celebrating the son-rise

(A guest blog by Jim Gamble.)

It was good to celebrate and proclaim the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus on Easter Sunday. Some argue that it doesn`t really matter whether Jesus was physically resurrected or not and others deny the resurrection altogether, they see it as mere myth or legend. This sort of scepticism is not new of course, even in the early church some Christians had fallen for this error. They had been deceived by the philosophies of the age which said there was no physical resurrection of the dead.

We can read the Apostle Paul`s response to this heresy in 1Cor 15 .

1Cor 15:3-11 (ESV)
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: 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 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

From v 3 – 4 we see that the reality of the physical death and resurrection of Jesus is so important that God foretold these events hundreds of years before they took place. Twice Paul repeats that phrase – according to the scriptures. The OT prophesied that God would send his Son to die for our sins. But Jesus didn’t just die. He was also raised from the dead, according to the Scriptures.

V 5 – 8 provides some of the historical evidence that God raised Jesus from the dead. God doesn’t expect us to have blind faith or to believe in fairytales and myths. We have already referred to the witness of the OT to the death and resurrection of Jesus and here we also have reference to the eye witnesses who saw Jesus after the resurrection. V5 says that Jesus appeared to Peter, and then the twelve , then to 500 of the brothers and so on … and last of all to Paul himself or Saul of Tarsus as he then was.

Not only did all these people see the risen Jesus, they were changed as a result. This is additional dramatic evidence because on seeing Jesus after his resurrection they were transformed from cowering wrecks into courageous witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. The reality of the resurrection of Jesus gave them the confidence they required to face persecution. The resurrection has this kind of  transforming power.

The main thought then in this short late-Easter blog is this :

The Resurrection has Transforming Power.

The resurrection of Jesus transforms our lives. Just by dwelling on the resurrected Jesus we will be transformed and will find that Jesus himself is at work in us, changing our appetites and desires. All of us are not changed to the same degree. Often we lose the wonder of Jesus and forget to concentrate upon him. But as we dwell on him and in him, Jesus is at work changing every believer to be more like himself.

The courage, the moral strength and resilience, the peace and joy that belong to Christ, he gives to us. His life dwells in those who trust in him. His resurrection gives us the certainty of coming resurrection. This certainty completely changes our present outlook in life.

If there is no resurrection then what have we to live for?. All we have to live for is the pleasure of the moment.  Notice what Paul says in v30 – 32.  ‘And as for us why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day` he says in v31, then he adds, ‘what have I gained by this if Jesus has not actually been raised? If there is no resurrection he says in effect in v32 we may as well just eat drink and be merry for sooner or later we will die.’

You see the point Paul is making?  He is not interested in being a masochist. It is because he is convinced of the reality of the resurrection that he is ready to subject himself to a life of danger. He is willing to face all kinds of hazards including shipwreck, beatings, imprisonment and execution. In fact, it seems almost all of the initial disciples were executed because of their refusal to deny that Jesus rose again.

Paul even describes his sufferings in 2 Cor. 4:17 as ‘light and momentary troubles’ and as ‘achieving an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all’. He is so convinced about the glory of heaven that he can let the things of earth go.

Like Paul then, let’s fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. We can be so focused on our job, our families or on sport or entertainment. Some of us may have been more excited about the Masters at Augusta on Easter Sunday than about the Master! Some of us get more excited by the latest iPad which will be quickly superseded and become obsolete than by eternal realities. Paul reminds us that what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal and imperishable.

Jesus is enthroned in heaven for ever. All power and all authority is given to him. He reigns and he is reigning inside every believer. To meditate on the risen, reigning Lord Jesus brings motivation to be like him, it brings hope, optimism, enthusiasm and certainty.

Only by setting our minds on the one who has been raised victorious over sin and death will we be able to live with victory over sin. His triumph over sin and death opens up for us a life of freedom from fear of death and slavery to sin. The Resurrection of Jesus has that kind of transforming power in our lives.

The Resurrection also has Justifying Power.

Justification is simply “the act of God declaring men free from guilt and acceptable to him”.

God raised Jesus on the third day as the guarantee that all who put their faith in him are forgiven. They are free from the guilt and penalty of sin. The price has been paid by the death of Jesus. If the cross was Jesus` payment for our sins, then the resurrection marked God`s acceptance of that payment.

Paul is very clear in v 17 of our chapter regarding the implications of denying the resurrection.

17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. And of all men we are most to be pitied.

That’s how vital the resurrection is. The resurrection of Jesus is verification that his death has paid the full price for sin. Because he has been raised justification is certain.

Rom 4: 25 `He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification`.

So then, in the resurrection of Jesus, God is declaring us to be just, to be righteous. This is only possible because in the resurrection the Father declares his Son to be righteous, he vindicates his Son, he vindicates his claims to be the Son of God in power and he shows his absolute delight in his Son .

So too in the resurrection of Jesus we can be justified and the delight of the Father and the vindication of the Father rests upon us. With that justification comes peace. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and assurance of heaven.

Heaven is guaranteed because of the resurrection.

V30 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead , the first fruits (the guarantee) of those who have fallen asleep.

We are freed from the fear of death. Some of us will have witnessed fellow believers and loved ones (some elderly and some not so old) calmly facing death without fear. With the confidence which comes through believing that Jesus has been raised from the dead. In the sure and certain knowledge that the day of resurrection is coming soon for all those who have been transformed and justified by the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

`This is of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures`.

Let`s continue to focus our minds on our risen, reigning Lord Jesus not simply in the period of Easter but throughout the year.  Easter is the reality that shapes the whole of our lives.

christ and true spirituality

What do visualization (Ignatian Examen or kataphatic prayer), silence, solitude, lectio divina, labyrinth prayers, Stations of the Cross, chanting, induced visions, centering prayer, centering down, and astral projection all have in common?  The answer is they are all forms of mysticism (spirituality) that has been flooding the evangelical world over recent years.  I can pretty well guarantee that if  you have not yet encountered these you soon will.

Now let me say up front that spirituality, or Christian experience of God, is very much part of what it means to be a Christian.  I am appalled by some today (such as Old Life Presbyterians) who have little or no time for Christian experience and dismiss it as mere emotionalism or pietism.  In fact, the pietistic movement in Germany in the C17 began as a healthy biblical reaction to the rigid dogma-driven orthodoxy of the Lutheran church married to a high ecclesiology that, not unlike modern old-lifers, discouraged devotional fervour in the faith of believers.

We must not dismiss Christian experience.  We are converted that we may know God, not merely know about him.  Salvation brings us not only into union with Christ but into communion with him.  We enjoy his presence.  We know what is to ‘dwell in God’.    We are called into the fellowship of the Father and Son, for all who love Christ and keep his word know what it is for the Father and Son to come and make their home in them (Jn 14:22).  Christian experience is abiding in God and God abiding in us (1 Jn 4:15,16).  This is much more than a proper standing, or a theological system, it is relationship and intimacy that brings us into all that God is.  Where the affections are not engaged Christianity is not realized.

However, while communion with God in Christ is what we are called to as Christians, like every other aspect of Christianity Satan is only too ready to corrupt and distort it.  C17 Pietism began well but in time was enticed into various spiritual experiences that had no roots in the gospel and belonged more  to mere mysticism with its emphasis on ecstatic visions of the soul and altered states of consciousness created by ‘spiritual techniques’ rather than beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 3).

Such mysticism did not originate in the C17.  It plagued the church from its inception.  We have been focussing in recent posts on various aspects of the heresy that harried the Colossian church.  We noted that this heresy was a hydran mixture of philosophy (human wisdom trumping revealed truth), Judaism (human religiosity and laws for holiness becoming a substitute for grasping what it means to have died with Christ to this world), and finally mysticism.  This mysticism was false and dangerous because it offered spiritual experience detached from a singular focus on the revealed Christ.

This danger Paul addresses in the Colossian church when he writes:

Col 2:18-19 (ESV)
Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Some, it appears, were advocating religious experience through intermediaries (angels) and visionary states of consciousness, perhaps induced through bodily deprivation, that had nothing to do with looking at Christ.  However, these are man-made spiritualities.  They appear wise  but are really self-made religion (Col 2:23) for they are not about the simplicity of holding on by faith to the risen and reigning Christ.

The simple reality is, not all spiritualities are authentically spiritual.   Nowadays the desire for a Christian spirituality is leading some into rather strange places.  Modern mystics like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster promote forms of spirituality that have a lot more to do with Roman Catholic mysticism than genuine biblical faith.  Classic medieval mysticism was virtually unknown in Evangelicalism until popularised by Foster in his ‘Celebration of Discipline, the Path of Spiritual Growth‘.  Voted by Christianity Today as one of the ten best books of the C20, Foster introduced all kinds of dubious mystical techniques into the evangelical consciousness.

How do we stop genuine pursuit of God being corrupted by a false kind of mysticism?  Let me try to answer this question in terms of a few propositions.

true spirituality never divorces itself from objective truth

The Christian gospel is objective truth we are called to believe (Jn 20:31).  Indeed, we grow in the knowledge of God only as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ (Jn 17:3).  There is a tendency in Christian mysticism to pay only lip-service to revealed truth.  As one writer observes,

The essence of mysticism lies in this, that the seat of authority is transferred in the mind of the mystic from the external Word of God to the spiritual consciousness — the “spiritual man” — internal to themselves. Homage of quite an orthodox kind may be verbally rendered to the Scriptures, and yet they may be largely displaced.  It has little or no restraining effect upon the flights of his imagination. He quotes it of course, but only as supporting or illustrating or adorning his own conceptions of truth. His conceptions become the primary thing on which the main emphasis must be laid. Scripture must be interpreted in the light of those conceptions, and its words become of secondary importance.

Evelyn Underhill, a leading Anglo-Catholic mystic of the early C20  confirms the truth of this criticism in saying,

“Mysticism, according to its historical and psychological definitions, is the direct intuition or experience of God; and a mystic is a person who has, to a greater or less degree, such a direct experience — one whose religion and life are centered, not merely on an accepted belief or practice, but on that which the person regards as first hand personal knowledge.”

Where quests to know God are not founded on what the God who has made himself known has objectively revealed for faith to grasp they soon wind-up as merely fanciful experiences. The subjective trumps the objective and the mystic becomes ‘puffed up with their sensuous mind‘ (Col 2).  The Quakers (or Society of Friends) are a classic example of where for many ‘inner light’ has replaced revealed truth; connection with the head is lost.

true spirituality focusses on an exalted Christ outside of self and not on Christ within

It is true, and wonderfully so, that Christ dwells in the heart of every believer by faith.  Yet it is equally true that we are told to focus on the exalted Christ outside of ourselves and not the Christ within.   The gospel does not encourage pre-occupation with what is happening inside of us.  Instead Paul exhorts,

Col 3:1-4 (ESV)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

It is the risen and exalted Christ in glory who is the object of faith and adoration.  We look to Jesus who has triumphantly completed the life of faith and is now seated at the right hand of God. (Hebs 12:2).  Looking within merely leads to self-absorption the very opposite to the self-forgetfulness that the gospel creates.  The kind of mysticism that calls for navel-gazing is not biblical spirituality.

true spirituality has Christ as its object and not spiritual experience itself

The inclination of fallen humanity is to be self-absorbed.  Our human tendency is to make much of ourselves.  We like to be the centre of everything.  If we give in to this everything becomes false.  The flesh loves its own reasoning, its religious observance, and its own religious consciousness. The gospel, however, always takes the focus away from us and on places it on Christ.

False mysticism is interested in religious experience rather than Christ.  It deals largely with ourselves, and our own state and apprehension of the truth. It is occupied not with divine realities themselves, but with how we become conscious of those realities, and of the way they work out certain results in us.

Lectio Divina, meaning “sacred reading,” is a technique that moves beyond the normal reading the Bible. It aims at going beyond the objective meaning of the words  to that which transcends normal awareness.  One writer instructs,

‘As you attend to those deeper meanings, begin to meditate on the feelings and emotions conjured up in your inner self.’

Notice how the technique subtly turns us in on ourselves and our consciousness. It is not about God, it is about us.

Mysticism has about it an apparent profundity of thought and utterance. It promises a far greater depth of understanding, which is alluring, and especially to minds of a certain contemplative type, fundamentally disposed towards introspection and self-occupation.  We can be sure such self-occupation is not biblical spirituality.  As even the Roman Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton writes

‘If I were to say that Christianity came into the world specially to destroy the doctrine of the Inner Light, that would be an exaggeration. But it would be very much nearer to the truth… Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; anyone who knows anyone from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones… Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognised an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners’.

true spirituality is not merely aspirations after God in Christ but present enjoyment of him

A feature of much false mysticism is that it is about un-realised desire.  It pants for God but never seems to find him. It longs to know love but never experiences it.  Now we must be careful here for there is always that which is aspirational in faith.  Paul wishes to ‘know Christ’ and reaches out to what he has not yet attained, HOWEVER,  this is within the context of already knowing and enjoying Christ.  The love of God is already shed abroad in his heart (Roms 5).  He already ‘knows the love of Christ which is beyond knowing’ (Eph 3:19).  Yes we wish to be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph 3:20) but we are already ‘filled’ in Christ, the one in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells (Col 2:9).

We not only desire Christ, we have Christ.  He is the present satisfying object of our love and adoration.  We delight in him, enjoy him, and are complete in him.  In the Spirit he is already for us a spring of water springing up to eternal life, eternally satisfying.

John 4:13-14 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Desire and love are not exactly the same.  Desire is never satisfied.  It does not possess the object of desire, but love does.  Love supposes that we have full possession of the object of our desires.  Love does not so much desire as delight in the one loved.  Mysticism, absorbed as it is with self and feelings, never gets beyond desire; while simple Christianity, giving the knowledge of salvation, puts us into full possession of the love of God.  I know that I am loved and I know the one I love.  Indeed, my very love is self-forgetful, for that is what true love is. Desire turns one in on oneself while love takes one out of oneself and rests on the object loved.

In Christianity, I dwell in love, divine love.  In peace, I contemplate this love, and I adore it in Christ. I dwell in Him and He in me.  In God, and contemplation of him, I am deeply and completely filled and satisfied.  He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry with good things (Ps 107:9).  Love, peace, joy and unspeakable glory are not elusive but enjoyed realities in Christ.  Yes, I long for more, but I do so from one who is satisfied.  He has already filled the hungry with good things (Lk 1:53).  This biblical tension is important to maintain.

true spirituality is not technique-driven but simply adores God in the risen Christ

A criticism that can be rightly levelled at many spiritualities ancient and modern (for the modern are only the ancient resuscitated) is the degree to which they are technique-driven.  All involve processes to create transcendence.  Now this immediately rings alarm bells, firstly because there is something contrived and manipulated about such techniques, and, secondly, because these ‘techniques’ are hard to find in Scripture.  Sometimes verses are cited in support but often these are asked to deliver much more than they are able.  We have to ask of many of these ‘techniques’ why they are not plainly exhorted in Scripture.

On so-called ‘centering prayer’ (focussing on a single word like ‘love’ or ‘God’ to clear the mind of other thoughts) Tony Campolo comments,

‘In my case intimacy with Christ has developed gradually over the years, primarily through what Catholic mystics call ‘centering prayer.’ Each morning, as soon as I wake up, I take time-sometimes as much as a half hour-to center myself on Jesus. I say his name over and over again to drive back the 101 things that begin to clutter up my mind the minute I open my eyes. Jesus is my mantra, as some would say.’

Letters to a Young Evangelical Pg 20

Henri Nouwen the late Roman Catholic mystic popular in Evangelical circles explains,

“The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart … This way of simple prayer … opens us to God’s active presence” (The Way of the Heart, p. 81)

Yet we are obliged to ask where such a technique is commended in Scripture?  Notice too, Nouwen, is taking us into ourselves rather than outside ourselves.  This is deadly, for immediately we ‘lose connection with the head’ (Col 2).

True spirituality or Christian mysticism is that which contemplates the truth of God revealed in the gospel of Christ.  It is firmly anchored in objective truth and arises from it.  It recognises that in holding fast to the head is the way of spiritual experience and reality.  Faith and love look without and not within.

More observations could be made.  We could consider the suspect role of spiritual directors in mysticism.  However, I hope what has been said so far gives cause for caution and reflection before buying into the ‘spiritualities’ on offer in the evangelical world at the moment.  Never fail to ask what is the central concern and focus – religious consciousness or the revealed and reigning Christ?

I suggest for further reading an article by D A Carson written some years ago.  Below are his opening paragraphs.

The current interest in spirituality is both salutary and frightening.
It is salutary because in its best forms it is infinitely to be preferred over the assumed philosophical materialism that governs many people, not only in the western world but in many other parts as well. It is salutary wherever it represents a self-conscious rebellion against the profound sense of unreality that afflicts many churches. We speak of “knowing” and “meeting with” and “worshiping” the living God, but many feel that the corporate exercises are perfunctory and inauthentic, and in their quietest moments they wonder what has gone wrong.

 
It is frightening because “spirituality” has become such an ill-defined, amorphous entity that it covers all kinds of phenomena an earlier generation of Christians, more given to robust thought than is the present generation, would have dismissed as error, or even as “paganism” or “heathenism.” Today “spirituality” is an applause-word—that is, the kind of word that is no sooner uttered than everyone breaks out in applause. In many circles it functions in the spiritual realm the way “apple pie” functions in the culinary realm: Who is bold enough to offer a caution, let alone a critique?

Carson is just the man to do so.

lent…or the ashes of judaism that deface christianity

intro

Lent is the forty days before Easter in the Christian liturgical Calendar.  It starts with Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday.  It is traditionally celebrated in the West by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans.  Until fairly recently, for most evangelicals, the very hint of liturgical calendars and days like ‘Ash Wednesday’ and ‘Holy Thursday’ would have been enough for them to run a million miles.  No longer.  Liturgical calendars are de rigueur.  Evangelicals are outing as ‘liturgy-men’ and proud of it.  Celebrating Lent is where it is at in modern spirituality.  A cursory glance at many evangelical websites will make this plain.   Goodness, even Michael Horton has jumped on the bandwagon.  Everyone’s loving lent.

Have conservative evangelicals got it wrong all these years?  Have they been too strict, too stuffy, and too legalistic (an ironic claim in this context if ever there was one)?  Do we need to invest in the ‘Big Tradition’ and rediscover these disciplines?  I guess, my tone in writing so far will reveal where I stand on this issue.  I am appalled at how casually evangelicals are buying into traditions that are essentially Judaistic and sub-Christian.  At best these are a pointless distraction but the reality is much worse; they are actually an indulgence of ‘fleshly’ religion which draws away from Christ.  Strong words, I know.  Not likely to please many.  Such sentiments will be castigated as intolerant and narrow-minded for sure.

Let me say, at the outset, I don’t mean to be unkind or harsh.  As Brian McLaren would protest, how can a mild-mannered guy like me ever be misunderstood in this kind of way?  In fact, if Lenten-men were simply those who have observed it for centuries then I probably would have said nothing.  However, when those who were traditionally free from this kind of childishness (a word I shall later justify), even slavery (another word I shall endeavour to defend), begin to lapse into religious shadows that in Christ are fulfilled and abandoned, I feel compelled to protest.  I am jealous that Christ is being lost in the paraphernalia of human religiosity.  Indeed, all who grasp what it is to be a believer who has died and risen with Christ ought to be jealous for Christ’s glory and care deeply when they see believers submitting to what Scripture calls ‘weak and worthless elements‘  and being enslaved by them (Gals 4:8).

Paul writes, in a context closely allied to the matter in question (rites, rituals and regulations),

Gal 3:1-5 (ESV)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain-if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith.

The Galatian Judaizers were advocating Christ plus the Mosaic Law, and especially its emphasis on rites (Gals 5:2, 6:12), purity laws (Gal 2: 11), and liturgical calendars (Gal 4:10).  For Paul, the whole methodology and minutiae of the Law, symbolised in circumcision, was addressed to man in the flesh and not the Spirit; it is a methodology (a religion) for flesh (Gals 3:3, 4:21-31; 6:12) that is fulfilled and finished in Christ.  It is my conviction that adopting liturgical calendars, special festivals, dietary laws, symbols of penance and self-humiliation, and bodily self-denial rites as an end in themselves or as part of a religious calendar is to embrace the old covenant of law as a means of relationship with God and is seriously regressive in our walk with God (whatever protests are made to the contrary).  When the Christians of Galatia are tempted to do this, Paul says, ‘I am afraid I have laboured over you in vain‘ (Gals 4:11).  In accepting these principles of law ‘Christ will be no advantage to them‘ (Gals 5:2).  Thus the Galatians are urged,

Gal 5:1 (ESV)
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery

Of course, those evangelicals who advocate Christian Calendars are at pains to point out that liturgical observances do not save.  They do not affect our justification or standing before God.  Nor are they to be imposed as a rule upon the church, but are a matter of Christian freedom.  Indeed, the legalist, it seems, is someone like me who opposes rites and rituals, certainly any promotion of them. I am apparently denying freedom in Christ to those who wish to worship and serve as they wish.  The irony is rich.  For, of course, it is precisely those who promote such practices that Paul regards as legalists.  Indeed it must be so, for they are promoting OT law not NT gospel; if you promote law you are ipso facto a legalist.

no nt mandate

Show me one text from the NT epistles teaching that Christians should live by religious calendars, or dietary laws, or observe special feasts, or abstain from foods, and so on.  It cannot be done.  Such rules and regulations in the NT are conspicuous by their absence, which is singularly odd because one would expect that if such disciplines are so helpful  the NT would be replete with exhortations to pursue them.  But it is not, for they are not (helpful).  The silence of Scripture here is deafening.

They do not ‘save’, their evangelical protagonists agree.  Yet, if this is so, and it is, why commend them?  If I can grow in my Christian life fully without religious rules and rituals, and I clearly can since the NT never advocates them, then what is their purpose?  Moreover, we should not be so confident that these ‘disciplines’ will remain a matter of ‘freedom’ in the consciences of those who embrace them.  The witness of history and Scripture is against this.  What begins as voluntary soon becomes established tradition and finally binding truth.  Whatever we give ourselves to we become slaves to (Roms 6:16).

It is little wonder Paul is so opposed.  He has great patience and sympathy with people who have been converted from legalistic religion.  He bears with weak consciences in Jewish converts who cannot feel free to eat certain meats etc.  He knows it can take time for these consciences to find their full freedom in the gospel (Roms 14,15).  Yet he is in no doubt that these consciences are ‘weak’.  They are not gospel-trained consciences fully aware of their freedom (from religious legalistic observances) in Christ.  However, while he bears with weak consciences, he has no patience for those who promote and teach the value of ritualism to others.  He is opposed to this root and branch and challenges any teaching that suggests or imposes such practices.  There is simply no freedom given in the NT to promote and champion Judaistic practices however ‘Christianized’.  The reality is, that there is no such thing as ‘Christianized’ Judaism (or at least the only version is its fulfilment and finish in Christ) only ‘Judaized’ Christianity.

Some of the above is contention I have not yet proved.  Let me regroup before engaging.

I am opposing religious calendars, man-made rules, and religious rites for holiness for two reasons:

• because the NT nowhere recommends or suggests them for the life of godliness.
• because the NT actually opposes them and suggests they deflect us from Christ.

I have made the case for my first contention, follow me as I now make the case more fully for my second contention: the NT actually opposes them and suggests they deflect from Christ.

colossians 2:1-3:4

The key NT text refuting calendars and man-made religious disciplines for holiness is Colossians 2/3.  I urge you to read this text carefully and prayerfully.  It is a clear and powerful criticism of all attempts to introduce religious ritualism into Christianity.  Below, I want to outline its main thrust and thesis.

christianity is christ

Paul’s central and vital point in this chapter  (and in Colossians as a whole) is that Christianity is essentially a relationship with Christ by faith.  Everything that matters is found in Christ alone.  Christ is supreme (Col 1:15-21).  God’s great revealed secret, hidden in the past (in OT events, figures etc) is Christ (2:2).  In Him, lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3).  Further this revealed secret is that Christ lives in God’s people (1:27).  This union between Christ and his people is the sum of what the gospel and Christianity is all about.  As Paul writes,

Col 2:6-7 (ESV)
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught…

Living in our union with Christ is the be-all-and-end-all of Christianity.  We are ‘filled’  or ‘complete’ in Him, the one in whom God’s fullness dwells (2:9,10).  We have no more than Christ and need no more than Christ.  Indeed there is no more than Christ (Col 1:15-19).  Paul reminds us too that this union is a union of death and resurrection.  That is, to be united to Christ is to participate (by faith and through the Spirit) in the death and resurrection of Christ (2:8-11).  Like Christ we have died to this world (and so, as we shall see, to all its religious observances) and live in resurrection life to God.  Our ‘life is hid with Christ in God’ (Cols 3:3).  This means that Christ in heaven is the source, story and raison d’etre of our life.  We find and enjoy life as we set our affections on Christ in heaven.  As we put to death what is earthly (living for the things of this world as well as the sins of this world) and set our minds and hearts on the invisible world perceived only by faith we triumph in faith.  This, and this alone, enables us to grow in grace.  In this way alone ( looking to Christ in heaven and putting to death what is earthly) are we, ‘filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,  so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.’ (Col 1:9,10).

This is what it means to be ‘connected to the head’ (Cf 2:19).  To live other than by the faith union that puts to death what is earthy and lives by a heart absorbed with Christ in heaven is to fail to ‘hold fast to the head’ (2:19) and results in being ‘disqualified’ (2:8); or, in Galatian language,in being ‘severed from Christ’ (Gals 5:4).  It should be obvious that if we look elsewhere other than to Christ as the source of our life and power we are cutting the link of faith.   Only by a conscious living in, looking at, and living for Christ can we become ‘mature in Christ’ (Col 1:28).

false routes

Paul does not urge that the Colossians live in Christ in a vacuüm.  He writes because some were teaching otherwise.

Col 2:4 (ESV)
I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments...

syncretism

What precisely the Colossian heresy was need not concern us here.  Scholars delight in discussing such matters but rarely reach final conclusions.  In any case, the main components are clear and it is these that interest us.  It was a mixture of philosophy (2:8), mysticism (2:18) and Judaism (2:8, 11, 14, 16,17).  Singly, and as a whole Paul is opposed to these influences on Christian life and practice.  He says they ‘delude’ (2:4) for they are based on ‘plausible arguments’ (2:4).  They appear to promote sanctity (2:23) yet are merely ‘empty deceit… human tradition… elemental spirits of the world… having an appearance of wisdom… self-made religion… things on earth… not according to Christ’ and more  (Col 2:8, 20-23, 3:2).  Paul will have no syncretism of Christ and anything else.

Now, we should underline that what Paul is dismissing is not merely philosophy (what has Athens to do with Jerusalem) and mysticism (what has Eleusis to do with Jerusalem) but also Judaism or the Law (what has Sinai to do with Jerusalem, or better, the New Jerusalem ).  For many this dismissal of Law in Christianity is a bridge too far.  I confess, I do not really understand why.  Paul is consistent and clear in his proclamation that Christians are not ‘under law’ (Roms 6:15; 7:1-6; Gals 4:21; 5:18; 1 Cor 9:20).  While Christians can learn from the Old Covenant as we see how it points to Christ, we are in no way obligated to it.  It has no rights over us or claims upon us.  We are not called to obey it, nor to adopt it in any way.  In fact, we are told that there is a basic incompatibility between the forms of Judaistic Law and Gospel Christianity.  Jesus makes it clear that the gospel cannot be contained in the old forms of religion that belonged to law.

Mark 2:21-22 (ESV)
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins-and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” 

passé

This is vital to grasp.  Paul tells us the difference is profound; the law belongs to the old age and old world while the church belongs to the new age and new world.  It is those ‘alive in this world’ to whom the rules and regulations of law (moral, religious or otherwise) are of any relevance (Col 2:20). But Christians are not ‘alive’ in this world they have ‘died’ (2:11, 3:3) and they live in an age beyond this age and a world beyond this world.  They ought not to ‘submit’ (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) to regulations that belong to human religion (2:20) for they belong to an age which is passé.

earthly

This temporal distinction between the present and the future is tied into a spacial distinction between what is ‘earthly’ and what is ‘heavenly’ in Scripture.  This latter distinction is one that many modern evangelicals are reluctant to admit.  Yet it is clear and vital.  It is part of the distinction between the old and the new, the law and the gospel.  Jesus is ‘from above‘ and brings in a reality that is ‘from above’ (Jn 3:31; 8:23).  ‘Earthly’ things were revealed in the OT but as the one from heaven he reveals ‘heavenly things‘ (Jn 3:12).  Because he is from heaven he returns to heaven and on his return unites his people to him there.  We find our identity not in the earthly Adam but the heavenly Christ, not in the natural but the spiritual (1 Cor 15:45-49).  As a result we are a ‘heavenly people’ (Eph 1:20; 2:6) and our interests are to do with the realm where Christ our life is found (Gals 4:26; Col 3:1,2; Hebs 3:1; 11:6; 12:2).  The Law and its forms are ‘earthly’ and part of the elementary principles of ‘this world’.  They are merely an earthly copy or shadow of heavenly things (Hebs 8:5; 9:23). Thus they have nothing to do with the believer who is not ‘alive in this world’ but shares the resurrection life of Christ, a spiritual and heavenly life (Col 2:8-11).  This distinction is wrongly dismissed as dualistic and gnostic by some who should know better.  It is not.  It is the plain teaching of Scripture.  Ritual and rite are not merely passé but also unable to lift the soul above this world.  They cannot remove us from the realm of ‘flesh’.

fleshly, childish, enslaving, and inadequate

The law is Judaism. It belongs to the first creation, the earthly, the natural, this world.  It is called by Paul ‘the elemental spirits of the world’ (2:8).  Paul similarly describes the law in Galatians. He writes,

Gal 4:1-5 (ESV)

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

His point is that Law, as a religion, functions much like a ‘disciplinarian’ or ‘nanny’.  These are hired to oversee children and in the past were expected to do so with firm discipline; they did not so much teach as control.  Law as the above text points out treated those under it as infants, as childish.

Although God-given, it was given to man in the ‘flesh’ (Roms 7:1-6; Gals 3:3; Cf Hebs 7:16; 9:13,14).  It was a ‘religion’ that attempted to curtail and curb human behaviour by external rules and religious regulations but it could dig no deeper.  It could not change hearts.  It could not give life (though it promised it for obedience) and it could not produce holiness.  When Israel was exiled the failure of law to influence flesh was proved.  This is why Paul says of law and all religion that is about undertaking rules, regulations, ritualistic restrictions that it are ‘of no value in preventing the indulgence of the flesh‘.  Mark these words well for they are very important.  However, holy and virtuously self-denying many rites and rituals seem to be THEY ARE OF NO VALUE IN PREVENTING THE INDULGENCE OF THE FLESH.   They may deny the body but they could not curb ‘the flesh’, that Adamic nature we have so opposed to God.  This is true of the rites not only of the law or Judaism but of every other religion.  In fact, from this perspective, Paul puts the Law or Judaism on the same level playing field as all other religions.  They all are elementary or rudimentary.  Paul tells the gentile Galatian believers who are being encouraged by Judaizers to embrace the Jewish Law that they would be as well going back to their old pagan religions for the law was no more effectual than they.

Gal 4:8-11 (ESV)
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. 

Let the force of this sink in.  In Galatians, Paul uses two plural pronoun groups, ‘we’ and ‘you’.  ‘We’ applies to Jewish believers and ‘you’ to gentile believers.  In Ch 4:1-5 he speaks of ‘we’.  We Jews, he observes, were enslaved to the law (the elemental principles of the world). In 4-8-11 the gentiles were enslaved to their false religions; however, if having being freed from these they now embrace the Law then this is tantamount to a return to their old religions; they are turning back to ‘weak and worthless elementary principles of the world’ and to slavery once again.  Paul’s comparison shocks and is intended so to do.

It is impossible to read Gals 3:21 – 4-11 and avoid the conclusion that those who submit (freely or otherwise) to the law and its ordinances are regressing to what is childish and enslaving.  They believe they are embracing something new and exciting, something progressive and fresh, something that may help them to be holy and godly, but actually they are embracing what is weak, worthless and inferior.  Satan’s sardonic irony as he deludes is keen.

Neither human philosophy nor religious mysticism, nor rites, nor ascetic practices enable us to grow in grace.  None enables us to know God.  It’s no good claiming that these regulations were Jewish rather than Christian rules and regulations.  Jewish regulations and rites were God-ordained religious observances (indeed the only God-ordained ones) and pointed to Christ but they were merely shadows not the substance (2:17).  The substance was Christ.  If we want shadows of the gospel rather than the substance then Jewish ceremonies is the way to go.  None we invent improves on those God gave.  But Paul’s criticism is not of this or that particular liturgical calendar.  It is not specific Jewish days, months and sabbaths to which he objects (though sabbaths clearly shows these were law-based since none but Jews had sabbaths).  It is not certain diets and ascetic techniques he objected to.  He objects to the whole methodology per se.  The methodology was passé, earth-bound, childish,enslaving and inadequate.  Methodologically these rituals were of no value in preventing the indulgence of the flesh.  Indeed, they did the very thing that was the problem – they focussed on the flesh.  Law in any shape or form does not deny flesh, it excites it and promotes it (Roms 7).

Law and all human religion focus on the flesh and have confidence in it (Phil 3:3,4)  This is Paul’s constant criticism of the Judaizers.  They focussed on flesh, whether its status (Phil 3:2-5) or its performance (Phil 3:6).  Circumcision (the symbol of the Judaizers) was all about the flesh (Phil 3:2; Gals 6:12).  For Paul, circumcision epitomised the flesh because it was circumcision of the body and not the heart.  It is what a man did to himself and for himself.  In this circumcision was an appropriate symbol of law which was essentially a covenant of works, of human achieving.  The gospel, by contrast, is ‘circumcision without hands‘ that is, it is by and of God not man (Col 2:11).  The circumcision of the gospel happens at the cross when we die with Christ to the law and its ordinances (Col 2:14).   It is an act of God that removes all human involvement and so all human boasting.

We need to see that self-denial programmes of ‘touch not, taste not and handle not’ are fusty and futile.  The Law and Judaism was full of such prohibitions at certain times in the religious calendar yet they did no good whatever; the nation that had the law crucified its Messiah.  Indeed, Messiah himself teaches that it is not what goes into a man (the food he chooses to eat or not to eat) that defiles but what comes out of his heart (Matt 15:1-20).

Artificially imposed times and programmes of repentance and ascetic self-denial and the like all focus on self.   If we succeed they puff us up with pride and if we fail we feel defeated.   Nowadays they tend to be about giving up chocolates or alcohol or some other luxury related to the body.  For those more serious about their faith they may mean self-imposed severe bodily deprivation.  But whether the dilettante denials of the modern evangelical or the more serious denials of the older ascetics the result is the same – no effect in restraining the indulgence of the flesh, merely a means of focus on it (Cols 2:23).  Flesh (fallen human nature) loves to act piously (and to be seen to do so either by others or self).  It loves to appear humble and focus on its achievements, religious or otherwise. So rather than subduing the flesh these ‘ordinances’ satisfy the flesh. Thus they are not merely passé, earth-bound, infantile and futile, but counter-productive.  In addition,and perhaps most damning of all, they utterly fail to come to terms with the position of a believer in Christ.   Those who promote them have not grasped that growth in holiness is not by looking at self and undertaking various ascetic disciplines but by looking away from self and focussing on an exalted reigning Christ.

christianity is christ

What draws me away from the world and focus on self is not my body on earth but Christ in heaven.  As I love him, look at him, live in him (and he in me) then I have the power to put to death what is earthly.  It is the expulsive power of a new affection.  Christ, and only Christ, is our wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:29).  Holding fast to the head is the only means of grace (Col 2:19).  The moment I put something else between, whatever shape this may assume, I am not holding fast to the head.  The hallmark of the ‘true circumcision’ is simply this- ‘it rejoices in Jesus Christ and makes no provision for the flesh‘ (Phil 3:3).  The question for all of us is simply, is Christ all?.  If Christ is not all then there is no maturity, only flesh.  Fathers in the faith (the spiritually mature) are recognised by this – they ‘know him who is from the beginning’ (1 John 2:14).  Paul’s cry of spiritual maturity is for Christ and yet more of Christ (Phil 3:8-16).  He did not want types and shadows, rules and religious observances; he wanted Christ.  He recognised in Christ he had everything and without him he had nothing.  The heart of a believer is satisfied and enraptured only by Christ.  In him, we have, ‘all things that pertain to life and godliness‘ (2 Pet 1:3).  Toplady is one among many who has expressed this in hymn.

Compared with CHRIST, in all beside

No comeliness I see;

The one thing needful, dearest LORD,

Is to be one with Thee.

Whatever else Thy will withholds,

Here grant me to succeed!

O let Thyself my portion be,

And I am blest indeed!

 

Loved of my GOD, for Him again

With love intense I burn;

Chosen of Thee ere time began,

I choose Thee in return!

Less than Thyself will not suffice

My comfort to restore;

More than Thyself I cannot have;

And Thou canst give no more.

to summarise

Allow me to once again briefly regroup.

Liturgical calendars with their special seasons and ceremonies are not progress but regress.  They represent a spiritual nose-dive.  Far from maturing, they are a regression to the childish and enslaving.  They do not lead to Christ but detract from Christ.  They are for those in the flesh and not life in the Spirit.  They limit our horizon to earth and do not raise our gaze to heaven.  I have every sympathy for believers raised in churches where Judaistic rites and rituals are taught.  Their consciences should be sensitively considered.  However, I have little sympathy with those who should know better.  I have little patience for evangelicals who have been free of such bondage yet now in the conceit of what they fondly call Christian freedom wish to promote and encourage what is weak and enslaving.  Such teaching receives stiff opposition from Paul (Col 2) and ought to be opposed by all who love freedom in Christ.

Let me say again that freedom in Christ does not mean freedom to worship as we please. Freedom in Christ is freedom to worship in spirit and truth.  It is freedom to live in Christ not shadows. There are forms of worship that are neither helpful nor appropriate for they lead us away from Christ; they disconnect us with the head.  They do not lead us into freedom in Christ but into slavery.  Such forms are neither commanded, commended nor condoned by the NT (Col 2).  That some who profess to be teachers of God’s people do not see this is culpably irresponsible.  We may rightly ask them as Jesus did Nicodemus: are you a teacher in Israel and do not know this?

My heart-felt appeal to my brothers and sisters in Christ is – do not be ‘bewitched’ by them.

a final comment

What then are we to make of fasting?  Doesn’t the NT promote fasting?  And for that matter, what about baptism and the Lord’s Supper?  Are not these ordinances?  These are good questions and I hope to address them.  But not in this post.  This post is already far too long.  I will try to address these questions in the next post.  For the moment, let me say simply this: whatever our questions, don’t allow these to undermine or relativize the plain NT teaching we have explored so far.  To exhort in a specific context: do not choke the living flame of the gospel with the Lenten ashes of Judaism.

the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, conformed to his death

The whole of the gospel is intended to train our heart and life in grace.  Yet, if we must press for any particular aspect of the gospel that most frames and forms Christian living it is our participation by grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The gospel makes it plain that the death and resurrection of Jesus are not simply events that we believe and confess, but they are realities in which we share.  The Christian is someone who has died and risen with Christ.  The pattern of cross and resurrection is stamped on our lives.  It shapes our present identity.  Thus Paul’s words,

Phil 3:8-10 (ESV)
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…

But what does this mean?  How for example, do we presently experience the power of his resurrection?  What enables us to ‘take up the cross’ and follow Christ?  Do we sometimes experience the power of his resurrection and at others the fellowship of his cross and sufferings?  Do we experience the power of his resurrection despite embracing the fellowship of his sufferings?

The answer to all the above is this: we know the power of his resurrection in embracing the fellowship of his sufferings by conforming to his death.  Our Christian life is not resurrection or cross.  Neither is it resurrection and cross.  It is resurrection for the cross and in the cross.  If we die to live, and we do, in another sense we live to die.

The only way I can take up the cross and follow Christ is through the enabling power of his  resurrection life in the Spirit.  It is the same Spirit who acted powerfully to raise Christ from the dead who enabled him to live, obedient to the extent of death, even cross-death; it was through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God (Hebs 9:14).  And it is the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead in resurrection life who works in our hearts, we who were dead in trespasses and sins, have been made alive with Christ that we may be given over to death for him.  To put it as Paul does in 2 Cor 4,

2 Cor 4:10-11 (ESV)
we are… always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Again, we die to live and we live to die.  There is a reciprocity, a symbiosis, in death and resurrection.

What is the life of Christ that is revealed in us?  It is his life on earth, his life of cross-bearing, a cross-bearing that began long before he hung upon the cross.  Christ’s whole life was one of cross-bearing, in the sense that his whole life was lived with self-will always held in the place of death.  His personal will was always  determined to do only the will of his Father (although Christ was not attracted to sin, neither was he attracted to pain, suffering and rejection; he embraced these willingly because these were his Father’s will) .  Cross-bearing is death to self (not simply to sin).  It is to die to ‘self’ with all its siren calls for protection, pampering, prestige, power, pleasure and profit.

And so, resurrection life means living in death.   Resurrection power is power in weakness.

We so often hear that God will bless his people with possessions, health, good relationships.  Or that resurrection power is power to overcome or heal sickness and disease.   Sometimes God does bless his people with the good things of  this life, though he never promises this and these gifts if given are the very least of his gifts.  And sometimes he does give people abilities to do miracles revealing his power in visible ways but these are the exception.  Chiefly his power works in our lives by enabling us to put to death our selfish desires and equipping us to endure suffering and rejection for the sake of the gospel.  Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is revealing:

Col 1:11 (ESV)
May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy

Notice it is power to endure.  Power to suffer.  Power to find joy not apart from suffering but in and through suffering.

Look at the Christians you know.  Who  reveal the life of Christ?  It is not those pursuing material comfort, career advancement, and every hobby and sport imaginable, rather it is those who are serving others.  It is those who look not on their own interests but the interests of others;  those who visit the sick, support the vulnerable and needy, have a word from the Lord suitable for the occasion, pray with mourning hearts for the lost, and who suffer deprivation and trial for the gospel.  People whose voices are not raised in the street.  People who do not press themselves, or vindicate themselves.  These are the people you see Christ in.  These are the people where his life is evident.  And these are the people who seem most content and who most know joy in life for it is he who loses his life who finds it.

Such people are rarely life’s celebrities.  We place far too much emphasis on performance.  We think that if we can only get a champion athlete, or a succesful businessman, or an intellectual with a string of letters after his name to front our outreach then people will respond.  We think the big name, the big personality, the big preacher, the big show, band or whatever is where it is at.  We admire these qualities.  We place store on what is superficially impressive – on outward appearances.  We admire the dynamic personality.  We want the clever orator, the one who can hold a crowd in his hand.  Yet big personalities are not what God values.  The way of the cross is not about big names, big personalities, big gifts, or big shows.  It is precisely the opposite.  The way of the cross is the way of weakness.  It is the way of refusing to draw attention to self, to promote self, to display self.  The messenger and the message must be the same.

Paul refused to preach to the Corinthians with impressive words and oratory.  They loved these things and for this very reason he refused to display them.  The power lay not in human giftedness and glory but in God, and was best demonstrated in human weakness and insignificance.

1Cor 2:1-5 (ESV)
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 

When are we going to learn that the weapons of our warfare are not ‘fleshly’ (impressive shows, impressive presentations, impressive preachers, impressive personalities, political muscle) but spiritual; it is in weakness, suffering, humility, endurance, self-giving, patient prayer,and ordinary preaching without glamour, that the power of God’s resurrection life is to be found.  How many people do you know who have been won for Christ through big shows, big concerts, big budget events?  God’s way is not in the impressive, but the humanly unimpressive.

1Cor 1:26-29 (ESV)
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

This is not a plea for laziness, or carelessness, or poor preparation.  There is no virtue in these.  Nor is it a plea for using people for a task who are not gifted for it.  It is a plea, however, for us to place great importance on prayer, on self-giving in the lives of others, and on the simple witness of an ordinary believer.  It is a plea to seek for God’s power in the places he says it will be found and nowhere else.  It is a plea to seek life through death and to seek God’s power through weakness and through things that are normally discounted by human measuring.

grafted life

One of the profound gospel truths is that Christians participate in the death and resurrection of Christ not only in an objective or positional sense but in an experiential sense.  Something very significant takes place at conversion that entirely changes our lives.  We find ourselves in a life union with Christ.  A helpful illustration can be drawn from the world of horticulture.

Graftage (or grafting) is the horticultural procedure whereby the vascular tissues of one plant are inserted into those of another and they become one.  The nursery worker plants some seeds. The seedlings grow but are sub-standard as he knew they would be.  He wants a plant that is the same as a plant of approved quality.  And so he goes to the plant of approved quality, and from it takes buds which he grafts into the seedling. When the graft (life connection) is established, he calls his plant not by the name of the original seed, but by the name of the tree from which the bud was taken, for the grafted bud creates a new plant with a new life and nature, the life and nature of the source plant.

To prevent the tissue of the original plant asserting priority the horticulturist cuts away the old and worthless part of the tree.  He does not allow it to grow and assert itself (he puts it to death).  The only life that is cultivated is that of the grafted bud.  The whole tree must be known by the bud and everything else cut away.

The parallels with the miracle of implanted life in believers are obvious.   The original life is worthless.  That which is born of flesh is flesh.  A new life must be grafted in, the life of Christ through the Spirit.  For only this grafted life of Christ can produce Christ (fruit that delights God) . Only that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.   For the new life to flourish the old must be regularly ‘cut out’.  It must be ruthlessly pruned otherwise it will destroy the new.  We only produce spiritual fruit for God if we are ruthless with the flesh.

Scripture uses the image of grafting.  However, it tends to use it in the reverse way from above.  Rather than the quality plant being grafted to the old, the old wild and sub-standard  plant is grafted on to the quality one so that it may grow and flourish taking its life from the strong parent plant  (Roms 11; Cf. John 15).  The metaphor viewed this way stresses the strength of the cultivated plant and the unity of life that exists in being united to it.  It stresses too that God acts in grace, ‘against nature’ (Roms 11:24).  Grace does a supernatural work contradicting and subverting the natural way of things.

discipline… an initiative of grace (3)

In two previous posts we considered God’s discipline and church discipline in the life of a believer.  It is time to reflect a little on self-discipline.   In reality, God’s discipline and church discipline are only necessary because we fail, as Christians, to discipline ourselves.

Paul comments, in a context where some were sick and had died because of God’s discipline among them,

1Cor 11:31-32 (ESV)
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Self-discipline is at the heart of godly gospel living.  It is an integral part of the purpose and product of the gospel.  Paul writing to Titus says,

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

The gospel ‘redeems’ from the indiscipline of ‘lawlessness’ and trains us to live a life of self-discipline.  This discipline is firstly a putting to death of all that is self-willed (renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions) and secondly an embracing of all that is God’s will ( and living  self-controlled, upright, and godly lives).  God’s grace teaches us to discipline ourselves.

Thus we discover that a prerequisite for an elder is that he be self-disciplined.

Titus 1:8 (ESV)
‘… a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined’

Those who lead in the church must have grown in grace and learned how to discipline their natural impulses and passions.  They must have learned how to live with these in the place of death.  Only when this discipline is obvious may they be leaders among God’s people.  It is this self-discipline that Jesus speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount (and repeats in Matt 18).

Matt 5:29-30 (ESV)
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

The language is as dramatic as its advice is drastic.  Of course he does not mean that we ought literally to gouge out our eye or guillotine our hand.  He is calling for us to execute, put to death, all temptations to sin as soon as they arise, however emotionally painful.  It is a call, proleptically, to  participation in his own death and resurrection.  The dominant NT paradigm for Christian living is the death and resurrection of Christ.

We are called to live as those who have died to our old pre-conversion life.  We have, in our death with Christ, renounced ‘all ungodliness and worldly passions’.  We have died to sin and its reign and so we must not ‘present our members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness’ instead, living as we now do to God in Christ, we must ‘present our members to God as instruments of righteousness’ (Roms 6:13).  Such living is but the logic, the inevitable corollary, of grace in our lives; it is the reality of living in the reign and realm of grace (Roms 6:14).  Grace properly grasped will lead us to holy living for grace removes not only sin’s guilt but its grip.  Where holy aspirations are absent and where grace is treated merely as a sedative for a guilty conscience we have neither grasped grace nor been grasped by grace. Grace is not freedom to sin but freedom from sin.  Let me repeat Paul’s words yet again, for they bear repeating,

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Grace produces godliness: where there is no godliness there is no grace.  Where there is no Christ-likeness there is no Christ.  Where there is no sanctification there is no justification; the grace that declares us righteous also disciples us in righteousness.   Sin is not merely a debt it is also a dominion and grace both pays the debt and breaks the dominion.  Deliverance and discipline go hand in hand; apart from discipline there is only sin’s dominion and death.   Proverbs reminds us,

Prov 5:22-23 (ESV)
​​​​​​​​The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, ​​​​​​​and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​He dies for lack of discipline, ​​​​​​​and because of his great folly he is led astray. ​​​

Paul knows only too well how critical this discipline of grace is.

1Cor 9:24-27 (ESV)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Now it is difficult to be certain whether ‘disqualified’ means a loss of reward or a loss of soul.  I suspect the latter.  Certainly that is the consistent reason in Scripture why discipline is presented as critical.  We saw this in the previous two posts.  God disciplines his children that they ‘may not be condemned with the world’ (1 Cor 11:31,32).  Church discipline is so that ‘the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord’ (1 Cor 5:5).  Proverbs makes clear that a man ‘dies for a want of discipline‘ (Prov 5:22,23).  And most important of all, Jesus makes clear that the person who does not discipline his wayward eyes will be in danger of being ‘thrown into hell‘ (Matt 5:29, 18:9).

And so, Paul refuses to simply play at being a believer.  He isn’t aimlessly shadow-boxing.  He is in deadly earnest as he fights those inward passions that war against the soul.  He will tolerate nothing that may draw his heart away from Christ for he knows it is not those who praise and profess faith who are safe but those who practise it, those who fight, faith’s fight.  He disciplines himself for he knows what happens to those who do not,

1Cor 10:1-5 (ESV)
For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

It’s possible to pass through the Red sea (be baptized) and eat the same spiritual food (the bread of communion) and drink the same spiritual drink (the cup of communion) and not enter the promised land.  Thus Paul guards his heart and mind.  He gives no quarter to ‘the flesh’.  He sets his affections on things above and not on things on the earth.  He walks in the Spirit, putting on the Lord Jesus and making no provision for the flesh and its desires.  He says ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions. He rigorously disciplines himself.

The grace of God trains us to discipline ourselves and so we grow in grace.  Grace and discipline are not incongruent.  The expression ‘the discipline of grace’  is not an oxymoron.  God’s grace and godly grit fit hand-in-glove.  Grace is that unmerited, unbounded provision of God for all our needs through Jesus Christ our Lord… including the need to self-discipline.  Discipline is an initiative of grace.

Grace! ‘tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

‘Twas grace that wrote my name
In life’s eternal book;
‘Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

Grace taught my wandering feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made mine eyes o’erflow;
‘Twas grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.

O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine:
May all my powers to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine.

Philip Doddridge, 1702–1751 (Stanzas 1, 3.)

Augustus M. Toplady, 1740–1778 (Stanzas 2, 4, 5.)

discipline… an initiative of grace (1)

a doxology to grace… a preamble

The gospel is the announcing of extravagant grace.  It proclaims to a disgraced, enslaved and hopeless world  how ‘the grace of God has appeared to all men bringing salvation’ (Tit 2:11).  In Jesus, the embodiment of grace and truth, God’s rescue plan for the nations is unveiled.  In Christ, God’s grace flows out in all its fullness and extravagance to  all who gladly submit to his reign.  In Christ, we receive grace upon grace  (Jn 1).  Christians rightly rejoice in grace.  We exult in grace.  God’s Kingdom, in Christ, is a Kingdom of grace. Its subjects stand in grace (Roms 5:2); live in the reign of grace (Roms  5:21); grow in the realm of grace (2 Pet 3:18)   The good news about the kingdom which we embrace is the ‘word of grace’ (Acts 20:32).  We are: called by grace (Gals 1:15); justified by his grace as a gift (Roms 3:24) ; and made alive by grace (Eph 2).   The fulfilment of all that is promised rests on grace (Roms 4:16)  For those who belong to God’s Kingdom, God is simply, ‘the God of all grace’.

Praise God.  Praise God for his love before time that chose rebels against his goodness, people corrupt and full of sin, forgave all their sins, and made them, in Christ, his sons and daughters and heirs of his glory.  Saving grace is God’s incomprehensible goodness and love to the undeserving, delivering them from a fallen world and all that is part of it.  It is every activity of the triune God in bringing many sons to glory.   It is glorious (Eph 1:6), immeasurable (Eph 2:7); surpassing (2 Cor 9:14); and, in the believer, more than sufficient for all his needs (2 Cor 12:9).  Praise God.

Praise God for grace.  Preach grace and glory in grace.  Live in grace.

distorting grace

But…

… preach grace as it is and not a romanticized, sentimentalized,  parody of grace.   In our effete society all too often grace is love that never hurts; giving that never expects; acceptance that never questions; and favour that never reproves.  Grace, is regularly a synonym for indulgence and spoiling, for pampering and coddling, a spiritual massage.  Grace, it would seem, is never outraged, never judges, never censures, never frowns, and never chastens.   Christ apparently is a King, a Lord, who neither demands not warns and God  is a Father who will not admonish and discipline.   Grace like this is simply a panacea, a fix, to make us feel good.  It is merely a soft toy for the soul.   Such views of grace are profoundly unbiblical and dangerously distorted.    They are caricatures, indeed counterfeits of grace.

disciplining grace

Grace, properly understood, is not only forgiveness of sins, it is the ongoing purifying redeeming activity of God in his people as he rebukes, admonishes, corrects, afflicts, remonstrates, warns, teaches, trains and disciplines.  One way or another grace will train us,’ to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Tit 2:11-14).  Grace is not simply a message from God we believe it is an activity by God in our lives we experience… and sometimes in ways that seem strange.

The believers to whom Peter writes were experiencing hard times.  They were suffering for their faith.  How does Peter encourage them.  Listen to his words:

1Pet 4:16-19 (ESV)
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“If the righteous is scarcely saved, ​​​​​​​what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” ​​​ Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. 

Peter sees persecutions as God’s  way of judging and destroying all that is sinful and wrong in their lives.  It is part of the discipline that God brings upon his children as he prepares them for glory.   It is a sign indeed that we are God’s children.  Indeed, it is integral to salvation and the reputation of God.  God, after all, can scarcely judge and condemn the unbelieving world if he does not make it his business to judge and destroy sin in his own family.  Such a God would be unrighteous.  A good father disciplines his children.

The same point is made by the writer of Hebrews.  The Hebrew Christians are also suffering for their faith.  Why?  Is it because the world is opposed to the gospel?  Certainly it is.  But that is not the only reason.  The world’s opposition is part of God’s refining, training process in his people.

Heb 12:3-11 (ESV)
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, ​​​​​​​nor be weary when reproved by him. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, ​​​​​​​and chastises every son whom he receives.” ​​​ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Notice, this discipline is a discipline of grace; he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness.  He disciplines us because he is our Father and loves us too much to simply let us do our own thing. God’s disciplines in a believer are not curses of law but corrections of grace.  They are not retributive but remedial and restorative.  Such disciplines are not to be feared but welcomed.  Welcomed, not in any masochistic sense, no-one wishes to suffer, but welcomed for what they produce.  Like the athlete welcomes the gruelling of training so the believer welcomes the training of grace.  Like the Psalmist, we say, ‘it was good for me to be afflicted’ (Ps 119:71). We must not feel threatened by difficulties in life or resent them.  Proverbs reminds us, ‘Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, ​​​​​​​but he who hates reproof is stupid. ​​(Prov 12:1).  We must not think that they come from a hostile God and are somehow opposed to the gospel and grace.  Far from it, God’s disciplines, his ‘severe mercies’, are not antithetical to grace, they are agents of grace, allies of grace, part of its apparatus.

God’s judgements in our lives come in many shapes and forms. For some they involve persecutions for others they may mean sickness, bereavement or some other form of loss.  God’s disciplines are as varied as the experiences of life.  And they are all part of his training in righteousness.  They all shape character and produce maturity of faith.  They prepare us for heaven.  Even Jesus, who was without sin, grew in wisdom and maturity, through suffering (Hebs 2:10).  Through suffering he became perfectly equipped to Shepherd his people (Hebs 2:17).

In our lives there is the added complication of sin.  Sometimes we do not hear the ‘word of grace’ that comes to us through God’s word.  Sometimes the prompting of the Spirit in our hearts is ignored and defied.  Such foolishness may require a great storm to get us back on course.  We may have to be plunged into God’s waves and billows before we come to our senses (Jonah 2).  Some prodigals have to find themselves destitute, feeding swine, before they think of returning to their Father.  Such are God’s ways with his people.

Perhaps most solemnly of all, God’s disciplines may even mean the loss of life.  In 1 Cor 11 Paul says,

1Cor 11:27-32 (ESV)
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 

The ‘unworthy manner’ Paul refers to was thoughtless even cruel behaviour towards other believers at the Lord’s Supper.  At their love feasts, fellowship context in which they ate the Lord’s Supper, the rich were feasting lavishly while the poor had comparatively little.  Instead of the Supper being an experience of fellowship and oneness it was an exhibition of differences.   The wealthy indulged and were indifferent at best to their fellow brothers and sisters.  The poor were humiliated.  The result was sickness and death among them, judgements by the Lord.  But, yet again, note, these judgements were disciplines of grace – they were disciplined of the Lord so that they may not be condemned along with the world (Cf. 1 Jn 5:16; Jas 5;14,15; Job 33).

We ought to judge ourselves (that is deal with sin in our lives) so that we need not be judged by the Lord for what is sure is he will not simply allow his people to be careless about their sin.  Careless, casual attitudes to sin in his people he will judge, his grace will allow no less. 

ear piercing and bondslaves

What is the difference between the obedience Law demanded and that which Christ displays?  It seems beyond coincidence that the answer is signalled in Exodus immediately upon the giving of the Ten Commandments, the pulse of the Mosaic Covenant.  In Exodus 21 we read:

Exod 21:1-6 (ESV)
“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

Having received from Yahweh the Ten Words of the Covenant in Ex 19, 20, Moses begins to develop its civil and ceremonial implications.  First comes legislation regarding slaves.  There are, of course, many questions that press in upon us when we consider the Bible and slavery, but these are not for this post.  Here, I want to flag simply the Christotelic aim of the text.

Israel, understood slavery all too well.  The people had until very recently been little more than a rabble of slaves in Egypt.  They may have been God’s people but they had yet to develop real national identity.  It was only in leaving Egypt and subsequent journeying in the wilderness that national identity (and dignity) began to be shaped and the stigma of the past erased.  Yet it was never quite erased.  Israel never quite forgot her past.  Actually, the Lord did not let her forget.  As the Law is about to be reiterated for the second time on the eve of entering into her inheritance (the Promised Land) she is reminded:

Deut 5:6 (ESV)
“‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Some 500 or so years later he is still reminding them of this (Mic 6:4).

Yet, while God rescues them from slavery in Egypt there is a sense in which their slavery continues.  They are no longer slaves in Egypt but are now slaves of Yahweh.  There is a sense in Scripture in which we are all slaves.  Slavery cannot be avoided, the only question is who we serve.  In Ex 19,20, the Lord, the great King-Warrior who liberated them from Egypt,  spells out the implications of their redemption.  As their liberator (according to the customs of ancient civilizations) he had rights over those he liberated; they were obligated to him.  In the Covenant of Sinai, of Law, Israel was bound over to serve the Lord.  His authority was of a different kind but the fact remained, he was their Lord; he was their ‘Master’  and ‘Owner’ (Isa 1:3; Jer 3:14; Mal 1:6) and this Israel must never forget.   In the NT, this covenant of Sinai, the Law,  is called a ‘yoke of slavery’ (Gals 5:1, Cf  Gals 2:4).

Israel was enslaved to the Lord like the purchased Hebrew slave.  In redeeming her, she was rightfully his – he was her legal Master.  He had rights of life and death over her.  She was responsible (on pain of death) to obey his Law.  She must serve him.  There was nothing voluntary about this.  Israel had no option but to accept the covenant; all, under Law, were involuntary slaves (Cf Gal 4).  She, like the Hebrew slaves among her, was indentured and must serve (six years – the number six is often associated with human responsibility in Scripture) until the promised freedom of the year of Jubilee.

If, upon the year of Jubilee, the slave did not wish to be free, if his love for his Master and family was so great he refused his freedom, then he was to be taken to a door-post (probably that of his Master) and his ear bored through with an awl.  The bored ear symbolised his commitment to his Master (an ear ever open and devoted to his commands).  He made himself a slave for life, forever.

We must all serve, but there are different kinds of service.  There is the involuntary service of legal duty and there is the voluntary service of devoted love.  The difference is as absolute as Law and gospel.  In Law we have involuntary service; in gospel we have voluntary service.  The difference is all-important.  Gospel service is the service of Christ.  Christ, although born ‘under law’ didn’t serve simply within the relationship of this covenant.  He introduced a new way of serving.  The service of Christ was never mere legal duty.  His was service of an altogether higher kind.  It was the voluntary service of love and devotion.  Love always delights to serve. It was the service of one whose  ear was bored through with an awl.  This is precisely the figure used  of Messiah in Psalm 40 (and cited in Hebs 10).

Ps 40:6-8 (ESV)
​​​​​​​​In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, ​​​​​​​but you have given me an open  [dug, bored, pierced] ear. ​​​​​​​ Burnt offering and sin offering ​​​​​​​you have not required. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​Then I said, “Behold, I have come; ​​​​​​​in the scroll of the book it is written of me: ​​​ ​​​​​​​​I delight to do your will, O my God; ​​​​​​​your law is within my heart.” ​​​

The ‘opened ear’,  as in Isa 50, is a signal of dependence, but ‘opened’ also means ‘digged’ or ‘bored’; as in Ex 21 where it is a symbol of devotion; an ear ever open to obey.   It spoke of one who rejoiced in God’ will, who had this will engraved on his heart.  For him sacrifice and service was never merely duty, but delight.  He did the things that pleased his father because he loved him.  His meat, that which nourished his being, was to do obey.  He would hear no will but the will of the One who sent him (Jn 6:38).  And he came voluntarily.  He entered voluntarily into bond-slavery and did so forfeiting complete freedom.  Being in the form of God he took the form of a bondslave for this was his father’s will.  No-one but God could ‘take the form of a servant’ for everyone else was a servant.   Of course, here relationships begin to overlap.  For Christ, his God is his Father.   He becomes a bondslave but is always a Son.    His devotion to his God, his Master, is devotion to his Father: ‘but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do’ (Jn 14:31). And it is a devotion ‘unto death, even the death of the cross’.  He will not be free.  He loves his Master.

And he will not go free because he loves his wife and family: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (Jn 13:1).  When the heavens were established Christ, the divine wisdom, was there beside God, like a master workman, ​​​​​​​and was daily his delight, ​​​​​​​rejoicing before him always, ​​​ ​​​​​​​​rejoicing in his inhabited world ​​​​​​​and delighting in the children of man (Prov 8).   Here is mystery.  What is man that the Lord should care for us  (Ps 8)?  Why should he set his love upon the children of men?  Yet he does.  Christ will serve gladly,  because he loves the church and will sacrifice himself  fully for her (Eph 5).  In love, he will lay down his life for her (1 Jn 3:16).  Like Jacob he will serve as long as necessary that he may win her and make her his own.  Love bears all things, and endures all things.  Love never fails. Love never abandons.  Love, once awakened, is as strong as death; it is irresistible and unquenchable.  It will have its way.  Love exclaims, ‘I love my wife. I will not go free’.  And so he took a towel and girded himself.   He came among his people as one who served and gave his life a ransom for the many.  He proclaims in resurrection to his God,  ‘Behold I, and the children you have given me’.  He does not take up the cause of angels but lays hold of the seed of Abraham; his delights are truly with the children of men.  He loves his wife and children. He will not go free.

Of course, we too are bondslaves.  Having been set free from sin we have become slaves of God (Roms 6).  Our kiss of vassal allegiance to the Son was a confession of such.  It effectively said:

“Pierce my ear, O Lord, I pray;
Take me to Your door this day.
I will serve no other god;
Lord, I’m here to stay.
For You have paid the price for me;
With Your love you ransomed me.
I will serve You eternally;
A free man I’ll never be.”

Paul says, let this attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus… he took the form of a bondslave… he made himself nothing.  We are ‘sanctified to the obedience of Christ’ (Hebs 2).  And like Christ we serve not in the old way of the letter (Law and mere imposed duty) but in the new way of the Spirit.  Like Messiah the law is engraved on our hearts.  Ours is the slavery of sons.  Our nature is to love for to be born of God is to love for God is love.  Love is the nature of the life of Christ within, the fruit of the indwelling Spirit.  Our renewed hearts gladly recognise that nothing we have is our own.  Our possessions, our talents, our life, our all… we hold them for the giver.  And such bondservice gladdens the heart of God.   The God who in selfless love gave his Son as a propitiation for our sins and freely along with him gives us all things wants more than obligated love, he wants unconstrained love, chosen love, reciprocated love.  Who loves, who does not wish to be loved in turn?

And, in love too we serve one another.  In the gospel we are called to freedom. Only we do not use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another (Gals 5:13).   If he, our Lord and Master, has washed our feet then we, in his spirit and by his Spirit, will wash each others feet.  And so we gird our loins.  In love we consider others before ourselves.   In love we avoid behaviour that would make others trip.  We carry each others burdens.  We outdo each other in showing deference and honour.  We contribute to the need of the saints and show hospitality.  Whatever gifts we have been entrusted with we use for the building up of the body of Christ.  We walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant sacrifice to God.   Such service delights God.  The service of the elected slave who says,  ‘I love my Master, I love my family (the people of God) I will not go free’.

Of course, we fail.  Even as I write this, I see how poor my service is.   This is a reason for regret but not for dismay or fear for my acceptance does not lie in the quality of my service.  At best, should we do all we ought, we will be unworthy bondslaves.  Only Christ was the perfect servant and, gloriously, my acceptance rests in his vicarious, God-vindicating, sin-eviscerating, Satan-vanquishing, infinitely valuable and voluntary bondserving death, not my vapid bondserving life.   Yet, despite our failure and in our failure, with its bitter taste fresh in our mouth, we come gladly to the throne of grace for mercy and help and say with bishop Handley Moule,

My glorious Victor, Prince Divine,
Clasp these surrender’d hands in Thine;
At length my will is all Thine own,
Glad vassal of a Saviour’s throne.

 
My Master, lead me to Thy door;
Pierce this now willing ear once more:
Thy bonds are freedom; let me stay
With Thee, to toil, endure, obey.

 
Yes, ear and hand, and thought and will,
Use all in Thy dear slav’ry still!
Self’s weary liberties I cast
Beneath Thy feet; there keep them fast.

 
Tread them still down; and then, I know,
These hands shall with Thy gifts o’erflow;
And pierced ears shall hear the tone
Which tells me Thou and I are one.

new year and christian hope

May I wish all who from time to time drop into this blog a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  It is a belated wish I grant.  I hope for you the New Year holds many blessings.  It is right of course to look forward in hope.  Hope, in a rather hopeless world, is a profoundly Christian blessing.

For many, the future, looked at without Christian hope, is fairly bleak.  Even in our cushioned West, future well-being is anything but certain.  The economic slump (self-inflicted it would appear, as most of our woes self-evidently are) promises a difficult year.  Add to this the normal vagaries of life and Christian hope is vital to combat a sinking pessimism that life itself can so easily inflict.  I need only glance at the lives of various friends to see how the New Year promises fresh troubles.  Some have health problems, others marital problems or money problems, others church problems, and in many cases no obvious solutions present themselves.  For these  folks  hope must lie outside of circumstances and personal understanding. Their hope must lie in God.

And to have our hope in God is to have it precisely where it ought to be.  True wisdom teaches us to trust in God and lean not on our own understanding.  God, is the God of hope (Roms 15), who as we share in the hope he holds out for us in the gospel (Col 1:23) fills us with joy and peace in believing (Roms 15:13).

The gospel is God’s message of hope.  In the gospel promises that sustained men of faith since the beginning of time are fully revealed and realized.   Every possible source of joy is promised and perfected in the gospel.  For the gospel is Christ in whom all God’s promises find their confirmation and certainty.  We are blessed, the gospel reminds us, with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  Everything the human spirit could intelligently desire and hope for is found in Christ.  God gives us Christ and with him freely gives us all things that are for our good and blessing.

Life in a world East of Eden, is hard.  It is a valley of disillusionment and death.  Despite advancing technologies man that is born of woman is still of few days that are full of trouble.  To say this is not to be pessimistic, but realistic.  More than that, it is to think biblically.   Hope, believers have always understood lies only in God.   In Christ we find ourselves rejoicing in the ‘hope of the glory of God’ (Roms 5:2).  Our hope is no small thing for God’s promise is no small thing.  It is no less than sharing in God’s own glory.  Glory, indescribable glory, is my hope.

Nor is this hope mere wishful thinking for it is a hope we have already begun to realize in our hearts through the Spirit of the indwelling Christ; Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith is the hope of glory; its first instalment.

How will this New Year be for us ‘happy and prosperous’?  Through faith that lives in the hope of the gospel.

When I get out of bed each morning I can live with myself, my failure and sins because of the gospel.    I rejoice that my sins are forgiven and that one day soon I will no longer have sin in my members staining my humanity but I will have a body of glory where sin is banished and no more.  Never again will I be tempted to that which destroys happiness but will delight eternally and fully in God.  I go out and face the frictions of life, the family squabbles, the theological wars, the opposition of the world  knowing that these are not forever, but only for a time.  ‘Forever’ is a new world where heaven and earth are one, where the dwelling of God is with men and he shall be our God and we shall be his people, where wars of all kinds shall cease and weapons of war will be turned into tools for prosperity.  This body that each morning tends to drag me down with its frailty and fragility will have given way to a body of glory without corruption or weakness.  My hope in Christ is of a future without fear, failure, fragmentation, fatigue, futility and folly.   Weariness and wastedness will be no more.  This is the hope that lies before and nerves me today to run the race.

I invite you this year to live in this hope.  Such hope fills us with boldness (2 Cor 3:12) for the glory is not simply ahead it is realized by faith now as I lift my eyes from the difficulties and traumas of life and see Christ in heaven, reigning and glorified.  My spiritual intelligence tells me my sins are gone, my life is secure and safe in him.  I wonder and rejoice at the glory I see there.  Here  there will be troubles and disappointments, many tests of faith,  but when, even through these, I look up at Christ I am consumed with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the joy of the Lord so experienced becomes our strength.  We weaken because we fail to nourish our souls in Christ.

Happiness and prosperity of spirit is realized as by faith we meditate upon Christ in glory.  This is what I wish for us all in 2012.  May we who have hoped in Christ (Eph 1)  have the eyes of our understanding opened to see the hope to which we are called and the inheritance that is ours in Christ (Eph 1:18) and as by faith we experience these just now may we also with patience  await their full realization  (Roms 8:24).  May we continue steadfast in faith not shifting from the hope held out in the gospel (Col 1:23).  This is the victory that overcomes the world in all its forms, even our faith (1 Jn 5:4).  And what is faith but ‘the assurance of things hoped for and the realizing of things unseen’ (Hebs 11:1).

1John 3:1-3 (ESV)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he [Christ] is pure. 

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 

the shadow of the cross

To identify with Jesus creates a divide between two opposing worlds.  Even before his birth this divide was signalled.  An angel came to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph, and said,

Luke 1:28-33 (ESV)
“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

Mary’s response to the angelic announcement is submissive faith

Luke 1:38 (ESV)
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

She rejoices in her privilege and in faith exults that future generations will call her blessed.  How much she grasped at this point that her own generation would despise  her as a fornicator is not clear but despise her they did.  Thirty odd years later people still remembered that Jesus was born ‘of fornication’ (Jn 8:31).  Mary’s reputation was in tatters and would never really recover.  Joseph too would forever be a cuckold husband.  In a shame culture (foreign to us today) such ignominy was hard to live with, especially for godly people innocent of wrongdoing.

But such is ever the cost of the Christ.  He forces a choice between reputation on earth and reputation in heaven.  He presses upon those he calls a divide between the approval of two opposing worlds.   His call always costs this world for those who submit.  Mary’s (and Joseph’s) world was turned upside down.  The shadow of the cross was over them before the son who would die upon it was even born.  The message to all who would follow Mary’s Son by faith accepting his Messianic identity was plain – do so and the world will always look at you askance.

Mary embraced the shame and like her son and Lord despised it.  She did so because of the joy of the coming Kingdom that she saw by faith.  She was content to be of no reputation for God had exalted her  And so her soul magnifies the Lord.  She believes his promises and rejoices in his salvation.  She treats as realized what is yet to come.

Luke 1:46-55 (ESV)
And Mary said, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“My soul magnifies the Lord, ​​​ ​​​​​​​​and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ​​​ ​​​​​​​​for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. ​​​​​​​For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; ​​​ ​​​​​​​​for he who is mighty has done great things for me, ​​​​​​​and holy is his name. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​And his mercy is for those who fear him ​​​​​​​from generation to generation. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​He has shown strength with his arm; ​​​​​​​he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; ​​​ ​​​​​​​​he has brought down the mighty from their thrones ​​​​​​​and exalted those of humble estate; ​​​ ​​​​​​​​he has filled the hungry with good things, ​​​​​​​and the rich he has sent away empty. ​​​ ​​​​​​​​He has helped his servant Israel, ​​​​​​​in remembrance of his mercy, ​​​ ​​​​​​​​as he spoke to our fathers, ​​​​​​​to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” ​​​

In the face of a cold disapproving world this is ever the way to stand firm and triumph – the assertions of faith.  This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith (1 Jn 5:4).  Faith gives assurance of things hoped for and  evidence of things not seen (Hebs 11:1).  In the words of Peter,

2Pet 1:3-4 (ESV)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

same-sex marriage and christian reactions

Same-sex marriage is high on the cultural agenda these days.  As Christians, it is important that our thinking on this issue is biblically informed and guided and not simply visceral.   It is also important that we are able to present our understanding as clearly as possible both to other Christians and to non-Christians.  Below are some links that will help to educate us on the issues.  I do not necessarily agree with all that they say but they present a good launching pad for reflection.  It is also worth reading the comments on some as they often present the opposing case inviting us to clearer engagement.

Let me say, it is absolutely clear to me same-sex marriage has no biblical support and for a Christian it is completely forbidden.  It is clear to me too that churches which promote or condone same-sex marriage among their members are apostate in nature and should be avoided.  Bible teachers who so teach should be disciplined by the church as false teachers.  The harder question to answer for me is how far Christians should oppose same-sex marriage being made legal by society.

The bigger question here of course is the role that God expects of his people in society.  Or, to frame this question in contemporary jargon – what is the mission of the church?  Some questions in the mix include: is the church called to be a moral policeman in society; is the church mission to ‘redeem culture’; if we have an obligation to oppose society’s evils then where do we start and where do we stop; where do we find this moral imperative upon the church to attempt to change culture in Scripture?

On the other side many will ask, when faced with injustice and the ability to do something about it, should Christians pass by on the other side?

See, here,  here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

getting real about church

I rather like Tim Gombis’ post on our idolatries of church life.   I especially like the quotation from Bonhoeffer he cites though the whole post merits reflection.  Read the post here.

‘In his classic work, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer discusses the clash between our imagined ideal church experience and the actual church communities we encounter.  He absolutely nails it.

Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it.

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.

The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more that the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial (emphasis added).

He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together.

Big thanks to my friend, Kyle Bos, for alerting me to this passage.  Cited from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1954), pp. 14-15.’