Tim Chester on humility and the cross

The pardon of the cross creates a humble confidence in those who believe. Humble confidence might sound like a contradiction. Like warm ice. Or a desert that blooms. But our humility and our confidence are looking in different directions.

Our confidence comes when we look to God in the light of the cross. We see in the cross God's great declaration of his love to us and the legal status of that love. We discover that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that gives us confidence in the face of sin, suffering and death. Indeed it's this confidence that enables us to be humble because we don't need to assert ourselves.

Meanwhile, humility comes when we look at ourselves in the light of the cross. There we discover that we're rebels against God. When we get the chance, we murder our Creator. That's what we are like. We discover our desperate need for grace. We're humbled. So when we see a messed-up, struggling person we don't see someone inferior. We see ourselves. We see a sinner like us in desperate need of God's grace.

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero: living the cross and resurrection (IVP 2009, pp.32-33)

John Owen on grace

Grace is a word which has various meanings. But chiefly it means three things:

(1) Grace can mean grace of personal presence and beauty. So we say, 'He or she is a graceful and beautiful person'. The Song of Solomon deals mainly with the grace and beauty of Christ's person. See also Psalm 45.2

(2) Grace can mean grace of free favour and acceptance. 'By grace you are saved'. That is, we are saved by the free favour and merciful acceptance of God in Christ. So the expression 'If I have found grace in your sight' is often used. The person using this expression hopes that he will be freely and favourably accepted. So God 'gives grace', that is, favour, to the humble. (James 4.6; Gen. 39.21; 41.37; Acts 7.10; 1 Sam 2.26; 2 Kings 25.27)

(3) Grace can mean the fruit of the Spirit sanctifying and renewing our natures, enabling us to do those good things which God has purposed and planned for us to do, and holding us back from evil. 'My grace is sufficient for you,' says the Lord Christ. That is, the help which God gave was sufficient for Paul (2 Cor. 12.9; 8.6, 7; Col 3.16; Heb 12.28)

The last two meanings of the word grace, as relating to Christ, I call 'purchased grace', being purchased by him for us. And our communion with Jesus in this purchased grace is called 'a fellowship in his sufferings, and the power of his resurrection.' (Phil. 3.10)

John Owen, Communion with God (Banner of Truth, 1991), pp.46-47

Living the Cross and Resurrection

One of the phrases the New Testament often uses to describe Christians is 'in Christ' or 'united to Christ'. You and I are in Christ. This means his death is our death and his life is our life. It means his cross is our model and his resurrection is our hope.

Perhaps rather surprisingly, when the New Testament writers tell us how we should live, they don't often point back to the life of Jesus. Instead they take us again and again to the cross and resurrection. Whether they're talking about marriage or conflict or community or money or opposition or leadership or temptation or work or suffering, they look to the cross and resurrection. So if you want to know how to live as a Christian, you need to understand how the cross and resurrection shape our lives. The pattern of the cross and resurrection needs to become our reflex, our habit, our instinct. We need to live the cross and resurrection.

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero: living the cross and resurrection (IVP, 2009); from the introduction, p.11

The simplicity and tenderness of Jesus' power

I am currently reading Timothy Keller's latest book, King's Cross, which is based on a series of sermons he preached on Mark's Gospel. Like the rest of Keller's work, I am being refreshed and challenged by his profound reflections on the Scriptures. The following quote is about Jesus' raising of Jairus's daughter in Mark 5 and I am moved by the beauty and simplicity of Jesus. I cannot begin to imagine what it would have been like to have been there and witnessed it.

Do you think it is odd that when Jesus arrives at Jairus's house he says that the girl is just sleeping? The parallel accounts of this story in Matthew's and Luke's gospels make it clear that Jesus understands she's dead. She's not just mostly dead; she's all dead. Then why does he make that reference to sleep?

The answer is in what Jesus does next. Remember, Jesus sits down beside the girl, takes her by the hand, and says two things to her. The first is talitha. Literally, it means "little girl," but that does not get across the sense of what he's saying. This is a pet name, a diminutive term of endearment. Since this is a diminutive that a mother would use with a little girl, probably the best translation is "honey." The second thing Jesus says to her is koum, which means "arise." Not "be resurrected"; it just means "get up." Jesus is doing exactly what this child's parents might do on a sunny morning. He sits down, takes her hand, and sayd, "Honey, it's time to get up." And she does. Jesus is facing death, the most implacable, inexorable enemy of the human race and such is his power that he holds this child by the hand and gently lifts her right up through it. "Honey, get up." Jesus is saying by his actions, "If I have you by the hand, death itself is nothing but sleep."

But Jesus' words and actions are not just powerful; they are loving too. When you were little, if your parent had you by the hand you felt everything was okay. You were wrong, of course. There are bad parents, and even the best parents are imperfect. Even the best parents can slip up, even the best parents make wrong choices. But Jesus is the ultimate Parent who has you by the hand and will bring you through the darkest night. The Lord of the universe, the One who danced the stars into place, takes you by the hand and says, "Honey, it's time to get up."

Tim Keller, King's Cross, pp.67-68

Os Guiness on evangelism and discipleship in the global era

A few quotes from Os Guinness, when he and David Wells addressed the Lausanne Congress 2010 on globalisation.

...The rarest commodity in the West is attention… because in the West everybody’s speaking, e.mailing, texting, tweeting, blogging, you name it. Everybody’s speaking. Nobody’s listening. And we think with better technologies we’ll get over to them. It’s not a technological problem, it’s a spiritual, moral problem. And if ever we needed the power of the Holy Spirit to say things simple and fresh that break through this barrier it’s today.

...Let me finish with a series of very simple points to ponder. Evangelism and discipleship in the global era.

First, evangelism in some ways is easier, but genuine discipleship is harder.

Secondly, social justice has become very popular but evangelism is politically incorrect.

Methodologies have run riot and are valued by everybody, but truth has become unfashionable and embarrassing.

The internet of course is fast and powerful but it’s shallow; incarnate witness is slow and costly but it’s deep.

The global and the short term are very glamorous; the local and the long-term are costly and sacrificial.

Virtual community and virtual communications are prized but they are never more than what’s called thin. Face-to-face community and face-to-face communication is discounted but of course that’s what reflects our Lord in the incarnation. 

You can catch the video here. 

Review of Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther

I wrote these reflections on Luther's famous work about year ago, and since then have found myself constantly going back it, in particular the section I highlight below on union with Christ. The edition I read is from CCEL and can be found here.

Summary

Concerning Christian Liberty is a great statement of the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone. In two main sections, Luther expounds his paradoxical opening statement that “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 everyone.” The two sections correspond to faith and works respectively.

Luther first asks what can make a man a “justified, free, and a true Christian; that is, a spiritual, new, and inward man.” Only the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ can do that, the gospel “concerning His Son, incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified through the Spirit, the sanctifier.” In the gospel we are offered salvation, and only faith – not works – can grasp hold of this word. To be sure we are commanded to do works in the Scriptures, but the purpose of the commands is to show us what we cannot do, thus preparing us to receive the promise of God in the gospel.

Luther discusses three great “virtues” of faith.  Firstly, faith gives us true Christian liberty: we are free from the law and works as regards our justification and salvation. Secondly, faith honours God because in believing His promise it ascribes truth and righteousness to Him. Thus to not believe the word of the gospel would be to make God a liar. Thirdly, faith unites the soul to Christ. Believing in Christ is compared simply and stunningly to the marriage of a king and a prostitute, where both share equally what each brings to the union, for example: “Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul.”

In the second section, Luther argues for the place of works in the life of the Christian. Never a means to justification before God, works are, firstly, for the purpose of subduing “the lusts of the body” and secondly, the outworking of love to others. It is necessary that the person be made good before they are able to do good works, and not the other way round.

Evaluation and Questions

The great strength of Concerning Christian Liberty is of course its brilliant articulation of justification by faith alone. It is important that Luther begins with the Word: strictly speaking, we are justified not through faith alone, but through the word of the gospel, received by faith alone. This avoids the danger of treating faith as a “work” that we need to do, and hence we look inside us to see how much faith we have rather than look outside ourselves to Christ and His work. The central section about union with Christ is deeply moving in the assurance it gives to the person who trusts in Christ. I found the following paragraph particularly striking in the way it makes me look out of myself to what Christ has done on my behalf:

…Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and pious husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils, and supplying her with all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying: “If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine.”

This section on union with Christ does raise one question, though, which is the relationship between the union of the individual believer with Christ and the marriage of Christ and the church. Does Scripture actually use the marriage analogy for the individual believer’s relationship to Christ?

I am not certain that Luther has done the best job he could have done on the place of works in the Christian life. At one point, he suggests that God commands Adam (and by analogy the Christian) works to give him something to do, otherwise he’d be idle! The emphases on battling against the lusts of the flesh and working out of love for neighbour are really good, and he clearly shows that Christian liberty does not lead to licence, but he does not really articulate God’s purpose in saving us for good works; works being God’s purpose in creation and re-creation.

Connections

I have recently found the Gospel Coalition’s discussion of two ways of summarising the gospel very helpful (see their 'Theological Vision for Ministry' statement, section II 'How should we read the Bible?): on the one hand, creation - fall - redemption - restoration (in biblical theological categories) gives the big picture and emphasises the purpose of creating a new humanity and renewing creation for God’s glory. On the other hand, God-sin-Christ-faith (in systematic theological categories) focuses on the detailed means of individual salvation, namely substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone. Both ‘axes’ work together to articulate the gospel comprehensively, but the tendency is to emphasise one at the expense of the other.

What strikes as me as particularly important about Concerning Christian Liberty is that it is a deep and brilliant exposition of one of those central aspects of the gospel, namely, justification by faith. It can only help to go deeper; not that justification is all the gospel, as I have just said, but it is at the heart of the gospel. My suspicion, from experience, is that the gospel is often reduced to something very minimal, or assumed as merely the entry point to the Christian faith, before passing on to other things. We need to be able to articulate more clearly and more deeply this central doctrine, and Luther can only help in this regard. Studying Luther on this has brought me greater clarity on what Scripture teaches about the gospel.

Concerning Christian Liberty also shows that it is not sufficient to emphasise grace as being central to the gospel if you are not simultaneously showing how that grace is worked out in justification by the gospel word received by faith alone. The Roman Catholic gospel, for example, also includes grace.

On a personal note, Concerning Christian Liberty has helped me to understand more clearly what it means to trust in Christ, that is, to look outside of myself to the finished work of Christ in the Gospel Word, and not at how much faith or how little faith I have. As justification by faith alone is a doctrine with great practical application in many areas of the Christian life, I trust that the Lord will help me to continue to grow in applying this truth to my life.

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When church works, it's brilliant

I started reading Terry Virgo's Does the Future have a church? (Kingsway 2003) which looks like a very nice little book, and was impressed by this quote from Bill Hybels on the local church in the first chapter:

There is nothing like the local church when it's working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited... I believe that the local church is the hope of the world. I believe to the core of my being that local church leaders have the potential to be the most influential force on planet earth. If they 'get it,' and get on with it, churches can become the redemptive centers that Jesus intended them to be. Dynamic teaching, creative worship, deep community, effective evangelism, and joyful service will combine to renew the hearts and minds of seekers and believers alike, strengthen families, transform communities, and change the world.

The quote is from Bill.Hybels, Courageous Leadership (Zondervan 2002)

What is the message of 1 and 2 Kings for today?

The book of Kings charts the decline of the kingdom of Israel from the brief glories of the united kingdom under Solomon through the division into two kingdoms on his death and the subsequent accumulating apostasy and sin of firstly the northern kingdom of Israel, culminating in destruction and exile at the hands of Assyria in 2 Kings 17, and secondly the southern kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem finally taken by the Babylonians in 2 Kings 25.

Kings is overwhelmingly a tale of human sin. The reign of Solomon is indeed glorious, but there are question marks over it throughout his reign, even from the very beginning: his political manouevring in chapter 2, his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter and the worship at the high places, (I 3.1-3) before he is granted wisdom, wealth and honour by the LORD. But the absence of whole-hearted devotion (so much gold… and horses… and wives…!) in Solomon results on the judgment of the division of the kingdom.

In the northern kingdom, Jeroboam’s golden calves (this initial new Moses delivering the people from oppression becoing a new Aaron) set the tone for all the succeeding kings and mark Israel for judgment right from the start. (I 14.15-16) Virtually all the remaining kings “walked in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nabat” with the exception of the last king Hoshea, by which time it was far too late.

The second paradigm king in the northern kingdom, Ahab, outdoes Jeroboam by introducing Baal worship thus “provoking the Lord to anger more than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” (I 16.33) But even Jehu’s zeal in destroying Baal worship from Israel, for which the LORD rewards him with a dynasty to the fourth generation, does not exempt him from a negative verdict for he too continues in the ways of Jeroboam.

The kings in the south are more varied. There are the bad ones and “did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord”, there are the (relatively) good ones who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord”, enacting some reforms  – but leaving the high places intact. And then there are the really bad (Ahaz) who went as far as sacrificing his son in the fire and the really, really bad (Manasseh) whose evil is so deep that the destruction of Judah is finally foretold as a certain thing. And not even the best kings’s (Hezekiah but especially Josiah) goodness is enough to prevent disaster. In the end, both kingdoms are judged and sent into exile for the accumulation of generations of apostasy and rebellion against the covenant.

In constant juxtaposition and interaction with this long, mostly sordid tale is the LORD and His Word: the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic promise[1], and many specific words utterred through the prophets all play crucial roles in framing what is going on and directing their interpretation.

In relation to the Davidic promise, the whole book is played out against the tension between its conditional and unconditional nature. The original promise (2 Sam 7) is unconditional: David’s kingdom will endure forever, and is sometimes treated as such in Kings (e.g. I 11.36, 39; II 8.19). At other times, though, it seems that the continuation of David’s house is dependent on the obedience of Solomon and his descendants (e.g. I 2.4; 3.6; 8.25; esp. 9.4-9).

This tension is played out immediately on Solomon’s apostasy, as the kingdom is taken away from him and given to Jeroboam, yet the house of David maintains one tribe, because of God’s promise to David.

God addresses Solomon directly on four occasions (I 3.5-15; 6.11-13; 9.1-9; 11.9-13) but after Solomon none of the words of the LORD come directly to kings (or soon-to-be kings) but via a prophet. And virtually all of the prophetic words are directed to the northern kingdom of Israel until the north is destroyed. It seems that the sin and judgment of the north is dealt with first before the buck is passed to the south.

In the early dynasties of the north, the Word of the Lord is always of judgment. The whole history is framed by the long-term promise of exile, predicted right from the start in the reign of Jeroboam (I 14.15-16). Jeroboam’s house is predicted to be cut off, which it is in the second generation, then the usurper, Baasha’s house receives the same word and fulfilment. Judgment on Omri and Ahab’s house takes a lot longer but is just inexorable: the extended Elijah narrative culminates with the word of judgment in I 21.17-24) although its fulfilment also has to wait another nine chapters towards the end of the Elisha narrative as Jehu comes onto the scene. Whether the timescale is short or long, God’s word will be fulfilled, and this shows us that final judgment on the northern kingdom will eventually come. There is even room for relief and grace in the reigns of some of the later northern kings (II 13.4-5, 23; 14.25) but once Jehu’s dynasty ends, the end comes quickly.

All that occurs in the north is also intended to be a mirror on the south. Will what happens in the north also happen in the south? Will the Davidic make any difference? Although many of the kings are better, many are not, and on the whole the relative stability and continuance of the southern kingdom would appear to be down more to God’s commitment to his promise to David than to the southern lot being better at the obedience thing. The judgment on Ahab’s house under Jehu almost overwhelms Judah too and would have done apart from an almost miraculous preservation of baby Joash. David’s line hangs by a thread. But 2 Kings 17.18-19 makes clear that the sins that Israel committed, leading to their judgment, were also committed by Judah. Will Judah survive? At last, under Hezekiah, a prophet appears in the south. Isaiah’s words are of temporary relief in the face of the Assyrian threat, but also of warning of the Babylonian cloud (II 20.16-18). The Word of judgment comes under Manasseh (21.10-15): “I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb-line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a dish, wiping it and turning it upside-down.” Not even Josiah’s reforms will save Judah. (II 22.15-20)

2 Kings 23.27 is devastating: “So the LORD said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, “There shall my Name be.”’”

The kingdom was conditional on obedience, and so it has proved. The Word of the LORD of judgment is fulfilled. It has done so again and again throughout Kings. And in the largest possible scale it is fulfilled, even to the rejection of Jerusalem and the removal of Judah from the presence of the LORD.

And yet there is one final hint that the LORD has not forgotten his unconditional promise to David. Right at the end we, surprisingly, find Jehoiachin, the penultimate king, released from prison in Babylon, priviledged and eating at the king’s table. It is the merest hint, but there is hope still for God’s people and their line of kings.

What is the message of Kings for today?

1. Obedience and trust, disobedience and unbelief, true worship and idolatry are all painted in vivid characters through the lives of so many of the characters in this narrative. They are all – like Elijah – “men just like us” (James 5.17) and thus examples from which to learn. We should avoid making character studies the main point of Kings, but they are certainly there! Kings gives us examples of obedience and godliness under intense pressure, and also a searching analysis of sin, both in the failures of the relatively righteous and the depravity of wickedness.
2. The power of the Word of the LORD. It is always fulfilled throughout Kings. It comes through prophets in Kings, but is never controlled by them. Sometimes the fulfilment takes longer than we would expect, but it will be fulfilled. God works in quiet ways (I ch. 19) as well as spectacular (I ch. 18)
3. We learn much about the nature of God in Kings: his holiness, anger, patience, grace. He will not allow sin to have the ultimate word, either by letting it go unpunished, or by allowing it to triumph over his grace and promise. This is what lies behind the conditional – unconditional tension.
4. The conditional – unconditional tension is not fully resolved by the end of Kings. The book is thus preparatory for the coming of the true Davidic king through whom God’s promise of an everlasting kingdom to the house of David will be fulfilled.

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[1] The Abrahamic covenant is mentioned once (II 13.23) and possible alluded to once more. (I 18.36)

Nuthatch

 

 

It's been a while since I posted anything bird-related, but I took these videos of a nuthatch yesterday, while in La Granja de San Ildefonso, near Segovia, Spain. Such a beautiful bird!

Luther on prayer being undistracted

I read this helpful quote from John Piper's Brothers, we are not professionals (pp.62-63) today. By the way, this book has just been published in Spanish, which is great news!

Martin Luther was once asked by his barber, "Dr. Luther, how do you pray?" Astonishingly, one of the busiest men of the Reformation wrote a forty-page response for his barber, Peter Beskendorf. His words are a great inspiration for us to beware of sacred substitutes.

"A good clever barber must have his thoughts, mind and eyes concentrated upon the razor and the beard and not forget where he is in his stroke and shave. If he keeps talking or looking around or thinking of something else, he is likely to cut a man's mouth or nose - or even his throat. So anything that is to be done well ought to occupy the whole man with all his faculties and members. As the saying goes: he who thinks of many things thinks of nothing and accomplishes no good. How much more must prayer possess the heart exclusively and completely if it is to be a good prayer!"