will and maybe you won't. The choice remains yours.
"You will" takes the choice out of your hands. "You will" does not even contemplate an alternative. "You will" binds you to the promise. It makes you a slave of grace. It casts you as a humble recipient of the word with nothing to do but walk in the service that is perfect freedom.
So now Jesus says this in Matthew 5:48 - and again, He could have used the imperative. Instead He spoke in the glorious future indicative:
You will be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
What a command? Well, yes, subsequently. But first - what a promise!
.
Oh it's bad. It's very bad. It's murdering your Maker. It's cheating on your Lover. It's grieving His Spirit. It's tearing apart your soul. It's bad. Bad, bad, bad.
But not receiving forgiveness is far worse. Failure to accept the grace of Jesus dwarfs all other sins in its monstrosity. To refuse the vulnerable humility of God; to trample on the Lamb and blaspheme His Spirit as they offer blood-bought mercy and cleansing - this is unspeakable evil. It's the reason people perish eternally.
Don't believe me? 1 Thessalonians 2:10:
They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
Those in hell are there for refusal to love the life-saving truth of the gospel. To sin is one thing. To refuse forgiveness is itself unforgivable.
Now we know this on a macro level. We know that eternity does not depend on minimizing sin. It depends on receiving forgiveness. We believe it for that Day, but do we believe it this day? Do I live today as though sinning (or not sinning) is the ultimate spiritual barometer? Or is my spiritual barometer daily calibrated to the forgiveness of Christ?
Here's how I naturally assess my Christian walk. I rate my 'performance' largely by how much distance I've managed to put between me and my last 'big sin.' (Of course it's 'big sins' I'm interested in, if I worried about the little ones my holy-count would never get off the ground). When the number of 'sin-free' days hits double figures I'm doing great. In fact, once I'm talking in weeks rather than days it rockets me into the righteousness stratosphere. Best of all, it finally allows me to minister to people from the safe distance of 'All-figured-out-holiness.'
Of course when I sin it sucks. Why? Because I'm back to zero. My functional righteousness is caput and I'll have to endure the hassle of a 'holy' fortnight before I can feel good again. If I minister to people it will have to be out of broken messiness and a dependence on the grace of Jesus. Ewww.
Now that's a stark way of putting it. But I don't think there is a nice way of portraying this mindset. While ever we pursue the Christian life as though sinning is the worst thing and 'not sinning is the most important thing' then such a foul system will develop. But it's to entirely forget the gospel.
So friends, perhaps you've really blown it recently. Praise God this could be the opportunity to realize your profound and continual need for the blood of Jesus. Allow this to teach you the truth - the person you showed yourself to be in your sin is the person you have always been. It springs from a heart full of evil which you will carry to the grave. Your only hope lies far above and beyond yourself at God's Right Hand. He is your profound and continual need.
Perhaps you blew it a while ago but you just can't seem to get beyond it. Friend - the Word of God forbids you to take your sin more seriously than Christ's forgiveness. Is your sin great? Yes. But is it greater than the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? Is it beyond the redeeming value of God's own blood (Acts 20:28). I think your sin has met its match in Calvary's cleansing flow, don't you?
Perhaps you haven't blown it for a while now but you're realizing you operate according to a functional righteousness. You hate sin only because it spoils your 'holy count'. You're proud and graceless. Well meditate on Philippians 3:1-11. Know that such 'righteousness' is dung and reckon it all as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. He alone is your life and peace.
Or perhaps you're a blogger who writes about grace. You can dissect the sins of works-righteousness and see through latent Pharisaisms. Well neither are you righteous for your pithy critiques of the flesh. You haven't got it figured out. If you know anything it's that you're ignorant. If you have any strength it's only found in your helplessness. There's no credit to your insight, there's only rest in His mercy. You are nothing. Jesus is everything.
.
Oh it's bad. It's very bad. It's murdering your Maker. It's cheating on your Lover. It's grieving His Spirit. It's tearing apart your soul. It's bad. Bad, bad, bad.
But not receiving forgiveness is far worse. Failure to accept the grace of Jesus dwarfs all other sins in its monstrosity. To refuse the vulnerable humility of God; to trample on the Lamb and blaspheme His Spirit as they offer blood-bought mercy and cleansing - this is unspeakable evil. It's the reason people perish eternally.
Don't believe me? 1 Thessalonians 2:10:
They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
Those in hell are there for refusal to love the life-saving truth of the gospel. To sin is one thing. To refuse forgiveness is itself unforgivable.
Now we know this on a macro level. We know that eternity does not depend on minimizing sin. It depends on receiving forgiveness. We believe it for that Day, but do we believe it this day? Do I live today as though sinning (or not sinning) is the ultimate spiritual barometer? Or is my spiritual barometer daily calibrated to the forgiveness of Christ?
Here's how I naturally assess my Christian walk. I rate my 'performance' largely by how much distance I've managed to put between me and my last 'big sin.' (Of course it's 'big sins' I'm interested in, if I worried about the little ones my holy-count would never get off the ground). When the number of 'sin-free' days hits double figures I'm doing great. In fact, once I'm talking in weeks rather than days it rockets me into the righteousness stratosphere. Best of all, it finally allows me to minister to people from the safe distance of 'All-figured-out-holiness.'
Of course when I sin it sucks. Why? Because I'm back to zero. My functional righteousness is caput and I'll have to endure the hassle of a 'holy' fortnight before I can feel good again. If I minister to people it will have to be out of broken messiness and a dependence on the grace of Jesus. Ewww.
Now that's a stark way of putting it. But I don't think there is a nice way of portraying this mindset. While ever we pursue the Christian life as though sinning is the worst thing and 'not sinning is the most important thing' then such a foul system will develop. But it's to entirely forget the gospel.
So friends, perhaps you've really blown it recently. Praise God this could be the opportunity to realize your profound and continual need for the blood of Jesus. Allow this to teach you the truth - the person you showed yourself to be in your sin is the person you have always been. It springs from a heart full of evil which you will carry to the grave. Your only hope lies far above and beyond yourself at God's Right Hand. He is your profound and continual need.
Perhaps you blew it a while ago but you just can't seem to get beyond it. Friend - the Word of God forbids you to take your sin more seriously than Christ's forgiveness. Is your sin great? Yes. But is it greater than the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? Is it beyond the redeeming value of God's own blood (Acts 20:28). I think your sin has met its match in Calvary's cleansing flow, don't you?
Perhaps you haven't blown it for a while now but you're realizing you operate according to a functional righteousness. You hate sin only because it spoils your 'holy count'. You're proud and graceless. Well meditate on Philippians 3:1-11. Know that such 'righteousness' is dung and reckon it all as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. He alone is your life and peace.
Or perhaps you're a blogger who writes about grace. You can dissect the sins of works-righteousness and see through latent Pharisaisms. Well neither are you righteous for your pithy critiques of the flesh. You haven't got it figured out. If you know anything it's that you're ignorant. If you have any strength it's only found in your helplessness. There's no credit to your insight, there's only rest in His mercy. You are nothing. Jesus is everything.
.
...The younger brother came to himself and said, 'My dad's an old softy. I reckon if I returned looking sufficiently contrite he'd bail me out. It's worth a try anyway.' he reasoned.
And so he rose and made the journey back to his father rehearsing his sorry-spiel along the way. 'Father, my father. I know I messed up. I know I don't deserve anything from you. You'd be well within your rights to shun me forever. But, father, my father, I'm throwing myself on your mercy. Here I am, your son - and I know you're a good dad - will you help me out?'
By the time he got to his father's house his speech was pitch-perfect. He rang the door-bell and waited. Eventually he heard his father's shuffling steps, then the locks turning in the door, one after the other - four in all. At last it creaked open a crack and the old man squinted up at his son.
'Father, my father. I know I messed up. I know I don't deserve anything...' began the prodigal. The father's look began to thaw. The speech was good. Perhaps the best yet. By the end the old man couldn't help but blurt out, 'Ah my son! You certainly know how to tug at my heart strings. What can I do for you?'
The son took a moment to congratulate himself on such powers of persuasion. 'Well, father,' he said, 'wild living ain't cheap! And Lord knows how I'm going to afford my ticket back to the far country...'
'Far country? You want to go back?' asked the father, his face falling.
'Well just for now. Unfinished business you see. But I'm definitely planning on returning...'
'...Because, son, you know there's always room for you here...'
'Yes, sure. Absolutely dad. And I know I'll be returning. Probably quite often. But there's things I need to do and, well, I need your help.'
'How much?'
'Well there's the ticket. Then I need the deposit on a new place. I've found the perfect pad - downtown, the ladies love it. But that's another thing,' he said chuckling, 'they sure are expensive those women!'
'How much?' he asked again.
'It's hard to put a figure you know dad, it could be anything.'
They looked at each other for a minute. The father broke the silence.
'Blank cheque then?'
'Blank cheque would be great! Yeah thanks. Phew. You're a real life-saver dad. Wow. I'd hug you, but I'm a bit smelly from the pigs. Speaking of which, do you have any food? Ham sandwich maybe?'
'Ham sandwich?? Look, come inside. I'll kill the fattened calf. Tonight we'll feast!'
'Gosh, dad. That's sweet but I really don't have time. Listen, I'll just grab something from drive thru. The cheque's fine. And, now that I think of it, don't make it out to the family name. I've changed it. Yeah, too many people were associating me with you and... well. You know...'
Within five minutes the younger son was heading back down the drive. He spotted his brother in the field and, holding the cheque aloft, called out. "Ciao bro'! Enjoy the slaving!"
.
Ok so the title's a lame attempt to get Google hits. But really this post is about the results of our election.
In the first post on freedom we thought about the blasphemy and bondage of modern, individualistic accounts of freedom.
Next we considered Jesus - especially Jesus in Gethsemane - as the proper starting point for thinking about freedom.
Last time we examined our natural state - we are not born free, we become free by the redemption that is in Jesus.
In this post we'll think about how we live out our freedom day by day in the Christian walk.
Throughout our discussion, we've never been far from the paradox of freedom - i.e. Freedom to pursue the desires of my flesh is bondage, obedience to the will of the Father is freedom. Martin Luther put it like this in The Freedom of a Christian.
A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none,
A Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.
Sound crazy? Put it this way. Ask yourself, ‘Am I free?' One answer: ‘Absolutely, "Free indeed!" Christians are released from slavery to sin, set on our feet by Jesus, brought to the Father in righteousness, equipped by the Spirit to move forwards in sanctification.'
Now ask the question again, ‘Am I free?' Another answer: ‘Absolutely not! I am ransomed, claimed, bought, owned, enslaved by Christ. I am entirely His possession - entirely at His disposal.'
And yet His service is perfect freedom. How can this be?
Well we'll have to jettison the popular notion of freedom - doing what I want to do, any old time. Freedom is worked out in the relational matrices that constitute my identity. I'm not free by liberating myself from the claims of others upon me - those claims make me who I am. Instead I am free when I responsibly use my will in expression of my relational, grace-given identity.
Freedom means finding ouselves in obedience to God, in union with Christ, in being led by the Spirit, in serving the body. Walking in line with this truth means abandoning ourselves to these absolute claims upon us which, whether we acknowledge it or not, are the very atmosphere of our being.
We are like fish and we ought never to think we'll be more free if only we escape the tank. We are free precisely in that environment. To walk out of step with these realities is to renounce the responsible moral agency Jesus purchased with His own blood and to become a slave to the world, the flesh and the devil. Anyone who calls such a choice 'freedom' hasn't yet grasped who they really are.
Now what does this truth do to our hearts if we let it settle down deep? Well here are two lies that are unmasked which, if left unchallenged, can be so damaging.
The first lie is this: The devil always appears to us as our slave. Temptation always offers to serve us. We buy into it thinking 'I am the master of this sin. This sin is getting me what I want. I am in charge.' Of course Jesus says the opposite. "Whoever sins is a slave to sin." (John 8:34) Right when we congratulate ourselves on mastering our own fate and negotiating a win-win for our flesh the shackles go on and we're bound.
Here's the other lie and, for me, this one goes much deeper: Your 'freedom' guarantees an unimpeachable core within you. You are a choosing individual - you may choose to honour those claims upon you from without or you may choose not to. Either way, there is a protected sphere deep down that is you - and it is beyond the claims of others.
No, no, no! Our Christ-shaped doctrine of freedom completely obliterates the notion of secret basements within myself. There simply do not exist within me little safe-havens for self. There's no such thing as me-time or me-space. The real me, down to the very depths, is found in going outside myself. I am in Christ - hidden in Him. And He is in me - in all of me. Your Father sees what is done in secret. Where can we go from His Spirit? We may descend into some imagined basement of ourselves, but we'll find Jesus right there. And if we are in our right minds we'll rejoice, because who wants a Christless basement?
CS Lewis, looking back on his non-Christian days, said the word he hated more than all others was "interference". And this is completely in line with the most cherished notions of our day - i.e. within myself, down beneath the claims of others, lies the real me. Untouchable, independent, proud, responsible. And we erect barriers to guard this precious sphere.
And of course whenever the lie is believed that we have such spheres it cultivates sin like nothing else. Pride, lust, gossip, self-righteousness, entitlement, anger, self-serving - you name it, these sins thrive on the notion that there is a 'me' down here who then has the choice of how to use my will.
We must hear the gospel again. I am already and down to the very depths of me claimed, purchased, ransomed, possessed by Christ. It's not a case of the real me now deciding to walk with Christ - as though I have some 'freedom' to follow or not. Disobedience is not an option. It happens to be sure. But in another sense 'how can you live in sin any more.' (Rom 6:2).
There is an impossibility to sin that we mustn't minimize just because we manage to do the impossible all the time. To act out of step with my redeemed identity is not the rational choice of a free self for whom righteousness and wickedness lie open as equally valid options. Read Romans 6 and 7 again to see Paul wrestling out loud with the impossibility and yet the absurd and horrific presence of sin in the Christian life. Sin is not an option. And though it happens it happens only in contradiction to our true selves and our true freedom.
The point of all this is that the Christian is not (in Barth's phrase) Hercules at the crossroads. We're not the captains of our souls or masters of our fates. No, Jesus has lifted us out of that position (which we called freedom and He called slavery) and united us to Himself. The real me has been completely re-constituted by Christ and already claimed by Him. We are already on the path. There's nothing left for me to do except joyfully participate in this new humanity. To keep in step with this reality is to find my true self and experience the freedom that is already mine in my Redeemer.
.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:1-12)
.
I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
.