Cross – Page 6 – Christ the Truth

A couple of thoughts on Dawkins

GlenSeptember 19, 2009Leave a comment

dawkins_southpark

I think, actually, [Richard Dawkins is] a pre-Christian atheist, because he never understood what Christianity is about in the first place! That would be rather like Madonna calling herself post-Marxist. You’d have to read him first to be post-him. As I’ve said before, I think that Dawkins in particular makes such crass mistakes about the kind of claims that Christianity is making. A lot of the time, he’s either banging at an open door or he’s shooting at a straw target.

Terry Eagleton (via Halden)

But before we feel smug. Let's allow him (and others) to critique a knee-jerk theism that too often passes for Christian apologetics:

[Conservative Evangelicals] despise Richard Dawkins while actually believing in the kind of God he rightly rejects, as if the existence of God were, in principle, demonstrable, as if the proposition “God exists” were a hypothesis to be affirmed or denied, as if God were simply the hugest of individuals.

Kim Fabricius (I object to his other points, but this one has a lot of truth to it).

Dawkins himself says that all he does is stretch his disbelief one God further than the Christians.

Which is absolutely right. Both Dawkins and the Christian reject Thor and Vishnu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster and any other super-being you care to imagine. The task of the Christian apologist is not to establish a deity but to proclaim the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As Mike Reeves recommends - the question for the atheist is 'Which God don't you believe in?'

And once they've described it, the response to have ready is 'I don't believe in that either, let me tell you about the cross.'

Passover is…

GlenJuly 3, 2009Leave a comment

... the ultimate plague (i.e. judgement) (Ex 11:1)

... judgement upon the gods (Ex 12:12)

... the defeat of the Enemy (Ex 6:1)

... liberation from slavery to overlords (Ex 13:14)

... liberation to the service of the LORD (Ex 8:1)

... the cause of unparalleled sorrow for the enemies (Ex 11:6)

... the cause of great joy for the redeemed (2 Chron 30:21)

... the distinction between the LORD's people and the world (Ex 11:7)

... in darkness (Deut 16:6)

... a sacrifice (Ex 12:27)

... substitutionary (Ex 12:13)

... bloody (Ex 12:13)

... a sign for the LORD's people (Ex 12:13)

... for the LORD Himself to see (Ex 12:13)

... to be memorialized in perpetuity (Ex 12:14)

... community-defining (Ex 12:47)

... open to non-covenant people (Ex 12:49) but...

... for those who enter the covenant and own its sign (Ex 12:48)

... time renewing (Ex 12:1)

... the ultimate revelation of the LORD (Ex 6:7)

Any more??

What is the cross? The same.

I wish I never sinned

GlenJune 20, 2009Leave a comment

"I wish I never sinned" said the Israelite at the head of the queue.

The others waiting to make their sacrifices nodded.

The priest narrowed his gaze. "Why do you wish you never sinned?"

The Israelite was amazed that the priest would ask. The answer was so obvious it hardly needed saying. "So I don't have to keep returning to this altar."

A good infection

GlenJune 3, 2009Leave a comment

Have you ever heard or ever spoken about Christ's cleansing of lepers? Have you ever heard it said that, in the OT, you never got a good infection, only a bad one? In other words the teaching says - holiness and cleanness never travels to the unholy/unclean thing. Instead it's always the unholy/unclean thing that defiles the holy/clean thing. Ever heard that or said it?

I have.

The advantage is that then you can say 'But Jesus gives the world's first ever good infection.' The disadvantage is that it's a damned dirty lie.

Exodus 29:37 - after the altar is purified, atoned for, christed and consecrated, whatever touches it shall become holy.

Exodus 30:22-33 - the sacred anointing oil christs (i.e. anoints) the tent of meeting, the ark, the table (and utensils), the lampstand (and its utensils), the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering (plus utensils), the basin and its stand. And just as Scripture says that anything that touches them becomes holy, it says to christ Aaron and his sons with it. No ordinary person is to be anointed with this oil, only priests.

Leviticus 6:18,27 - the priests' sin and grain offerings will both make something holy if it touches them.

So it's far better to say that there are rare occasions on which the unholy can receive a good infection. The altar, certain anointed ones and certain sacrifices can make something holy.

So if you want to be made holy come to the cross, come to The Anointed One, come to His priestly sacrifice. There you will receive a good infection. As He receives a bad one.

Models of masculinity

GlenApril 20, 2009Leave a comment

It's an age-old question, but it's taken the Flight of the Conchords to pose it again with aching poignancy:

What man? Which man? Who's the man?

When's a man a man?

What makes a man a man?

Am I a man?

Yes... technically I am.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEK0UZH4cs]

On reflection there were two models of masculinity on show at the London Men's Convention on Saturday.

The first was communicated in mainly non-verbal ways. As John has put it, there was, at times, a 'Top Gear' spirituality (Top Gear is a popular British TV programme where middle aged men salivate over an array of sports cars). You can guess the kinds of things - jokes about sports teams, jokes about baldness (lots of them!), jokes about scrotums. All the usual stuff. There was an uncomfortable insistence on making fun of the main speaker (Tim Keller) in a laddish kind of, 'Hey, you big bald son of a gun. Not much hair on you is there? Baldy. You big bald son of a bald man. Ha!' That kind of thing. Graciously Keller did not call down bear attacks as was his right as prophet of the LORD. Now that really would have sorted out the men from the boys.

(Just as an aside - British men, the cruelty that passes for 'banter' among men is quite shocking for foreigners to cope with. On one hand I speak as someone who's lived here half his life and, for better and for worse, speaks the lingo. I also speak as an Australian male. But I confess that even we hard-headed convicts gape in wonder at the incessant jibes about 'Fatty' and 'Who ate all the pies?' when the man in question is only slightly overweight. Or 'baldy', when we're really dealing with a high forehead. Or - and I dare not even name what red-heads are called in this country. I would try to dissuade anyone with auburn hair or lighter from stepping foot in the British Isles. The word "Ginger" could be followed by any number of appellations, most of them four-letter. And this kind of culture is rife in the church too. Last night in the pub I heard two Christian men speak about another Christian friend in shockingly unChristian ways. But it was completely in keeping with this lads culture.)

Under this first model of masculinity we're told that we have a God given masculinity to be lived out. Which is true. We're told what a huge problem it is when men aren't real men. Which is true. But then it's basically assumed that everyone knows what a real man is.

So Mark Driscoll bemoans the prevalence of 'chickified' men in church.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSrZVF3FEUQ]

Apparently the real men are those "watching a ball game, making money, climbing a mountain, shooting a gun, or working on their truck." And these are the men that are getting it done in the world. So Driscoll wants these kind of men in the church.

Well. Alright. It'd be great to have them in church. And yes, in some limited sense they'd make a welcome change from the other kind of false masculinity that abounds. But let's be clear - all natural masculinity is wicked. Masculinity as it occurs in its natural state is horribly and dangerously perverted. Whether the perversion occurs in the cowardly retreat direction or the aggressive domination direction, it's a perversion.

The other model of masculinity came in Keller's talk on the cross. He took us to Gethsemane where Jesus was at His wits end, craving the support of friends, crying, sweating blood contemplating the cross. The furnace of God's wrath lay ahead of Him. He begged His Father for another way. But there was no other way to save us. The prospect was simple: It was Him or us. And so Jesus said 'Father, Let it be me.'

That's a man.

Laying down His life for others, bearing shame in their place, accepting weakness to strengthen them. None of these things looked impressive. He looked like a total failure, naked and choking to death on a cross. He did not look manly. And men from all sides told Him so. They had all sorts of opinions about what Jesus needed to do to be a real man. They were all wrong. He reigned from that tree. Here was the manliest thing ever done.

And it has nothing to do with back-slapping dudesmanship. It's not about being mechanical or sports-loving. And it's not threatened by aesthetic sensitivity or quiet thoughtfulness. It's defined by heart-felt, loving, sacrificial service. It's stepping into the roles Christ has for us and saying 'My life for yours. My weakness for your strength. Father, Let it be me.'

Oh for real men! Oh to be a real man. But not like those 'real men' we're told to be.

The Dream of the Rood

GlenApril 10, 2009Leave a comment

An incredible 7th century old English poem. (Rood means cross)

Listen! The choicest of visions I wish to tell,
which came as a dream in middle-night,
after voice-bearers lay at rest.
It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree
born aloft, wound round by light,
brightest of beams. All was that beacon
sprinkled with gold. Gems stood
fair at earth's corners; there likewise five
shone on the shoulder-span. All there beheld the Angel of God,
fair through predestiny...

...Then best wood spoke these words:
"It was long since--I yet remember it--
that I was hewn at holt's end,
moved from my stem. Strong fiends seized me there,
worked me for spectacle; cursèd ones lifted me.
On shoulders men bore me there, then fixed me on hill;
fiends enough fastened me. Then saw I mankind's Lord
come with great courage when he would mount on me.
Then dared I not against the Lord's word
bend or break, when I saw earth's
fields shake. All fiends
I could have felled, but I stood fast.
The young hero stripped himself--he, God Almighty--
strong and stout-minded. He mounted high gallows,
bold before many, when he would loose mankind.

I shook when that Man clasped me. I dared, still, not bow to earth,
fall to earth's fields, but had to stand fast.
Rood was I reared. I lifted a mighty King,
Lord of the heavens, dared not to bend.
With dark nails they drove me through: on me those sores are seen,
open malice-wounds. I dared not scathe anyone.
They mocked us both, we two together. All wet with blood I was,
poured out from that Man's side, after ghost he gave up.
Much have I born on that hill
of fierce fate. I saw the God of hosts
harshly stretched out. Darknesses had
wound round with clouds the corpse of the Wielder,
bright radiance; a shadow went forth,
dark under heaven. All creation wept,
King's fall lamented. Christ was on rood...

...May he be friend to me
who here on earth earlier died
on that gallows-tree for mankind's sins.
He loosed us and life gave,
a heavenly home. Hope was renewed
with glory and gladness to those who there burning endured.
That Son was victory-fast in that great venture,
with might and good-speed, when he with many,
vast host of souls, came to God's kingdom,
One-Wielder Almighty: bliss to the angels
and all the saints--those who in heaven
dwelt long in glory--when their Wielder came,
Almighty God, where his homeland was.

Translation copyright © 1982, Jonathan A. Glenn

Read the whole thing here

May you know that young Hero - God Almighty - close this day.

Steve Chalke on the torture of the cross

GlenApril 2, 2009Leave a comment

Maybe this is well known but I was intrigued by finding this in a second hand bookshop:

chalke-cover

Chalke wrote it in 1995. On the cross he writes this:

chalke-inside

"...to complete the rejection, [Jesus] was abandoned by God the Father. To a large extent, it was this emotional torture which killed Jesus... It shows the completeness with which he was prepared to pay the price of human sin."

This from a man who in 2003 denied a penal substitutionary view of the cross. Having quoted John 3:16, Chalke says

"...how then, have we come to believe that at the cross this God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on his own Son? The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse - a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith" (The Lost Message of Jesus, p182).

Anyone know if Chalke has ever explained his earlier explanation of the cross in the light of this later one?

Hung on a tree

GlenFebruary 11, 2009Leave a comment

This makes a lot of sense.

Especially since Jesus was crucified in the garden (John 19:41). A garden of death, a tree of curse becomes Eden renewed (John 20:15). The very tree of life.

Can you imagine 'cross' necklaces that took this to heart? Very interesting..

UPDATE: Some artwork along these lines.

cross-as-tree-of-life-1

Apse of San Clemente's upper church, Rome. Photo: Lawrence OP

cross-as-tree-of-life-2

Pacino di Buonaguida's "Tree of Life". See here why there's a Pelican at the top!

But of course these superimpose the cross on the tree of life. I can't find any artwork of the crucifixion that has Christ simply hung on a tree! Can you?

Being in very nature God… He humbled Himself

GlenDecember 19, 2008Leave a comment

6 Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:6-11)

Divine humility. Sounds contradictory? You don't understand Christmas.

Jesus Christ, existing in the form of God, made a judgement. That's right. Before Christmas morning, Jesus took a decision. (btw, v6 is proof that it's ok to call the pre-incarnate Son 'Jesus' - but that's for another time...)

Now you didn't decide to get born. I'm guessing if you had been offered the chance to get born, you'd have taken it. But Jesus had to choose to get born. And I promise you, if you were in His shoes, you'd never have chosen what He chose. If you were in very nature God, surrounded by the worship of heaven, able to do whatever you pleased, you would not have chosen what Jesus chose. Because this is how Jesus considered things: Being in very nature God, He chose not to grasp at His power or to exploit it. Instead He chose total self-emptying. He chose servanthood. He chose to humble Himself. He chose obedience. He chose death. He even chose the death of the cross - lifted up as an accursed thing. That was Jesus' consideration - being the God that He was.

Question: Would you have chosen that?

Answer: No. Every day I fail to give up even the smallest of comforts. Let alone to give up my very life! Let alone to suffer godforsaken hell - and that for enemies! Would I have chosen this path? No!

Question: Well if Jesus did make this choice, did that stop Him from being in very nature God?

Answer: By no means! He is ongoingly, continually 'in very nature God'.

Question: Well then, is Jesus' self-emptying a major detour from His glory in the form of God?

Answer: No this is what equality with God actually looks like! This is the very expression of the Father's glory - not exploiting but emptying.

Since He is in the form of God so He took to Himself the form of a slave! And in this self-emptying He shows what true equality with God looks like. It looks like the crib and the cross!

Christmas morning and Good Friday are not detours from the glory of God. They show us that divine glory at full strength. In eternity Jesus made this consideration. He chose His history as the incarnate Servant to be that which truly expresses His equality with God. And the Father affirms this choice - hyper-exalting He who hyper-humbled Himself. And into all eternity we will gladly serve the Servant. (And don't forget, He will serve us! Luke 12:37!)

Implication: The baby in the manger, the victim on the cross - this is what it means to be in very nature God.

What is God's nature? Don't simply look to the crown. Look to the crib and to the cross. God's nature is disclosed as one of utter self-giving. Divine humility.

Glorious!

A sermon by Darrell Johnson on this passage (one of my favourite sermons ever!)

Meditating on Romans 3

GlenOctober 15, 2008Leave a comment

I preached on Romans 3:21-26 recently. It's a dense, theologically loaded paragraph on the vindication of God's justice in justifying the unjust through the cross. Leon Morris has called it perhaps the most important paragraph ever written.

So how to preach it? Well it's Paul, so then clearly a strong didactic form is called for. Verse by verse, commentary in one hand, a greek lexicon in the other. Unpack the massive theological freight piece by piece and if you're lucky some doxology tacked on the end (if you're unlucky, an exhortation to evangelism).

Well, perhaps you'll think that's more the model I ended up with. But close to my heart throughout the preparation was this desire simply to meditate on the three scenes Paul gives us. The law court (v19-24a); the slave market (v24b) and the temple (v25).

To be honest, if I'd had my time over I think I would have ditched everything else and just gone with a simple meditation. I'd have gotten the congregation to close their eyes and come with me on a journey...

You are in court. Standing in the dock. You and all humanity. The arms dealer is to your left and the amnesty international human rights lawyer is to your right. In front of you is a paedophile, behind you is Mother Teresa. But there you are in the dock. The court room intimidates you, everything in it is against you. You know that your very life hangs in the balance. You dread the verdict that is about to be announced.

The judge reads out these words. As he reads, you know that every charge is unquestionably true:

You are not righteous.

You have no understanding.

You do not seek for God.

You have turned away.

You are worthless.

You do no good.

Your throat is an open grave.

You use your tongue only to deceive.

The venom of vipers is under your lips.

Your mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Your feet are swift to shed blood

Ruin and misery mark your way.

You have not known the way of peace.

There is no fear of God before your eyes.

The whole court-room is silent but the words ‘not righteous', ‘no understanding' and ‘worthless' still ring in your ears. Your mouth is stopped. You cannot answer a single charge. It's all true and the weight of condemnation is crushing.

The judge raises his gavel. There can be only one verdict. The hammer crashes down. The judge declares it:

I find you not guilty.

The court-room changes in an instant. Smiles everywhere. The judge steps down off the bench to congratulate you. You are lost for words.

"How? Why? What...?

Large doors are opened and great light comes in. The guards usher you through the doors and out into the light.

The scene has changed.

You find yourself in a first-century market-place. You are hungry. You have no shoes. Instead you stand in iron shackles - owned by a cruel master. You have never known any different. You stand in front of the mob and the bidding starts for you. The price goes up and up and you dread the reasons why anyone would pay so much.

"Sold!" you hear. And you peer into the crowd to find out who. Suddenly a man emerges. He smiles, bends down and unlocks your shackles. He stands up, looks you in the eye and says "You're mine now." You reach for words but they don't really come... "Why? How? What did you pay?"

"Let me show you" He says and takes you by the hand out of the market.

Immediately the scene changes again. You are at the temple, standing - like all the other sinners - in the queue for the altar. You are carrying a young lamb in your arms just like the law tells you. At the front of the queue someone lays their hand on the head of their lamb, confessing their sin. Then, holding its wriggling form down on the altar, they slit its throat - the blood gushes out. You see the blood and you know that's what you deserve as a sinner. You shuffle forwards towards the altar.

Suddenly, from deep within the temple a voice booms out ‘Stop the sacrifices.' You drop your lamb in fright, as does everyone else. They all scurry away. Then you see the most shocking sight of your life. The LORD God Almghty emerges from within the innnermost sanctuary. You are stunned. But not half as stunned as you are about to be. In His strength the LORD strides towards the altar. He lays down on it, and carrying the sins of all the people the LORD is slain and His blood is spilt.

And now you know - the verdict you didn't deserve, the freedom you didn't earn - it was purchased by the blood of the LORD Jesus Himself. You look to the altar to see your God now become your Lamb and His blood now become your atonement. Shaking your head in wonder you leave the temple, the weight of your sin gone - the weight of His glory upon you.

Go back to the dock. Remember your guilt. Now feel the wonder of the verdict.

Go back to the slave-market. Remember your bondage. Now feel the joy of your freedom.

Go back to the temple. Remember the queue for the altar and whose blood was really required. Now feel the awe as you behold the Lamb of God bleeding for your sins.

I should have just preached that don't you think?

Anyway - I went for a bit of a compromise. Didactic with a touch of meditation thrown in.

Read it here

Listen here.