A Helpful Reminder on Grace

"God’s capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to sin."

--Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, p. 105.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Fully God and Fully Man...A Paradox

One of the more difficult and amazing doctrines of the Christian faith is that of the dual nature of Christ, namely that he was both fully human and fully divine. In his work On the Son, Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389 AD) delves into this paradox:

He was baptized as Man — but He remitted sins as God — not because He needed purificatory rites Himself, but that He might sanctify the element of water.

He was tempted as Man, but He conquered as God; yea, He bids us be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world.

He hungered — but He fed thousands; yea, He is the Bread that gives life, and That is of heaven.

He thirsted — but He cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." Yea, He promised that fountains should flow from them that believe.

He was wearied, but He is the Rest of them that are weary and heavy laden.

He was heavy with sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea.

He rebuked the winds, He made Peter light as he began to sink.

He pays tribute, but it is out of a fish; yea, He is the King of those who demanded it.

He is called a Samaritan and a demoniac; — but He saves him that came down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves; the demons acknowledge Him, and He drives out demons and sinks in the sea legions of foul spirits, and sees the Prince of the demons falling like lightning.

He is stoned, but is not taken.

He prays, but He hears prayer.

He weeps, but He causes tears to cease.

He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was God.

He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver; but He redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the Price was His own blood.

As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also.

As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word, and is proclaimed by the Voice of one crying in the wilderness.

He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and every infirmity.

He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restores us; yea, He saves even the Robber crucified with Him; yea, He wrapped the visible world in darkness.

He is given vinegar to drink mingled with gall. Who? He who turned the water into wine, who is the destroyer of the bitter taste, who is Sweetness and altogether desire.
He lays down His life, but He has power to take it again; and the veil is rent, for the mysterious doors of Heaven are opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead arise.

He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again; He goes down into Hell, but He brings up the souls; He ascends to Heaven, and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead...

(HT: Trevin Wax)

Faith Like a Child (Part 2)

It truly is amazing the way that children can see past many of the distractions that we get caught up in and focus simply on what really matters. Last month I posted on a conversation that I had with my six-year-old daughter to that effect. I was reminded of that post today when informed of a conversation that my sister had with her daughter, who, like mine, is in kindergarten.

As she was driving home from scouts the other night, her daughter matter-of-factly declares, "I think I am going to like going to heaven. Did you know you don't have to pack to go there? You already have everything you need to see Jesus. Plus, you're dead so you really don't need anything."

Indeed.

Responding to Trials

What is your response to trials in your life? Whether they are big or small, I know that my natural reaction is to be discouraged by them. Even when I have passed through whatever difficult situations I might face, there is a tendency on my part simply to be wearied. On my best days, I might be thankful to God for getting me through it, but there is no question that I would have rather avoided the situation altogether.

D.A. Carson suggests that my response to trials ought to be altogether different. In his daily blog last Friday, Carson made the following observation from Psalm 66:8-12:

There the psalmist begins by inviting the peoples of the world to listen in on the people of God as they praise him because “he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.” Then the psalmist directly addresses God, and mentions the context in which the Lord God preserved them: “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance” (66:10 -12).

This is stunning. The psalmist thanks God for testing his covenant people, for refining them under the pressure of some extraordinarily difficult circumstances and for sustaining them through that experience. This is the response of perceptive, godly faith. It is not heard on the lips of those who thank God only when they escape trial or are feeling happy.

This is the same kind of thought we find in James 1:2-4 - "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Okay. It's great to say that I should do this. But the reality is that I don't. How do I get from where I am to where I should be? The answer lies (as so often is the case) in the Gospel. As I consider the trials that Christ Jesus endured for me, primarily in his sacrificial death on our behalf, I realize a number of things:

• My trials are relatively small compared to those of Christ, who gave up everything so that we might know him.
• Just as God was faithful and trustworthy to provide the way to salvation, so too he is faithful and trustworthy in the midst of my trials.
• Though I may lack the ability by my own strength to have the right mindset, Christ who lives in me has demonstrated that he lacks nothing, and by the Holy Spirit he empowers me to do his will by his strength, not my own.
• My trials are passing, but there lies in store for me an eternal crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).
  

In light of these facts, may we all have the type of attitude toward trials that is described in 1 Peter 1:6-7 - "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Joel Osteen, Fortune Cookie Author

Last week, while looking for Mother's Day cards, I noticed that there was a section of them produced by Joel Osteen. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Osteen's feel-good message suits Mother's Day almost too well to pass up the opportunity.

As Tim Challies notes in a post today though, Osteen might have missed his calling with greeting cards. Perhaps his talents are more suited to fortune cookies. Challies has a quiz to see if you can tell the difference between fortunes out of cookies and quotes out of Osteen's books.

Among them you will find...

• "Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."
• "You have something to offer that nobody else can give!"
• "Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant."

Click here to see how well you do on the quiz!

A Game For All America

Please excuse this brief detour from our usual fare...

In 1955, Ernie Harwell wrote "A Game For All America."



Click here to read the poem in its entirety.

Book Review: Kinda Christianity

One of the many blessings I’ve experienced since moving to Michigan was the opportunity to get to know Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. In the past, I've written of my appreciation for Kevin and Ted, who have co-authored two award-winning books, Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church.

One of the reasons they work so well together is the contrast of their styles. Though both are really smart and really funny, Kevin’s writing tends to emphasize the former while Ted leans a little more heavily on the latter.

Ted recently teamed up with another pastor, Zach Bartels, to write Kinda Christianity, a satirical response to Brian McLaren’s latest tome in the Emergent Conversation, A New Kind of Christianity. I’ve never met Zach, though I have read his blog from time to time. He’s clearly also a real sharp, funny guy, making it difficult to tell where his contributions to the book left off and Ted’s picked up. It wasn’t just as if Ted wrote it by himself, it was like two Teds wrote it.

What exactly does that mean? Well, if you don’t like satire or you do like Brian McLaren and the Emergent Church movement, you probably won’t particularly like this book.

If you’d like to get a theologically astute, incisive, well-written critique of A New Kind of Christianity, I recommend that you read Kevin’s review here.

But if you would like to read a more light-hearted (though still incisive) critique of McLaren and all things Emergent, then A Kinda Christianity is definitely for you. It's sub-title bills it as "A generous, fair, organic, free-range guide to authentic realness." One can only assume that "relevant" and transparent" simply didn't fit on the cover.

The authors freely admit that this short book is not intended to really encourage anyone. Rather it is solely meant to make people laugh. It’s satire definitely accomplishes this goal for the anti-Emergent reader, ultimately answering the question, “What would Christianity look like if we were all college sophomores?”

The Gospel According to Disney (Part 4)

When we went to the Magic Kingdom, the thing that my six-year-old daughter most looked forward to was the opportunity to meet the princesses and get their autographs. I suppose that meeting royalty is always special, but it’s even more special for little girls at Disney because it comes with the promise that you too can be royalty! I heard it proclaimed more than once while we were there: “Every little girl can be a princess.”

Cinderella even called my daughter a princess. If Cinderella says it is true, who am I to argue? After all, Cinderella is the expert on ordinary girls becoming princesses. There was nothing spectacular about her. She didn’t benefit from royal birth, but rather was born into the drudgery of a scullery maid. Ultimately she became a princess not because of anything she did, but because she was chosen by the prince to become his bride.

It is the same with us. We too, on our own, are nothing spectacular. Let’s be perfectly clear. There’s not a one of us about whom God is saying, “Wow! I sure am lucky to have him on my team!” As Paul mentions in Romans 3:10, “None is righteous, no, not one.” And the prophet reminds us in Isaiah 64:6 that whatever deeds we might account as ‘righteous,’ God considers to have all the purity of a polluted garment.

Even so, because those who trust in Christ are united with him and find their identity in him, we are considered by God to be sons of the king! Galatians 3:28 tells us that we have sonship (and with it, the privilege of inheritance) no matter what our status was before. All of the barriers that would have kept one from being a son of the king are now abolished. You can be a son whether you are Jew or Gentile, whether you are slave or free, whether you are male or female.

And as sons of the king, the inheritance that is ours is no ordinary inheritance. Rather it is “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” (1 Peter 1:4-5).

One chapter later (1 Peter 2:9), we find a wonderful affirmation of the church’s identity: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” This of course is nothing new. It is merely a reaffirmation God’s purpose for his people as it had always been. In Exodus 19:5-6, God proclaimed to the people of Israel, “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

It has always been God’s intention to make his people royalty. And we look forward to that day when “the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,'” (Matthew 25:33).

Other Posts in This Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Gospel According to Disney (Part 3)

One of the most unmistakable things about a trip to Disney is the fact that the whole day is meant to be a joyful celebration. The park opens to singing and dancing by characters at the front gate. There are parades throughout the day and fireworks at night. Everything is pointed in a celebratory direction. It is one big party.

As Christians, celebratory joy ought to be one of the hallmarks of our lives. If we are truly those who, by God’s grace, have been brought from death to life so that sin might no longer have dominion over us (as we are promised in Romans 6:13-14), then we have more reason to celebrate than anyone!

Again, this is not to say that life is just a bowl of cherries. The Bible is clear that we will face affliction. The key in this matter is the attitude that Paul exhibits in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where he writes, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

As we look to the unseen, we rejoice in what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, namely living the life of perfect holiness that is required of us, and dying the death that we should have died when we failed. We rejoice that he has risen from the dead, displaying his power over sin and death, vindicating his claims and guaranteeing his promises. We rejoice that he ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he physically lives today, making intercession on our behalf. And we rejoice that he will one day return, bringing with him the glorious restoration of all things.

In light of all of this, may the Apostle’s words in 1 Peter 1:8 be true of us all: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”

Other Posts in This Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

The Gospel According to Disney (Part 2)

One of the many things that's great about Disney is the fact that the good guy always wins. There have been many times that I've been watching a Disney movie with my children and they have become worried for the well-being of the main character. I always tell them not to worry, even if I've never seen the movie. "Remember," I say, "this is Disney. Everything is going to turn out okay." The glass slipper always fits Cinderella, Prince Charming never fails to shows up in the end, and every time Peter Pan defeats Captain Hook.

That's not to say that everything is always easy. For instance, in Disney stories there is often tragedy to deal with. To the dismay of moms everywhere, this most commonly seems to come in the fact that the main character's mother dies or is already dead (Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo...), but it also comes in many other forms ranging from drudgery to (temporary) death.

Likewise, in real life, we face various difficulties and trials. Life is not always easy. Despite what purveyors of a prosperity gospel would tell you, the Bible never promises health and wealth to Christians. It does however promise difficulty:

• "Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:20)
  
• "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'" (Matthew 16:24)
  
• "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." (James 1:2-3)

Throughout it all though, we do have this comfort:

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18,20)

That's the beauty of the Gospel. We do nothing to deserve it, but we are essentially on Jesus' team. We may be the benchwarmer who doesn't even get into the game, but when our star performer wins the championship, we too become champions. And just like with Disney, in the end, the Good Guy does indeed win!

Other Posts in This Series:
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4

The Gospel According to Disney (Part 1)

I recently was blessed with the opportunity to spend a day with my family at Walt Disney World. I have been there twice before and enjoyed it each time. This time though, it struck me more than ever how much of what Disney does resounds with echoes of the Gospel.

It’s not a completely foreign thought to me, I actually preached a sermon once on Ephesians 2:1-10 entitled “Fairy Tale Grace.” In it I recounted the tale of Snow White’s encounter with the wicked queen. This evil monarch, filled with envy and pride and murderous thoughts deceived Snow White into eating a deadly fruit. And having eaten, as she lay there dead, it did not matter what good works she had done, she was utterly incapable of doing anything to save herself. After all, she was dead.

But then along came her prince. He kissed her, and because his love for her was so great, she was brought back to life. Our story is not all that different from hers. We too once laid helpless, having been deceived by an evil monarch to eat of a deadly fruit. As we read in Ephesians 2:1-2, “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…”

Even so, Christ Jesus is our prince, who has loved us though there was not a thing we could offer him. He has revived us by his love though we truly could do nothing to deserve it, and he has taken us to be his bride, to reign with him forever.

J.R.R. Tolkien once made the point that the reason every culture has so many fairy tales (or as he called them, “fairy stories”) is because they are an echo of the one true story, that of a loving, redeeming God and his people who are the object of his affection. This is the reason Snow White’s story so resonates with us.

Over the next week or so I will be posting some other observations of how my trip to Disney World similarly reminded me of the Gospel. I hope you will be following along, and if you are, that you will be blessed by the beauty of the Gospel.

Other Posts in This Series:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Pursuing Godliness

I like to listen to sermons online and on my iPod. If you like to do the same (or even if you don’t, for that matter), let me commend to you a sermon I recently heard dealing with the need for Christians to be dilligent in their pursuit of Godliness.

Last Sunday night at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, Kevin DeYoung preached a message from 2 Peter 1:8-11 entitled The Premise for Godliness. I won’t spoil the whole thing for you in case you'd like to check it out, but here are a few points that particularly stuck out for me:

1. Godliness is not a destination at which we arrive. Rather it is something in which we must always be increasing.


2. A quote from John Calvin: “The blood of Christ has not become a washing bath to us that it may be fouled by our filth.”


3. Bearing fruit is not primarily a matter of things which we do. Rather they are, at their core, evidences of who we are.


4. We are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone.

Faith Like a Child

One of my greatest joys in all of life is when my children ask me good, biblically-informed questions. My daughter just turned six about a month ago. Today, while giving her a ride to school, we had the following conversation out of the blue:

C: Dad, Where does God live?

Me: In Heaven.

C: Where’s that?

Me: We don’t know for sure.

C: Doesn’t the Bible say that when He comes back, He’ll come on the clouds?

Me: Yes, it does!

C: Then heaven must be in the sky.

For a second, I actually thought about explaining to her that while it’s certainly possible that she was right, it's also possible that “on the clouds” could just be a metaphor referring to “in great glory.” Instead, I think I did the wise thing: I commended her for being very bright and I silently gave thanks to God for the fact that He is already working in my six-year-old child’s heart to pique her interest of spiritual things.

Like his brothers in every way except for sin

Question 35 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks. “What does it mean that he ‘was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary’?” The answer it proceeds to give is, “That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a truly human nature so that he might become David's true descendant, like his brothers in every way except for sin.”

As I read through Q&A 35, I was struck by the fact that Christ was “like his brothers in every way except for sin.” It is clear that two passages in the book of Hebrews had great influence on this answer:

Hebrews 2:14-18 - Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

and

Hebrews 4:14-16 - Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

What comfort we indeed have in the fact that Jesus is not some far off God, unable to relate to us, but rather has condescended to become like us, sharing in our trials and in our sufferings! A God who now bids us to do what otherwise would be unthinkable: to boldly approach his throne to find grace in our time of need.

There is one other way that Jesus is decidedly not like us. He didn’t just share in our trials and sufferings, he experienced them on our behalf. As such, he is unlike us (at least those of us who have placed our trust in him) in that we will never face the wrath of a just and holy God. This of course is precisely what happened to Jesus on the cross.

It was for our sake that he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)…For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29)…And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Oh how I long for that day when this transformation will be complete! When God not only will see me through the righteousness of Christ, but when that righteousness so fills me and flows from me that I sin no more. In that day I will be truly like my elder brother! Come, Lord Jesus!

What exactly is the Gospel?

Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, posts today on his blog a series of thoughts on the gospel, as related to him by Scotty Smith, the Founding Pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee. While in seminary, I was blessed to take a couple of courses Scotty taught, and he is a man who loves the gospel. I think that comes through clearly when he says:

• The gospel is God the Father’s irrepressible commitment to redeem his pan-national trans-generational family, and restore his broken creation through the person and work of Jesus, and the power and presence of his Holy Spirit
  
• The gospel is the glory-story of how God the Father is redeeming a people from every single race, tribe, tongue and people group for a life of worship service in the new heaven and new earth. All of this is being accomplished through the person and work of his Son, Jesus, and the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit.
  
• The gospel is the doxological drama in which Jesus, the second Adam, servant-Savior and loving Lord, is redeeming his pan-national Bride and making all things new, to the glory of God.
  
• The gospel is the unfolding story of God’s contra-conditional love for an ill-deserving people, and for his beloved and broken creation-a story which has Jesus as its hero, the nations as its characters, the world as its storyboard, and the new heaven and new earth as its goal.
  
• The gospel is like a great song: It has a lyric to be known (theology), a music to be loved (doxology) and a dance to be learned (mission). Indeed, the gospel calls for informed minds, en-flamed hearts and engaged feet.
  
• The gospel is God’s passionate, joyful, covenant commitment to make all things new through the person and work of his Son, Jesus, and by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit. “All things” include both a people and a place-the Bride of Christ, and the new heaven and new earth. We dare not emphasize one of these to the exception of the other.

The only thing I would add to Scotty's great reflections is to explicitly state what I think he implicitly is saying when he refers to "the person of work of Jesus," namely, "that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

Jesus saves...but from what?

As you probably already know if you follow my blog regularly, I am a big fan of Kevin DeYoung. He is a pastor in East Lansing, Michigan who has written a number of very helpful books including Why We're Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church (both of which he co-authored with Ted Kluck), as well as Just Do Something, a great little book on discerning God's will for your life.

Right now I am reading his most recent book, The Good News We Almost Forgot which is an overview of the Heidelberg Catechism. In dealing with question 29 of the Catechism ("Why is the Son of God called 'Jesus,' meaning 'Savior'?"), DeYoung states:

The point of the gospel is not that Jesus saves us from low self-esteem, or from singleness, or from a crummy job. As evangelicals, we do better defending that Jesus is our Savior than we do remembering what He actually saves us from. Sin is our deepest, most fundamental, most pervasive problem. Other teachers and heroes may be able to save us from life's stresses and disappointments, but with this problem of sin, there is only One who can save, and His name is Jesus.