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Published on Leave a comment on Dying with Jesus

How do you think of judgement and salvation?

If you ask me - you shouldn't think like this:

 Judgement&Salvation1

Instead think like this:

 Judgement&Salvation2

Or to be a bit more nuanced - like this.

Now I could take this observation in many directions.

Perhaps we could explore its significance for an infra versus supra-lapsarian debate.

Perhaps we could discuss the strong link that some make between penal substitutionary atonement and limited atonement.

We could think about how to preach warnings of judgement (for instance warnings of exile in the OT) given that judgement is a-coming.

But I'm going to take the observation in this direction...

I'm becoming convinced that when Jesus says 'Take up your cross and follow me' (Mark 8:34) He's saying the same thing as Paul when he says 'I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live'  (Gal 2:20).

Think of some of Jesus' words:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Matt 10:34-39)

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.  (Luke 14:33)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.  (John 12:24-26)

In the context of Jesus' own judgement and salvation He tells His followers what it means to come after Him.  It means being caught up in that same path - the only path of life.  Seeds must die to live - so it is with The Seed so it is with the many offspring His death produced.  Judgement then salvation.  To be saved is to die with Jesus - to join Him for an early judgement day and pass through to find true life.

Compare this with some words from Paul:

I have been 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.  (Gal 2:20)

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his, etc, etc  (Rom 6:3-5 and following)

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  (Gal 6:14)

Here Paul describes his history as utterly determined by the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  Judgement and salvation have happened for Paul because he has died and risen with Jesus to new life on the other side of wrath, death, sin, law, old creation.  And (apart from his Adamic flesh that still clings to him) he is utterly dead to the world around him and utterly brought into 'newness of life'.

Now.  Think of a sermon you've heard on the Jesus verses.  And think of a sermon you've heard on the Paul verses.  I imagine the tone of those two sermons was quite different.  I imagine that the Jesus sermons spent a lot of time presenting His words as moralistic exhortations and 'if-then' conditions before (perhaps) the preacher retracted the force of them and told you not to forget that you're 'saved by grace' ('grace' understood along the lines of diagram 1 not diagram 2).   And I imagine the Paul sermon comforted you with the whole 'union with Christ', 'newness of life' stuff and encouraged you that 'hey, you really are saved by grace.' (again, probably 'grace' as understood according to diagram 1) 

I wonder if the Jesus sermons should sound more like the best of the Paul sermons.  And the Paul sermons should sound like the best of the Jesus sermons.  In other words, Jesus, the Seed, dies and rises on your behalf.  If you are His rejoice that you are created, shaped and defined by this death and resurrection in which you are crucified to the the whole world, and the whole world is crucified to you.  This is your salvation because there simply is no other way to resurrection than through the cross.  'Come and die' is not a fearful condition of life - maybe you're up to it, maybe not.  It's the description of how that life comes, wrapped up in the announcement that Jesus really has crucified the world to raise it up new - come on in.

If you are not dead to the world, this might well be a sign that you are not His.  Or that you have wandered far from Him.  So go to Him and take that easy yoke onto your shoulders (Matt 11:28-30).  Be constrained by the death and resurrection of Jesus, for this is salvation.  Or else be wearied and burdened by your own, much heavier yokes which cannot lead you through the judgement to come.

But for those who are yoked to Christ, know that you have begun, even now, to live that newness of life.  Even today as we walk together with Jesus, dying to sin and self and the praises and worries of this world, resurrection life is unleashed.  This mystical union with Christ (the best of the Paul sermons) is earthed in the daily discipleship of living for Jesus (the best of the Jesus sermons).  Let's have both. 

I wonder if that's why Peter finishes his first letter (which is all about this judgement then salvation dynamic) by saying 'This is the true grace of God.' 1 Peter 5:12.

 

.

19

Published on 19 Comments on Some thoughts on your 'personal problems'

This is a long one but I won't be posting for a while so read at your leisure...

 

crisis1) This is the occasion for change not the reason for change.

It's great if you've come to some sort of crisis moment.  It's good that you want to change.  But you ought to know that this is the struggle of your life. 

I don't mean: This is the struggle of your life.  I mean: This is the struggle of your life.  Welcome.

.

Struggle2) If you're not struggling, you're losing.  Or worse, you're not even a Christian.

Christians struggle.  We are the product of two births.  Our flesh is from Adam, our Spirit from Christ.  If you're not struggling then you're simply gratifying the cravings of your flesh (however respectable you may look).  And perhaps you don't even have the Spirit.  Let the comfortable be disturbed.  And let the strugglers be comforted - your battle is a sign of the Spirit's work. 

 

.

 Fruitful-Tree3) If you are struggling, you have a Power within you to live new creation life.

If Christ is in you, you have the power that called forth the universe and He is determined to bring supernatural change.  Mark 4 comes to mind - the power of Christ's word can and will produce 30, 60, 100-fold growth but of course it will be as gradual and organic as the growth of a seed.  Nonetheless this is what you are aiming for - not simply the correction of some annoying habits but the transformation of your character through Christ's word.  Be encouraged by your struggle - it means that an other-worldly Power is at work and will transform you in ways you can only begin to imagine.

..

  

prodigal son3  4) Your righteousness is entirely outside and above you.

These problems do not define you.  Your success at handling these problems does not define you.  Christ defines you. We don't say 'My name's Glen and I'm an alcoholic' (or insert your problem of choice).  We say 'My name's Glen and I'm a saint clothed in Christ... I also happen to struggle with...'  We don't struggle for but struggle from freedom.

.

  

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community5) You must deal with this struggle in community

All the real action happens outside of you.  You need the word of life to come from outside.  As Bonhoeffer says 'The Christ in the word of a brother is stronger than the Christ in my heart.'  At the same time you need to put words to your darkness and, again, bring it outside.  Sin thrives in the dark, you must bring it into the light.  1 John 1:5-10. James 5:16.  Find someone.

.

  

David confessing6) The person you reveal yourself to be in the midst of these sins is the person you've always been. 

We tend to think that we're generally righteous and these problems have been a blip.  David knew better.  When he committed adultery and murder he realised that this was the person he'd been 'from birth - sinful from the time my mother conceived me.'  (Ps 51:5)  These problems are just you with the hand-brake off.  Ugly huh?

But know also...

.

  

prodigal son27) The person you reveal yourself to be in the midst of these sins is the person Jesus loves and has forgiven.

Jesus did not die for 'me-on-my-best-behaviour'.  'While we were still sinners Christ died for us' (Rom 5:8).  'God justifies the wicked' (Rom 4:5).  Which 'me' does Jesus love?  The cleaned up me?  No.  Jesus loves the me I showed myself to be in my worst moments.  When we grasp that Jesus is committed to us even and especially as we stink of sin it's a hundred times worse but a thousand times better.  We must grasp the depths of this love for me the sinner - this is fundamental to real change.

.

  

Jesus looking8) With 4-7 in place - you can learn to hate and hope appropriately.

Focussed in on ourselves we tend either to lose hatred or hope.  Either we don't really hate our sin because we're too attached to the 'me' who committed it.  Or we don't really hope for transformation because we can't imagine such a 'me' changing.  The problem is that we're too attached to 'me'.  Number 4) is the truth that releases us from that attachment and number 5) is the practice of it.  We then learn how to address this 'me' the way we'd address a brother or sister in sin.  As another addresses you in your sin with appropriate hatred and hope, learn to see things from this much healthier perspective. 

.

  

solutions9) Your problems are really your 'solutions'.

You'll be tempted to think...

"I have a recurring personal problem with X."

Don't be so sure.  Probably the truth is something much closer to...

"X is my solution to its insufferable alternative - Y"

X is a chosen strategy to avoid what you consistently reckon to be an even worse state of affairs.  You need to be thinking about what is Y, and why Y is so unbearable that you'd choose X.  Your deep fears (of Y) may be completely irrational and out of control.  But your chosen strategy, X, is not.

Therefore...

.

  

strategy10)  Even the most seemingly compulsive and irrational 'personal problems' (non-organically caused) are, on deeper examination, chosen and intended strategies.

It might take some digging (Prov 20:5), but you will find volition at play.  This ought to reinforce the hope and hatred mix.  Hope because you're not bound to sin like this.  Hatred because you've consistently and deliberately chosen these sins in defiance of Jesus and His way.

.

  

nothing-but-the-blood11) Until you've diagnosed your problem as one for which Christ is necessary, you haven't defined your real problem.

Your problem is not low self esteem or negative thoughts or panic attacks or over-eating or self-harm etc etc.  None of those require the blood of God.  Until you do the hard work on 4-7 and get to the heart issues - your angry defiance of your Father, your petrified mistrust of Christ, your obdurate resistance of the Spirit - you're treating your wound lightly. 

Jesus had to die.  Divine wisdom and heavenly encouragement have never been enough to address the human problem.  You don't just need a bible study and a pep talk.  You need bloody, wrath-bearing atonement on your behalf, while all you can do is watch aghast.  Until you see your problems in that light you won't be appropriately humbled and all your efforts at change will be a re-arranging of the flesh.

.

 

resurrection12) Until you've set your hopes on a change for which Christ is necessary, you're not aiming for Christian growth. 

It's tempting to aim for a re-arranging of the flesh.  For instance, you may struggle with pornography and therefore make your resolution to be porn free from now on.  Well, ok.  But Ephesians 3 tells you that resurrection power is available to effect in you far above all you can ask or imagine (Eph 1:19-20; 3:20).  To aim for a clean internet history is not really to aim for Christian growth.  To aim for a pure heart that knows God and a burning zeal for Christ that takes you out of yourself and into the world - that's your prayer.  And it's impossible.  You can't do it.  Only resurrection Power can.  But that's where you aim if you want Christian growth.  And kicking pornography is just a little part of that. 

 

Putting 11) and 12) together you get this:

Christ's cross tells you to dig deeper,

Christ's resurrection tells you to reach higher.

Therefore

.

prayer13) Pray

The cross drives us down so that we call out in desperation, the resurrection lifts us up so that we ask for that which is humanly impossible.  There is therefore a gospel shape as well as a gospel power to our prayers.  Perhaps use the Lord's Prayer as your guide.  Every line of the prayer calls us to change.  Don't move on in the prayer until you've prayed through the issues that each line is raising.  Here is the really hard work of change, but only because it's so powerful.

.

Scheming14) In your desire to change there will be both flesh and Spirit at work.

Your flesh wants you to change to gain control, look better, escape guilt feelings, avoid the need for dependence, achieve a righteousness of your own, etc, etc.  Bring these false motives before the Lord and repent of your repentance strategies.  True repentance comes from a brokenness that realizes even our tears of regret need washing in Christ's blood.

At the same time be aware that there is a true yearning from your new nature - a deeper desire to know Christ and be conformed to His image.  Get in touch with the Spirit's stirrings here through prayer and conversation with others.  Figuring out why you want to change and having this answer come from the right place is priceless.

.

entitlement14) Address your entitlement spirit?

The flesh is ever desiring to establish its own righteousness.  How, specifically, are you seeking to make a name for yourself?  According to your flesh - what are you trying to earn?  What do you feel you are owed?  What do you have to do to earn this?  What has blocked your goals?  Having thought about this, try to articulate the shape of your entitlement spirit.  How does the gospel address your entitlement spirit in general?  Specifically, how does the gospel address the specifics of your entitlement spirit?  Real change is happening when the Gospel demolishes your flesh-strategies.

.

 

grapes

15) You already have the solution

Not within you!  In Christ. 

4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

 9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  (John 15:4-9)

Allow these words to live in you and allow yourself to live in Christ.

.

fat cat16) Some or all of these things are true of you:

You have little joy, take yourself too seriously, don't have the friendships you need and are not sleeping/eating/exercising as you should.

.

Published on Leave a comment on Some thoughts on your ‘personal problems’

This is a long one but I won't be posting for a while so read at your leisure...

 

crisis1) This is the occasion for change not the reason for change.

It's great if you've come to some sort of crisis moment.  It's good that you want to change.  But you ought to know that this is the struggle of your life.

I don't mean: This is the struggle of your life.  I mean: This is the struggle of your life.  Welcome.

.

Struggle2) If you're not struggling, you're losing.  Or worse, you're not even a Christian.

Christians struggle.  We are the product of two births.  Our flesh is from Adam, our Spirit from Christ.  If you're not struggling then you're simply gratifying the cravings of your flesh (however respectable you may look).  And perhaps you don't even have the Spirit.  Let the comfortable be disturbed.  And let the strugglers be comforted - your battle is a sign of the Spirit's work.

.

 Fruitful-Tree3) If you are struggling, you have a Power within you to live new creation life.

If Christ is in you, you have the power that called forth the universe and He is determined to bring supernatural change.  Mark 4 comes to mind - the power of Christ's word can and will produce 30, 60, 100-fold growth but of course it will be as gradual and organic as the growth of a seed.  Nonetheless this is what you are aiming for - not simply the correction of some annoying habits but the transformation of your character through Christ's word.  Be encouraged by your struggle - it means that an other-worldly Power is at work and will transform you in ways you can only begin to imagine.

..

 

prodigal son3  4) Your righteousness is entirely outside and above you.

These problems do not define you.  Your success at handling these problems does not define you.  Christ defines you. We don't say 'My name's Glen and I'm an alcoholic' (or insert your problem of choice).  We say 'My name's Glen and I'm a saint clothed in Christ... I also happen to struggle with...'  We don't struggle for but struggle from freedom.

.

 

.

community5) You must deal with this struggle in community

All the real action happens outside of you.  You need the word of life to come from outside.  As Bonhoeffer says 'The Christ in the word of a brother is stronger than the Christ in my heart.'  At the same time you need to put words to your darkness and, again, bring it outside.  Sin thrives in the dark, you must bring it into the light.  1 John 1:5-10. James 5:16.  Find someone.

.

 

David confessing6) The person you reveal yourself to be in the midst of these sins is the person you've always been. 

We tend to think that we're generally righteous and these problems have been a blip.  David knew better.  When he committed adultery and murder he realised that this was the person he'd been 'from birth - sinful from the time my mother conceived me.'  (Ps 51:5)  These problems are just you with the hand-brake off.  Ugly huh?

But know also...

.

 

prodigal son27) The person you reveal yourself to be in the midst of these sins is the person Jesus loves and has forgiven.

Jesus did not die for 'me-on-my-best-behaviour'.  'While we were still sinners Christ died for us' (Rom 5:8).  'God justifies the wicked' (Rom 4:5).  Which 'me' does Jesus love?  The cleaned up me?  No.  Jesus loves the me I showed myself to be in my worst moments.  When we grasp that Jesus is committed to us even and especially as we stink of sin it's a hundred times worse but a thousand times better.  We must grasp the depths of this love for me the sinner - this is fundamental to real change.

.

 

Jesus looking8) With 4-7 in place - you can learn to hate and hope appropriately.

Focussed in on ourselves we tend either to lose hatred or hope.  Either we don't really hate our sin because we're too attached to the 'me' who committed it.  Or we don't really hope for transformation because we can't imagine such a 'me' changing.  The problem is that we're too attached to 'me'.  Number 4) is the truth that releases us from that attachment and number 5) is the practice of it.  We then learn how to address this 'me' the way we'd address a brother or sister in sin.  As another addresses you in your sin with appropriate hatred and hope, learn to see things from this much healthier perspective.

.

 

solutions9) Your problems are really your 'solutions'.

You'll be tempted to think...

"I have a recurring personal problem with X."

Don't be so sure.  Probably the truth is something much closer to...

"X is my solution to its insufferable alternative - Y"

X is a chosen strategy to avoid what you consistently reckon to be an even worse state of affairs.  You need to be thinking about what is Y, and why Y is so unbearable that you'd choose X.  Your deep fears (of Y) may be completely irrational and out of control.  But your chosen strategy, X, is not.

Therefore...

.

 

strategy10)  Even the most seemingly compulsive and irrational 'personal problems' (non-organically caused) are, on deeper examination, chosen and intended strategies.

It might take some digging (Prov 20:5), but you will find volition at play.  This ought to reinforce the hope and hatred mix.  Hope because you're not bound to sin like this.  Hatred because you've consistently and deliberately chosen these sins in defiance of Jesus and His way.

.

 

nothing-but-the-blood11) Until you've diagnosed your problem as one for which Christ is necessary, you haven't defined your real problem.

Your problem is not low self esteem or negative thoughts or panic attacks or over-eating or self-harm etc etc.  None of those require the blood of God.  Until you do the hard work on 4-7 and get to the heart issues - your angry defiance of your Father, your petrified mistrust of Christ, your obdurate resistance of the Spirit - you're treating your wound lightly.

Jesus had to die.  Divine wisdom and heavenly encouragement have never been enough to address the human problem.  You don't just need a bible study and a pep talk.  You need bloody, wrath-bearing atonement on your behalf, while all you can do is watch aghast.  Until you see your problems in that light you won't be appropriately humbled and all your efforts at change will be a re-arranging of the flesh.

.

resurrection12) Until you've set your hopes on a change for which Christ is necessary, you're not aiming for Christian growth. 

It's tempting to aim for a re-arranging of the flesh.  For instance, you may struggle with pornography and therefore make your resolution to be porn free from now on.  Well, ok.  But Ephesians 3 tells you that resurrection power is available to effect in you far above all you can ask or imagine (Eph 1:19-20; 3:20).  To aim for a clean internet history is not really to aim for Christian growth.  To aim for a pure heart that knows God and a burning zeal for Christ that takes you out of yourself and into the world - that's your prayer.  And it's impossible.  You can't do it.  Only resurrection Power can.  But that's where you aim if you want Christian growth.  And kicking pornography is just a little part of that.

Putting 11) and 12) together you get this:

Christ's cross tells you to dig deeper,

Christ's resurrection tells you to reach higher.

Therefore

.

prayer13) Pray

The cross drives us down so that we call out in desperation, the resurrection lifts us up so that we ask for that which is humanly impossible.  There is therefore a gospel shape as well as a gospel power to our prayers.  Perhaps use the Lord's Prayer as your guide.  Every line of the prayer calls us to change.  Don't move on in the prayer until you've prayed through the issues that each line is raising.  Here is the really hard work of change, but only because it's so powerful.

.

 

Scheming14) In your desire to change there will be both flesh and Spirit at work.

Your flesh wants you to change to gain control, look better, escape guilt feelings, avoid the need for dependence, achieve a righteousness of your own, etc, etc.  Bring these false motives before the Lord and repent of your repentance strategies.  True repentance comes from a brokenness that realizes even our tears of regret need washing in Christ's blood.

At the same time be aware that there is a true yearning from your new nature - a deeper desire to know Christ and be conformed to His image.  Get in touch with the Spirit's stirrings here through prayer and conversation with others.  Figuring out why you want to change and having this answer come from the right place is priceless.

.

entitlement14) Address your entitlement spirit?

The flesh is ever desiring to establish its own righteousness.  How, specifically, are you seeking to make a name for yourself?  According to your flesh - what are you trying to earn?  What do you feel you are owed?  What do you have to do to earn this?  What has blocked your goals?  Having thought about this, try to articulate the shape of your entitlement spirit.  How does the gospel address your entitlement spirit in general?  Specifically, how does the gospel address the specifics of your entitlement spirit?  Real change is happening when the Gospel demolishes your flesh-strategies.

.


15) You already have the solution

Not within you!  In Christ.

4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  (John 15:4-9)

Allow these words to live in you and allow yourself to live in Christ.

.

 

fat cat16) Some or all of these things are true of you:

You have little joy, take yourself too seriously, don't have the friendships you need and are not sleeping/eating/exercising as you should.

.

13

Published on 13 Comments on We don't need better preaching…

There's a lot of focus on becoming better preachers.  The real need is to preach a better gospel. 

These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by CJ Mahaney at T4G 2008:

"Whitefield and Wesley might preach the gospel better but they cannot preach a better gospel."

Spurgeon's point is that the power is in the gospel, not the preacher.  Amen.  But if the gospel preached aint the gospel, then we need a better one.

'Better gospel?' you ask - how can you improve on the good news?

Well you can't improve on the biblical gospel.  But you can darned well improve on the gospel preached by some.  Here's a false one I hear around the traps (there are others, but this is the devil I know best):

'God is power.  We must submit.  Since we don't, God has a plan B.  It's a wonderfully clever mechanism called penal substitutionary atonement.  For those who profess faith in penal substitutionary atonement (and submit the whole of their lives and pass on this 'gospel' and persevere to the bitter end), then... well... they will avoid hell.  Probably.'

Lord save us from well illustrated and applied, passionate, persuasive and prayerful preaching of this 'gospel'.  Remember that the evangelism of the Pharisees made converts twice as much sons of hell as they were. (Matt 23:15)

What a thought! The perversion of your false gospel is multiplied in your converts.  Preachers - don't work on your preaching, work on your gospel.

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Published on Leave a comment on We don’t need better preaching…

preacherWe don't need better preaching, we need a better gospel.

Yes I'm being provocative and hyperbolous.  Let me remind you that this is a blog.

What I mean is this: there's a lot of focus on becoming better preachers.  The real need is to preach a better gospel. 

These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by CJ Mahaney at T4G 2008:

"Whitefield and Wesley might preach the gospel better but they cannot preach a better gospel."

Spurgeon's point is that the power is in the gospel, not the preacher.  Amen.  But if the gospel preached aint the gospel, then we need a better one.

'Better gospel?' you ask - how can you improve on the good news?

Well you can't improve on the biblical gospel.  But you can darned well improve on the gospel preached by some.  Here's a false one I hear around the traps (there are others, but this is the devil I know best): 

'God is power.  We must submit.  Since we don't, God has a plan B.  It's a wonderfully clever mechanism called penal substitutionary atonement.  For those who profess faith in penal substitutionary atonement (and submit the whole of their lives and pass on this 'gospel' and persevere to the bitter end), then... well... they will avoid hell.  Probably.'

Lord save us from well illustrated and applied, passionate, persuasive and prayerful preaching of this 'gospel'.  Remember that the evangelism of the Pharisees made converts twice as much sons of hell as they were. (Matt 23:15)

What a thought! The perversion of your false gospel is multiplied in your converts.  Preachers - don't work on your preaching, work on your gospel.

.

Published on Leave a comment on Successful and troubled

Thinking and preaching through 1 Corinthians recently, it's so stark what a mixture the Corinthian church was. Successful and troubled.  Their congregation contains former male-prostitutes, idolaters, thieves, drunkards and swindlers (6:9-11).  What a work of grace to convert this lot from their dark past.  As this motley bunch meet together, called saints by the Father (1:2), in fellowship with the Son (1:9), a temple of the Holy Spirit (3:16), they lack no spiritual gift (1:7).  Paul always gives thanks for them (1:4).  And yet they are foolish, divided, litigious, permissive, immoral, selfish, drunken and unbelieving.  If your friend was moving to Corinth, would you recommend this church?

Well perhaps you wouldn't recommend moving to Corinth full stop.  Here's a sailor town full of all sailor town vices.  Here's an overwhelmingly pagan culture that not only has no Christian memory, but never had one to begin with.  Yet here Paul planted the gospel seed, Apollos watered it and God grew a church (3:6) right there in the midst of a culture about as unChristian as you could possibly imagine. 

But what a reflection of the gospel that Paul proclaimed to them.  Here are unwashed heathen who are now washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (6:11).

In line with his gospel, Paul is able to address them as dearly loved brethren and to deliver stinging rebuke.  The Corinthians really are genuinely loved and they really are genuinely wrong, foolish and sinful.  And the intensity of this dual reality is increased by the very success of their church. 

I heard Tim Keller say in a 1 Corinthians sermon that we don't experience the degree of trouble they did because we're not as successful as they were.  It's the churches that really confront the culture and really grow in the midst of opposition that will produce these kinds of problems.  If we don't know these kinds of discipleship issues in our own churches it's probably because we're not reaching the people the Corinthians did and/or not growing  or seeking to grow like them.

Of course this made me think of our friend Mark Driscoll.  And how I need to be far more public in saying 'Thank God for Driscoll'.  And far more praiseworthy of the gospel ministry that seems to be happening through Mars Hill and Acts 29 . 

The gospel means we are simultaneously righteous and sinner.  And it means gospel communities and leaders can be critiqued and critiqued harshly (just read 1 Corinthians) without ever implying that they're not a gospel community.  No, because they're a gospel community there will be sin (just as there is deep and dark sin in me).  But there is also much to give thanks for and much to praise. 

I thank God for Mark's incredible gifts, his passion for Jesus, his gospel-focussed preaching and his mission-mindedness.  Which is quite a list!  I wish those things could be said of me with even a fraction of the same intensity. 

On the other hand I'm very uneasy about his macho-christology, his macho-manliness, and what I perceive to be a major lack of humility.  These things are problems.  I happen to think they really need pointing out and cautions raised, especially given his popularity. 

Now I know I have a whole bagful of my own problems.  In fact if I had a hundredth the gifting and a thousandth the success of Driscoll I'd be just as proud, probably much more so. 

But what I get a bit tired of is the all-or-nothing approach to Driscoll.  Either he's Satan himself, leading thousands astray, or he can do no wrong - any criticism justified immediately by his success or explained away as an understandable reaction to a wicked culture or liberal Christianity.  Paul never said to the Corinthians 'Yes you're getting drunk at communion, but I understand your missional context and great giftedness so I'll forget about it.' 

Please, let's believe the gospel.  We are simultaneously righteous and sinner.  Mars Hill can be successful and troubled.  Driscoll can be loved and critiqued.  And we don't have to collapse one into the other.

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Published on 9 Comments on Sometimes the smart-assed answer is the best

The Sunday School teacher asked:

What do you need to do in order to be forgiven by God?

Billy piped up:

Sin

 

Got it in one Billy.

Are you a sinner?  That's all you need to bring.  Jesus will do the rest.

 

Published on Leave a comment on Luther v Cranmer on Lord's Supper

Given discussion about Lutheran influence on the UK, here's a Thawsday repost...

John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith.  He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service.  It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here: 

I have long felt Anglicanism (specifically Thomas Cranmer) to be good at driving us to our knees in repentance, but not so good at letting us get up again.

In regard to this, I would point out the contrast between what the Book of Common Prayer says about our preparation to receive Holy Communion and what Luther said. The Exhortation in the BCP says in effect that if we are to receive Communion worthily we must first put ourselves right with God.

Contrast this with Luther. First, he says, “There must be faith to make the reception worthy and acceptable before God, otherwise it is nothing but sham and a mere external show.”

And what is this faith? It is “a firm trust that Christ, the Son of God, stands in our place and has taken all our sins upon his shoulders and that he is the eternal satisfaction for our sin and reconciles us with God the Father.”

But what does this mean for our ‘worthiness’? “This food demands a hungering and longing man, for it delights to enter a hungry soul, which is constantly battling with its sins and eager to be rid of them.”

Therefore those with the right faith are those, “who suffer tribulation, physical or spiritual ... spiritually through despair of conscience, outwardly or inwardly, when the devil causes your heart to be weak, timid, and discouraged, so that you do not know how you stand with God, and when he casts your sins into your face.” (emphasis added)

I don’t think the BCP reflects this. Rather, the BCP urges communicants first: “search and examine your own consciences ... that ye may come holy and clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriage-garment required by God in holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table” and so, “examine your lives and conversations by the rule of God’s commandments; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life” (emphasis added).

The Anglican way is ‘be cleansed, then come’. The Lutheran way is ‘come and be cleansed’.

Here's a 'come and be cleansed' type sermon I preached called Eating with Jesus (listen here).

 

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