Jesus is the Word of God
Do you want to be a slave? When you put it like that, no-one's interested. But actually the whole world has a sick addiction to slavery. We find freedom frightening. We'd much rather the security of our little prisons. But in Galatians Paul wants to break us out. He's going to show how slavery works, how it looks and how it ends...
"We love because God first loved us." 1 John 4:19
This is such a precious truth and so representative of the Bible's ethic from Genesis to Revelation. Grace runs downhill - from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, to the church and then out to the world. Grace is God's gift of Jesus coming down from above. Faith is simply receiving.
But as Paul says in Galatians 5:6, faith expresses itself in love. Having received from God, we pass on to others. This is the whole spiritual and ethical dynamic of the Bible: God's love first, our love second. We're empty before God and poured out towards the world. The order and direction is crucial.
But let's notice what 1 John 4 doesn't say.
It doesn't say: "We love because we've first felt loved."
That might be the ideal situation, but it's not exactly what John says. The Bible is not so interested in giving a psychological explanation for how love is appreciated and relayed. Our feelings of belovedness are not emphasized, the fact of God's love is.
The difference might seem small, but focusing on the wrong thing can end up perverting both faith and love. Essentially what happens is this... we conceive of "faith" as an inner devotional work - a sentiment we must summon or nurse or "get". It's our sense of belovedness that we need to feel. And, we tell ourselves, we must feel loved before we love others - after all we believe in the priority of grace. But it's possible to twist the priority of grace into the priority of us. We consider our inner life to be our first duty and, therefore, service of others is secondary. And right there something's gotten horribly twisted.
You see, what's prior is not our inner life. What's prior is the external, historical, blood-earnest love of Jesus. Indicatives do indeed come before imperatives, but that's not the same as saying the internal comes before the external. No, the point is that Christ's work (external to me) is a tad more significant than my work (whether it's my internal devotion or my external service.)
I say this because I always hear (and I've often thought), "I don't get grace. I know I'm meant to feel it. But it hasn't transferred from my head to my heart, etc, etc." Ever heard or thought the same? What should we say in response?
Well for one thing, let it be said: it's a brilliant and biblical thing to want to 'know the love of Christ'. Just listen to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Here is something to pray for - grasping Christ's love in its infinite magnitude. It's not wrong to want to "feel it"! We are definitely meant to know this love. But notice, 1) it surpasses knowledge. We're never going to "wrap our heads around it", not fully. If we wait until we 'get it' we'll wait forever. And more importantly, 2) we experience this love together with all the saints, as we are "rooted and established in love." I think the 'love' here is very probably love for each other (given how we're meant to be 'together' with others). So you see Paul doesn't tell us to take a holiday from serving the church family while we 'go deep' with God's love. We comprehend God's love in the context of community, as we love and serve our brothers and sisters.
That's why Paul immediately moves on to chapter 4 (church life) and chapter 5 (life in the family) and chapter 6 (life in the world). These things are not a distraction from 'feeling it' but the very atmosphere in which we grasp the love of Christ.
Now, certainly, the order is important. Paul declares the love of God in Christ first. That's what Ephesians 1-3 is all about. He prioritizes the indicatives of God's gospel and he attempts to drive home these gracious truths to the heart. He also lets the Ephesians know he's praying for them - that they will get it. He believes that their appreciation of this love is vital and so he invokes God's almighty power in praying for it. But he moves on. He points them to their church family, their blood family and their obligations to the world. He sets them in the context of their defining relationships and urges Christ-like love upon them.
What should we do if we don't "feel it"? Well we should certainly put ourselves in the path of gospel proclamation a la Ephesians 1-2. (And, please God, may that preaching aim at the heart). We should pray to grasp the knowledge of Christ's love a la Ephesians 3. But we should also get on and serve others in just the ways that Ephesians 4-6 spells out.
If we baulk at serving others the way that Jesus and the Apostles command (because we're not feeling it and we don't want to pretend), what exactly are we implying about the Christian life? Do we think that Jesus has given us 'busy work' until He comes again? Hasn't He simply set out the Good Life for us? When He asks us to serve our brothers and sisters, speak the truth in love, forgive those who hurt us, fulfil our earthly callings, etc, etc, do we imagine that these are arbitrary hoops to jump through? What possible objection could we have to living the Good Life Christ calls us to?
Some will object, Isn't it legalism to do things without 'feeling it'?
Answer: No! Insisting you always have to feel it... that's legalism. As long as we're all clear on Ephesians 1-2, how can "walking in the good works Christ has prepared for us" be legalism? (Ephesians 2:10). Again we have to be clear - salvation by faith is not the same as salvation by feelings.
Other's will say, Isn't it hypocritical to do things without 'feeling it'?
Answer: No! Continually keeping up appearances is hypocrisy. Knowing you're spiritually dry, praying about it and serving others is a tremendous antidote to religious hypocrisy.
Is this just 'fake it till you make it'?
Answer: No! It's a call away from fakery. Our Christian lives do not hold good in our own emotional lives but in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Refocussing our hope there is the opposite of pretence. And it's the fastest route back to a joyful spiritual life.
In fact it's the path to ecstasy. The Greek the word literally means standing outside yourself. And Martin Luther, in The Freedom of the Christian, tells us how to enjoy that state:
A Christian is in ecstasy, outside him or herself, extra nos. A Christian’s ecstasy is in Christ and in the neighbour: in Christ through faith and in the neighbour through love. In faith one ascends above oneself into God and from God one descends below oneself and yet always remains in God and God’s love.
Here's what it looks like to remain in God's love: we live far above ourselves in Christ by faith and far beneath ourselves in our neighbour through love. This is what turns us out of ourselves entirely - it's ecstasy! And it doesn't depend on having to 'feel it.' The feelings will come. But if we start with our hearts we'll find it impossible to get beyond them.
There is a slavery on the near side of sonship. (Galatians 4:7)
And there is a slavery on the far side of sonship. (Galatians 1:10)
On the near side it's death.
On the far side it's life.
On the near side it's flesh.
On the far side it's Spirit.
On the near side it's your righteousness on show.
On the far side it's Christ's righteousness in you.
On the near side you don't know who you are without it, so you step it up.
On the far side you do know who you are without it, and you keep in step.
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There is no way from slavery to sonship.
And there's no way to true slavery except sonship.
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All of which means...
We must refuse to be slaves ascending to higher degrees of slavery.
We must look away from any schemes of progressive slavery.
We must proclaim sonship.
And not because we're not into works.
If we want true works, we must strip away works.
We must be left bare in the presence of God with nothing but Christ for our justification.
We must know who we are without our works - sinners clothed in Christ.
We must know our sonship not in ourselves but in the Son. This means by grace alone.
Having contributed nothing, we belong entirely.
And now, in Him, we can do no other than gladly take our place in the Father's business.
But it is the Father's business.
The only gateway to true work is sonship.
The only Gate is the Son.
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Statements people make about faith:
“I wish I had your faith”
“As you know I could never share your faith”
“Faith is believing something you know isn’t real.”
“You just got to have faith.”
John 1:10-13 – Faith is recognizing and receiving
John 2:11 – Faith is responding to the glory of Jesus
Dutiful Derek
Derek’s Father says: “We’re going to visit the Grand Canyon and you’ll be awestruck!”
Derek says: “Do I have to be awestruck??”
Derek's Father says: "One day you’ll meet a girl and you’ll fall in love?"
Derek says: “Do I have to fall in love?”
Derek’s Father says: We’re going to church to hear about the glory of Jesus and we’ll believe in Jesus.
Derek says: “Do I have to believe in Jesus?”
That’s a funny question isn’t it?
Faith is like being awestruck or falling in love – it must happen if you’re recognizing the glory of Christ!
John 3:13-16 – Faith is looking away from self to Jesus (cf Brazen Serpent)
John 20:24-31 – Faith is meeting the risen Jesus
The Christian life is a life of continuing faith
Through the Bible.
Faith is not something in me that I need to drum up
Faith is not a leap into the dark – it’s stepping into the light
In fact it’s being in the dark and having someone switch the light on
Faith is not a hoop you have to jump through to get something else: salvation
Galatians 2:17-3:5
Faith is receiving Jesus – it’s a life-long love affair.
Galatians 5:6
It begins by being passive with God and bears fruit in love for others
1 Samuel 17
Faithless, fearful Israel are saved by their Faithful, Fearless King.
Their unbelief turns to faith when they see His victory: they shout and advance
Every day we need to same: to look to our Champion, to shout and advance.
The life of faith is a continual looking to Christ.
This follows on from my series "Why be good?"
Kath has been writing about obedience and asking what's helpful in seeking to love an obedient life. It's a good question, because people in the Bible seem pretty thrilled by the idea. The Psalmist sees the law as eminently loveable (Psalm 119:97), Paul calls it "holy, righteous and good" (Romans 7:12). Jude, Peter, James and Paul all introduce themselves as "Slaves of Christ" in their letters. They love obedience! They have seen an awesomely attractive vision of life and they've submitted themselves to it with joyful abandon.
We don't like obedience - as a rule. (If it were a suggestion, we'd be much more amenable).
Why don't we like it?
Once the incentive of heavenly reward is absent we seem to lose whatever interest in obedience we might have had. But that's not a sign that we're too focused on the gospel. The very opposite - it's a sign that we haven't allowed the gospel to properly re-calibrate our thinking.
It's the legalist who sees obedience as an arbitrary set of hoops to jump through. Legalists are like the older brother of Luke 15 - happy to prove themselves by jumping through the hoops. The licentious are like the younger brother of Luke 15 - happy to find themselves by casting such burdens away. But both of them completely misunderstand obedience. We should think of obedience as one way - a beautifully attractive way - of characterizing 'the father's house.' Yes it is a place of love, blessing, security, celebration, joy, mercy, peace, etc, etc. But it's also a place where the beautiful will of the Father is done.
On this understanding, legalists are like the older son, self-righteous in the field. The licentious are like the younger son, lost in the far-country. The true position is to be a sinner robed, in the father's household. But just imagine that younger son, the morning after the feast. With what eagerness he will serve his father now! He'll get it wrong. He'll have to learn. But obedience in the father's house is not a dirty word, it's the very atmosphere of home.
It's true that there is a slavery on the near side of sonship and that is spiritual death. But there's a slavery on the far side of sonship and it is life and peace.
Reading Acts 14 and 15 this morning. The interplay of mission, theology and grace really struck me.
Paul and Barnabas go throughout Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Pisidia, Pamphylia and Perga, preaching "the word of God's grace" (14:3); "the gospel" (v7); "good news" (v15); "the gospel" (v21); "the word" (v25). When they return to Antioch they call the church together for a mission report: "they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles." (v27) Everyone's thrilled.
But... you knew the next chapter had to begin with a but... "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1)
Familiar pattern eh? Good news of great joy is preached to all the people. But the people of God are the biggest obstacle to the good news.
Paul and Barnabas are incensed and trace the rot right back to Jerusalem. When they get there some believers of the sect of the Pharisees repeat the heresy "It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses." (v5)
Here's my question: How long would these Judaizers have remained preaching their false gospel if it wasn't for the missionary activity of Paul and Barnabas? The Gentiles come in and force the Jewish believers to rethink what it means to be saved and belong to God's people. It stirs things up.
Now it's true that once the matter is raised in Jerusalem, the council is quick to denounce this theology as "a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear." (v10) But before the agitation of missionary activity and new converts, it was a yoke they all seemed to be tolerating. Legalism had become a comfortable yoke while-ever they remained 'at home.'
But once the disciples saw the good news spreading and giving life they saw their anti-gospel living in a new light. When they saw the nations rejoicing in the Lord - even these unwashed Gentiles - they were forced to see the radical simplicity of the Lord's salvation. In the light of a life-giving gospel their life-sapping theology was seen for the legalism it had always been.
Here's an application that springs to mind... the best way to fight slave-making legalism within the church is to preach the life-giving gospel outside the church. When those who are far from God come in, only the true gospel can cope. The law can never handle the mess of radical conversions. Evangelistic churches need to be gracious churches. In this way theology is refined in the fires of mission.
At Transformission Mike Reeves spoke of life "in the flesh" and "the spirit of slavery" that dominates those who are in Adam.
When you think of the realm of "the flesh" (or the "sinful nature" - NIV), what do you imagine? So often our minds run to 'the naughty things'. Gross disobedience. Licentious living.
That might be an outworking of the flesh. But in Romans 8:15, Paul charactierizes life in the flesh as bound by a spirit of slavery. This spirit is contrasted with the Spirit of adoption. It's whatever is opposed to our gracious adoption by a generous Father. Similarly in Galatians 4, Paul makes the contrast between slaves and sons and the slavery is all about bondage "under the law". In Philippians 3 the horrific evil of "those dogs" - the circumcision sect - is that, through their legalism, they were "putting confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3:1-11).
Life in the flesh might be about sex. But - even worse - it might be about circumcision! Vain self-confidence can be found in the party animal. But how much more can such vanity exist in the champion of temperance. And with the added stench of self-righteousness!
We can be distracted from much bigger battles when our struggles with "the flesh" merely focus on "bad behaviours." As John Gerstner has said: “The thing that really separates us from God is not so much our sin, but our damnable good works.”
The devilish thing about religious carnality is that it doesn't appear to us as carnality. Instead the "spirit of slavery" makes us toil away at our "damnable good works". And just as the licentious sinner gets less and less of a kick out of their drug of choice, so the self-righteous prude finds less and less goodness to take pride in.
Take the example of 18th century moralist Samuel Johnson. At Transformission, Mike read to us from his prayer journals. Each entry is a window onto life "in the flesh." Here is the diary of a carnal man:
September 18, 1738 - Oh lord, enable me by your Grace to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth, vanity and wickedness, to lead a new life in your faith, fear and love; and finally to obtain everlasting life.
1757 - Almighty God, enable me, from this instant, to amend my life that I may not finally lose the things eternal.
1759 - enable me to shake off idleness and sloth
1761 - I have resolved till I am afraid to resolve again. Yet, hoping in God, I steadfastly purpose to lead a new life.
1764 - I have made no reformation; I have lived totally useless, more sensual in thoughts, and more addicted to wine and meat. Grant me, O God, to amend my life. My purposes, from this time, to avoid idleness. To rise early. To read the Scriptures.
A few months later: I have now spent 55 years in resolving; O God, Grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. I resolve to rise early, not later than six if I can.
1765 - I purpose to rise at eight, Because though I shall not rise early, it will be much earlier than I now rise, for I often lie till two.
1775. When I look back upon resolutions of improvement, Which have year after year been made and broken, Why do I try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary. I try, in hope of the help of God.
It is pitiable, laughable and tragic. This is what "the spirit of slavery" does to a person. And it is every bit as fleshly as the debauched hedonist. Only Christ can save.
Listen to Mike's excellent talks here.
Check out this explanation of Mormonism. What's wrong with this picture?
Too much to mention right?
There's the teaching of faith as a thing contributing towards salvation. There's the classification of Joseph Smith as a prophet. There's the elevation of personal revelation to a position effectively superior to the Scriptures. There's our pre-existence, for goodness sakes!
Now all of these things are troubling and profoundly mistaken. But there's something else that towers above those heresies. It's their view of Christ. There He stands - a benevolent well-wisher presiding over our path towards salvation. This impotent, essentially irrelevant, Christ has been replaced by us. We are the ones who exist with the Father, who come to earth, pass the test and ascend back to the Father. We are Christ, working salvation in our own person. And who is Christ? An encourager, an example, an empathiser. But essentially it's all down to us.
Perhaps it's easy to spot the errors of Mormonism, but what about our own Christianity? What is it that makes our gospel any different? Is Jesus for us the achiever of salvation? Is He the One who, not only blazes the trail of salvation, but also carries His people with Him back to the Father? Does Jesus merely make us save-able, or does He save us? Does He unite Himself to our humanity and bring us on His heart back to God, or does He wish us well from a distance?
We might feel that we have rejected the Mormon gospel because we've streamlined the path of salvation. For us there's no belief in the prophet Joseph Smith or "the covenant in the house of the Lord" and yet we essentially believe salvation to be a path that we tread.
Let's not be reformed Mormons. Let's be Christians. Let's be those who believe in incarnation - the Lord Himself has come from heaven, taken our flesh, trod the path of salvation and ascended back to the Father. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And to have Him by faith is to have salvation.
Jesus does not preside over the path to salvation. He is the path of salvation. He is its beginning and end. And we are not those who are on their way - we are in the Way. That's true Christianity. Everything else is a cultish heresy.
I'll be using this illustration tonight...
Perhaps some of you remember the 1966 World Cup Final. Bobby Moore lifting the trophy for England. You might remember just before that moment. Moore realizes he’s about to meet the Queen, wearing her immaculate white gloves. And he realizes, probably for the first time that day, his hands are dirty. Do you remember him, walking up the steps of Wembley, wiping his hands on his football shirt? Then he wiped them on the velvet draping before shaking hands with the Queen.
If he wasn’t meeting the Queen he wouldn’t have given two hoots about his hands. Who cares, he’s just won the world cup. But in the presence of purity, that’s when his uncleanness mattered.
The King of kings comes to you and offers Himself. Not just a hand of friendship - both hands nailed to a cross. Not just to bestow a trophy, but to embrace you and bring you into the life and love of God! And maybe you never really thought about it before. But when you see His outstretched hands, you realize, "My hands are unclean." Normally you don't think about it, but when the King of Love moves towards you, you realize, "I'm not clean. My heart is not pure. I live in a broken world with a broken heart and a broken life." If you don't feel like that, you don't really get who Jesus is. He's the King! And He's pure. And if you don't realize that your hands are unclean, you don't know yourself, and you don't know Jesus. But if you know Jesus, let me tell you - He wants to embrace you.
Bobby Moore's efforts to clean himself up didn't really work. He just smeared the mud around a bit. You know what saved the day? Not Bobby Moore wiping his hands, but the Queen thrusting out her hand. That was the really significant gesture. The Queen didn't flinch from Bobby Moore's dirty hands and Jesus doesn't flinch from you. The Queen got her gloves dirty and welcomed Bobby Moore. And a billion times more importantly, Jesus got Himself dirty to embrace you. He opened His arms wide on the cross and He took your sin and shame. That's what this King is like. He's the King who the dirty run to. Because through His death He gives us cleansing, forgiveness and a stunning welcome into the very life of God.
I wrote this two years ago in response to the views of an influential minister who I respect greatly. I haven't kept up with the minister's views on this subject and he might be saying different things now so I've removed reference to him specifically. But I think the issue is still very much out there in the evangelical ether, so I'll address the issue more generally...
I long for church communities that are Christ-centred, grace-filled, all-of-life and intentionally missional. I love ministers and ministries that emphasize these things. But let me raise one caution. It's common in such circles to affirm church as an on-going family life and to deny that church is an event.
I can understand, to some extent, why language of "event" grates on people. It can seem like an ungodly waste of resources to turn Sunday morning into a grand performance. So true. I've heard people speak in hushed tones about some gold standard of sermon preparation - an hour in the study for every minute in the pulpit. Yowsers! If that's the cost of gathering around word and sacrament then I can well understand the desire to re-balance the expenditure of resources.
But there's something deeper to discuss than the re-allocation of resources or the degree of formality to our meetings. What I want to establish is the absolute necessity of the event for the life of church. Church is not just family, it is also an event and irreducibly so. I'll say it that starkly because I know how popular it is to speak of church as ongoing-missional-community in opposition to chuch as event.
Church has its being in becoming. It ever becomes what it is as it hears God's word. In this way church is the community called out (ekklesia) to listen to its risen Lord in the proclamation of word and sacrament. This is the centre of the life of the community.
Let me just take one Scriptural example from Paul. We are one body because we all share in the one bread (1 Cor 10:17). That is pretty stunning language – and it’s very ‘eventist’. Here is a consummation of one-body-ness in which we become what we are. The event and the on-going life of the body are inter-dependent.
Think of marriage. The covenant reality is that husband and wife are one flesh. But there is an event in which they become one flesh (if you were Presbyterian you might even call it covenant renewal!).
It’s commanded in Scripture (cf 1 Cor 7) and it takes time and effort and a measure of ritual and it’s irreducibly an event. Of course the degree of ritual and cost and time-expenditure will vary according to many factors. But to imagine I can think of an ongoing covenant life without also thinking about the one-flesh event is a big danger in marriage.
And, by parallel, church life needs to be maintained by consciously enjoyed, anticipated and ritualised “events” in our church life together. We can't do without them. And however much it's necessary to speak of day-in, day-out community life we dare not lose language of event either. The old reformed ecclesiologies speak of gathering around word and sacrament. They didn't forget that we were family, but they did highlight that there were foundational "events" at the centre of church life.
So we say Yes to shared life, Yes to Christ-centred community. But the way in which our community is “centred” around Christ takes a certain form. The centre is an actual, concrete centre around which we orient ourselves. As Christ's community therefore we order ourselves around the place where Christ is given to us. And He is given to us supremely in word and sacrament.
Therefore we must maintain language of "event". As we do so we are upholding two related concerns:
1) We are communities of grace.
Christians keen to ditch "event" language are usually big on "grace." They commonly reject rituals in the name of gospel grace. But I would urge caution here. If we want to be communities of grace we need to orient ourselves around where Christ is given to us, not primarily around what Christ would have us do. To be a community of grace requires us to centre on events.
2) We are communities of proclamation.
Where we honour the “event” of Church, we honour “proclamation”. While our community life preaches to the world (John 13:35; 17:21) I'd want to co-ordinate this to a centre of verbal proclamation that constitutes and re-constitutes the community.
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I'm well aware that many who reject the word "event" bang a big and important drum for "grace" and "proclamation". But I want to say, "grace" and "proclamation" requires "events." We must never lose our centre.
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