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Tag: gospel
You will
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!
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Sinning really isn’t the worst thing
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.
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Sinning really isn't the worst thing
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.
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What would cheap grace look like?
...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!"
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Election results – latest
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.
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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)
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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)
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Freed will
Previously on Christ the Truth...
We discussed the impossiblility of a humanistic account of freedom. To say 'I am who I am / I will be who I will be' is both idolatrous and, ironically, makes us slaves of our own desires. Such "freedom" enthrones the self and simultaneously locks the self off from the claims of others in whom I find my true self. Satan rules us precisely where we seek to rule ourselves.
So then, rather than begin with Adam in the garden exercising his will to disobey, we decided to think freedom from the perspective of Jesus - the Other Adam in the other garden. As the Son He is beloved, obedient and free. And yet in Gethsemane He definitively proved that these things are not competing realities but perfectly expressed in Him. The One who calls God 'Abba', submits Himself entirely to the unbound will of the Father and in so doing expresses supremely His identity as the Son. The Son was never more gloriously Son-like than in this act of supreme obedience. To have chosen disobedience would not have been the exercise of freedom but the abandonment of His own Self. The decision for obedience was simultaneously the decision for freedom.
From this way of thinking we have a quite different definition of freedom. Perhaps something like: "The responsible use of the will in expression of ones true self." Or perhaps "Keeping in step with your grace-given, relational identity."
When we have this kind of definition then the capacity for evil cannot create or increase freedom but only thwarts the responsible use of the will. We realize that freedom is not expressed but forfeited in the choice of evil. It is only mantained in obedience to God.
So then, "Am I free to sin?" By no means! Free to sin?? Such a statement should strike us as completely confused and confusing. I'm free to be His slave, and in this way only is my freedom upheld! (cf Romans 6!)
Once this understanding of freedom is in place then we can side-step a lot of unfruitful theological discussions. We don't have to argue about the when, the how and the how much of our supposed 'freedom' to rebel against God. How could we recognize disobedience as freedom or freedom in disobedience? It can only ever be slavery.
And yet what does Ephesians 2 call us in our natural state? 'Sons of disobedience' (Eph 2:2). By nature our identity is given to us through our fallen head Adam. We cannot please God (Rom 8:8) but can only live out our rebellious desires.
Into this situation Jesus comes as Redeemer. And He purchases us for Himself. More on that next time.
But here's the point for now: The Christian does not believe in free will. Not in the abstract and certainly not by nature. We believe in freed will. (I got this phrase from Casey.) We are not free to choose or not to choose Christ. We are liberated by Christ now to be free in Him. To walk in freedom we must begin from our redemption in Christ. We simply cannot work towards this freedom but receive it from the outset. Whatever else the doctrine of election is trying to uphold, this must be central - we do not choose ourselves into Christ but rather find ourselves chosen in Him. We have not exercised our freedom to make Christ ours, He has accomplished our liberation to make us His.
So then Rousseau's famous statement, 'Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains' is exactly wrong. Man is born a slave but everywhere he walks free since Jesus has loosed our chains.
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The problem of freedom
An evocative word.
What does it mean to us?
Usually it means a freedom from some kind of power so that we can realize our true potential. 'I'm free to do what I want any old time.' That kind of thing.
The question of 'Who is this "I" who can do these things?' is usually considered to be a restatement of the freedom mantra: I am the one who can do what I want. "I am who I am / I will be who I will be", as Someone famously once said.
The link between such an account of freedom and the divinisation of the self becomes obvious in a thinker like John Stuart Mill. He said this in On Liberty:
In the part [of the conduct of an individual] which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of course, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
Now notice that Mill is concerned here with conduct that 'merely concerns ourselves'. He's well aware that the independent exercise of our wills can harm others and diminish their freedom. He's no dummy. He has a whole apparatus of 'rights' with which to negotiate the competing claims of our own absolute freedoms.
When Christians argue against Mill, the argument should not be: "Hey, if everyone thinks they're sovereign they'll ride rough-shod over everyone else." That would be a very pragmatic objection and one to which Mill has a whole raft of pragmatic solutions.
No, the problem is not what humanity does with their self-rule (they could be thoroughly virtuous with it). The problem is self-rule. Mill effectively poses the question, Who has the absolute claim over my life? He answers: I do. Mill's philosophy here (which is the air we breathe in the West) is nothing less than the enthronement of man upon Christ's throne.
But in critiquing such 'freedom' we can do more than simply denounce it as blasphemous. We would do well also to expose it as the worst kind of bondage. Why bondage?
Well let's ask the question, Who is this self who is exalted to the throne? Who is the "I" that can do whatever "I" want?
Tellingly, this 'freedom' cannot positively give you an identity. In fact, to be true to itself, this kind of 'freedom' must refuse to tell you who you are. All that such 'freedom' can offer is the protection of a sphere in which you can pursue your desires. It gives you a kingdom (of one!) and a throne and it operates a strict immigration policy. Yet this border-patrol must not only exclude impediments to your desires, it must also exclude forces that would seek to direct those desires. It must repel all foreign claims upon you and leave you with an absolute and unquestioned independence. You have your kingdom and your throne, but who are you? Well, You will be who you will be. And so, left to rule your own kingdom, you are a prisoner of your independence.
Consider this piece of advice being given to millions of men and women around the world right now:
"Don't let anyone tell you what to do. You're your own man / your own woman."
Now aside from the inherent contradiction on show here, notice how you are to be directed in your sovereign rule. You must direct yourself. And the reason? You belong to yourself. This is the infuriating circularity
I direct myself.
Who is the I who directs?
The one with power to direct.
or
I belong to me.
Who is the one who belongs to me?
The one belonging to me.
What's missing in all this is an environment in which to exercise our freedom. We have been treated as though the choices we make in expression of our self-hood are grounded only in ourselves as individuals. Yet we are who we are in a network of dependent relationships. The expression of our identity through responsible living and choosing necessarily occurs within an environment. Divorced from this environment, any experience of 'freedom' will actually take us away from our true selves.
This is the experience of the ant-farm in this famous Simpson's clip...
[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPGDWD_oLE]
The ants may have longed to be free from their glass case, but 'freedom' from the ant-farm proves to be "horrible" indeed. It destroys their very selves to be 'free' from the environment supportive of their own life and being.
We are the same. We don't exist as free floating individuals to whom the greatest gift would be independence. We are truly free when properly related to the environment in which our personhood flourishes.
And this is why Mill's definition of freedom does not help the exercise of responsible choice, it radically undermines it. Because I have been stripped of all claims upon me, all direction from outside, all sense of a context wider than me, I am left with a self that can only be defined in reference to itself and its own decision-making capacity. I have a naked self exercising a naked power, cut free from all that's actually constitutive of my identity.
Therefore, necessarily, I'm going to have to go outside myself in order to live out my irreducibly relational existence. I need to, so to speak, make an alliance with a foreign kingdom.
Now our experience of this will feel like it falls into one of two categories:
Either A) I embark on an alliance as a dispensible means towards my self-determined end. In this case I'll drop it as soon as it's inconvenient -- I'm in charge using you.
Or B) I genuinely give myself over to the foreign power and am determined by it -- You're in charge using me.
But the bible says, in practice A) is our sinful intention but it always collapses into B).
Let's think about Ephesians 2:1-3:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
In our natural state we 'carry out the desires of the body and mind'. You might think that sitting on the throne of your little kingdom is the definition of freedom. But no, precisely as we 'gratify the cravings' (NIV) of the body and mind we are following the devil. Just as we think we are exercising our self-rule, in that act we are being ruled by Satan. We imagine we're strong enough to pull off A), in reality we have no bargaining power with the world, the flesh and the devil - they're in charge using us.
The similarity between Mill's quotation on freedom and Ephesians 2:3 is chilling. To exercise 'sovereignty' over our 'body and mind' is not freedom at all. According to the bible that is slavery.
If we're going to find a true freedom it will have to be on an entirely different footing.
More on that later...
Rest of series:
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Holding fast the healthy teaching
Titus 1:9 in my amplified translation:
[An elder must be] Continuing to hold fast / grasp / embrace / protect the word of faith according to The Teaching, so that he is able, on the one hand, to encourage in healthy teaching and, on the other, to prove to opponents their error.
The word for 'holding fast' is elsewhere translated "grasp" (Dt 32:41); "embrace" (Prv 3:18) "protect" (Prov 4:6); "hold fast" (Is 56:2,4,6); "make refuge in" (Is 57:13); "be devoted to" (Matt 6:24).
Interestingly enough the teaching which we are to embrace is (Rom 6:17) the teaching which embraces us. We hold fast this gospel and at the same time it is this gospel over to which we have been handed.
The Christian's (especially the Christian teacher's) relationship to the gospel is portrayed in almost marriage terms of mutual cleaving. We serve, honour and protect it - and it serves, honours and protects us!
But why? My almer mater's motto was "Be right and persist." Not the warmest, fuzziest motto you've ever heard! And even if you agree with the sentiment, why be right? For the sake of doctrinal precision itself?
Titus 1:9 continues... To what end do we 'cleave' to the apostolic gospel? So that
1) we can encourage with healthy teaching and
2) we can prove the error of those who would corrupt it.
William Taylor, speaking on this verse, gave a striking illustration of both the gospel's health-giving quality and the need to guard against all corruptions. I have adapted it a little:
Imagine you get a job as a courier for a pharmaceuticals company. And one day you are called to the lab to pick up a very special delivery. You arrive at the lab and you are told ‘We have discovered the cure for AIDS. Here it is in this vial. We want you to take this immediately to Africa so they can duplicate it and save the lives of millions.' Well you take hold of this fragile vial which is covered in yellow tape saying ‘Do not open' and ‘Do not break the seals.' And you get on the next flight to Johannesburg.
But imagine sitting on the plane and thinking: this cure doesn't look very promising. I'm not sure it'll be attractive to the folk in Africa. So you think ‘I'll spruce it up a bit.' You tear off the yellow tape, break the seals, open the vial and decide to pour in the rest of your drink. You stir your Coke in and put some sweetener in for good measure. Shake it up, lose a bit. Doesn't matter, you've made the whole thing much more tasty.
As you arrive in Johannesburg you're met by a scientist desperate for this cure. She sees that the seals have been broken and her face falls. You've turned the health-giving cure into a toxic poison- and lives are lost.
That scenario is just unthinkable isn't it? And yet many people entrusted with passing on the gospel tamper with it in just this kind of way. They add or they subtract or they sweeten according to their own tastes. They feel it is their job to concoct their own elixir, rather than pass on the bona fide cure. But no! It is the job of the elder NOT to mess with the bible's teaching. It is the job of the bible teacher to simply embrace it, rejoice in it, protect it, and deliver it unadulterated. The bible teacher must be absolutely and utterly unoriginal. We must treat the good news about Jesus like the health-giving cure for AIDS - embrace it, rejoice in it, protect it, and never, ever change it! And if you see anyone else changing it you say ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ stop. Return to the original, life-giving message!' Because the gospel saves people from a fate far worse than AIDS.
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This is adapted from a sermon on Titus 1:5-9 I preached yesterday.
Audio file here. Read it here.
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Christless Christianity
Mike Horton is promoting his new book "Christless Christianity". Listen here to the podcast from the ever-helpful Issues etc.
A couple of great quotes from Horton:
Christians need to hear the gospel preached not only once in their christian life but throughout - each week - because (as Calvin said) "We are all partly unbelievers throughout our lives."
If I could say one thing to my fellow pastors, Sunday school teachers and to parents: we have to realize that the gospel isn't just foreign to us when we are unregenerate. It remains astonishing, it remains surpirising, it remains unbelievable apart from the Spirit. It is still something that takes a miracle to believe. We have just got to remember that and not take the gospel for granted.
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If there's one thing I love in hearing preachers it's astonishment at the strangeness and wonder of the gospel. God save us from the world weary tone that introduces each point with: "Of course we all know, don't we..." No we don't! That's why we need the Word. Constantly!
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