Vindication

[Evangelical theology] can expect justice for itself only by the fact that God justifies it. It can give only him and not itself the glory.

Karl Barth, The Place of Theology

It is not the place of the Christian to vindicate himself in thought or deed—as both are elements of theology. Evangelical (regarding the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection) theology and life is measured by the same standard and bound by the same ethic as Jesus' life and death.

Just as Jesus died a shameful death to the world, so the Christian should expect to be shamed by the world. Just as Jesus' faithfulness to the Father's will was considered foolish in the eyes of the earthly wisdom of his disciples (who would have had him instigate a military revolt against Rome), the Christian's adherence to the good will of God will lead to scorn.

Where, then, is vindication for the Believer? If the Christian is united with Christ in his shame and suffering as in his death, vindication comes in Christ's resurrection; God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead.

As a follower of Jesus, it is neither my duty nor right to vindicate before man, nor should I expect it in this life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Hope of vindication, justice, and justification is entirely in the resurrection of my body on the basis of the resurrection of Christ's body. This is the basis of hope for the Christian.

Why Me?

The question, "Why me?" is loaded with meaning. Expressed negatively, it is the epitome of self-pity. "What did I do to deserve this happening to me? I didn't do anything wrong!" It's an attitude of arrogant entitlement, and leads only to misery.

But those two words can have a completely different meaning, one of thankfulness and wonder: Why me? What did I do to deserve this favor? In light of the Gospel—God giving himself to us freely through Jesus Christ—"Why me?" becomes a jubilant expression of gratitude. Why should I possess faith and not another?

In realizing we deserve nothing—and that we even deserve to be left to our sins—our perspective is changed as God grants eyes of faith to see Jesus for who He is. Repentance follows, and the transformed attitude: "Why me?" is filled with humility and leads to joy upon joy; grace upon grace; a heart of thankfulness.

Eternal, External

Helmut Theilcke, a 20th century German theologian, wrote a short book (really a lecture transcribed) exhorting to stay strong in faith and in service to the church through their time of theological study.

Faith makes sense only as unconditioned faith, because it has to do with our eternal destiny. It is impossible that it could be dependent upon and conditioned by the changing results of historical investigation or of scientific fashion.

It's a profound (and reformed) perspective: Our faith—as that which bring us eternal salvation through Jesus—is not dependent on conclusions we draw or discoveries we make. Thus, every wave of challenging theology or attack from culture on the faith of the Christian need not cause doubt or despair.

What comfort to be released from thinking of my faith as something I must preserve intellectually to recognizing that faith is a gift from God that is not on the basis of works I have done—moral or intellectual.

Gospel Tranformation in Africa

About a week ago, Times Online posted an op-ed by Matthew Parris with the self-explanatory title, As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. In short, Parris notes how the missionaries who have come to Africa over the years bring with them not only hospitals that care for the sick, but a message that brings about change in people—a change for the better.

The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

Parris grudgingly admits this change has entirely to do with the God of Christianity—though he says it is a pity that "salvation is part of the package," and stunningly, he is personally unmoved by what he admits to be a positive transformative force.

Such a testimony to the transformation that takes place in African believers is a helpful illustration and reminder to western Christians of how the Gospel changes people. Western culture, though in decay in many ways, still bears many marks of being a Christian culture.

Thus, when Jesus transforms a life, the difference is perhaps not as externally remarkable from a distance. Western culture bears many marks of common grace.

Yesterday I started reading The Reason for God and came across a quote from Lamin Sanneh's Whose Religion is Christianity? regarding the process that happens as Africans begin to read the Bible in their own language (and are thus empowered to do their own theology):

Christianity answered this historical challenge by a reorrientation of the worldview...People sensed in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred nor their clamor for an invincible Savior, and so they beat their sacred drums for him...Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans, not re-made Europeans.

It is refreshing to see how Jesus renews and recreates people and cultures.

Everything Sad is Going to Come Untrue

From Tim Keller, The Reason for God,

"Just after the climax of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf was not dead (as he thought) but alive. He cries, "I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?" The answer of Christianity to that question is—yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost."

In this chapter Keller is addressing the problem of evil, as it is often called. Keller's emphasis in the chapter is two-fold. First, that we lack the proper perspective to see the purpose of what we judge to be evil. Second, he submits that the Christian perspective on evil is that it will not only be vanquished, but will "serve to make our future life and joy infinitely greater."

The interesting effect of this theology of suffering in my mind is that it empowers us to suffer, to be hurt, to be sinned against, and to loose loved ones. We do not need to ourselves "make things right" for ourselves, because God himself will make right what was wrong.

Out of Darkness (A Hymn)

I wrote the retreat song for the College Group fall break retreat this year. The text, my one of my first attempts at writing a hymn text, is not as topically coherent as I would like, but it did fit the retreat theme reasonably well.

Out of Darkness

So hopeless the plight of man born into Adam’s sin!
And deadly is our transgression’s venom.
While dying, the sinner would still spurn the Savior’s face.
What can bring life to this body of death?

It’s grace, flowing down from the cross where Jesus died.
See him arise! Bringing life, O come and praise the Lamb who died!

And into the darkened world has come the one true Light.
Obtaining a people from every nation
When before our dying eyes, the Son is lifted up,
What work is done, as the Savior ascends?

A people called out of darkness to this wondrous Light;
A priesthood, a holy, chosen nation;
Proclaiming the wonders of the God who calls us “loved.”
What has giv’n life to these dry bones again?

Through all of the lies of hell would bid us turn from grace,
Our eyes are still fixed upon our Savior.
Though friends scorn, and foes deride, our outcome is secure:
What is our vict’ry in Jesus our Lord?

Words and Music by: David Jordan (2008)

BABY!

My very dear friends Reed and Bekah had their first child this week; a daughter, Evangeline Monroe. Here is a picture of me holding her. It's my sweater. You're gonna have to believe it's me wearing it.


I like the kid's style.

We Are His Servants

"Do you not understand that if any other person redeemed man from eternal death, man would rightly be reckoned as his servant?"

-Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo, Chapter 5

Two Quotes From Calvin on Marriage and Singleness

Regarding those who make claim to having the gift of singleness,

"They cannot allege that they make this vow trusting entirely to the grace of God; for, seeing he declare this to be a special gift not given to all (Matthew 19:11), no man has a right to assume that the gift will be his."

-Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV.xii.17

And later,

"If any seem more decent and modest than others, they are not, however, chaste. The sin of unchastity urges, and lurks within. Thus it is that God, by fearful examples, punishes the audacity of men, when, unmindful of their infirmity, they, against nature, affect that which has been denied to them, and despising the remedies which the Lord has placed in their hands, are confident in their ability to overcome the disease of incontinence by contumacious obstinacy."

-Institutes, IV.xiii.21

A Prayer of Calvin

We bow ourselves before the majesty of our good God in acknowledgment of our offenses, asking that He may make us feel them more than we have done, so that we may make an effort to redeem ourselves more and more to His righteousness, daily fighting against the lusts of our flesh; and that we may continue in this struggle until He may have entirely delivered us and reformed us to His image, in which we were fully created. May He grant this grace not only to us but also to all people and nations on earth.

Friday, June 21, 1555
Sermon Six, Deuteronomy 5:13-15

Worship in the Church According to Colosians 3:16

As Listed by David Detwiler:

1. Worship is both horizontal and vertical
2. Worship is a means of instructing one another in the faith
3. Worship in the church should be primarily verbal
4. Worship should be primarily Christological
5. Worship in the church should be active, not passive
6. Worship should be varied in form
7. Worship should be marked by sincerity
8. Worship should reflect an understanding of God’s grace

Perhaps each of these should have a post of its own.

Measures of the Soul

[Given the neglect this blog has felt lately, I resort to shorter reflections for a time]

My Google research regarding the origins of the phrase "The eyes are the window to the soul" has failed. Seeing as I can't figure out why this aphorism sticks, I respond that, "The ear is the touchstone of the soul."

By ear, I mean musical tastes, and by touchstone, I mean that people's default, most comfortable mode is usually clearly reflected in their musical tastes. Personally, I love simplicity, beauty, and peace; I enjoy music that crafts tranquil mastery out of very little.

This topic begs reflection on the impact of using music to "medicate" moods. That is, whether it is a good thing to have a 'mix' for every passing disposition.

Love, Love, Love; Or, Three Prompts for Later

I've got a few blog entries that haven't made it past the mental moderator yet. I figure if my thoughts don't seem coherent to me, they certainly won't be edifying to you. So, here's a little list of things I have been considering recently that, if I had more time and mental energy, would be individual posts:

1. In Acts 10 God declares unclean animals clean. Peter interprets this through the lens of table fellowships to mean that Gentiles are being welcomed into the covenant community. Later, Paul exhorts Gentiles, though not morally bound to do so, to observe Jewish food laws. It strikes me as loving acts of considering the other greater than yourself on both ends of the deal.

2. I was impressed by how significant love for other believers is in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. It's directly linked to sanctification.

3. The church is a fantastic thing. I'm very thankful for it.

Five Things I "Learned" in Church Today

1. My only hope is new life in Jesus.
2. Jesus calls me to act with integrity.
3. To measure my life by the wisdom of God.
4. Purity is honoring to God—and for my good.
5. I have not fully learned these things, yet grace abounds.


I need exercise in brevity and clarity.

Sermon From Sunday

This is a lame excuse for a real post, but I did teach in College Group this previous Sunday. Find the sermon audio here.

It's All What You Ask

I'm in a bit of a hole in my Historical Theology Seminar. I'm setting out to write a paper on the soteriology and Christology of Clement of Alexandria. The trouble is, when I went in to run my thesis past my professor, he immediately noted that I was using anachronistic language in describing what I wanted to look at regarding Clement's Christology.

I was trying to use post-Nicean language to describe the theology of a man who lived two centuries before. To do so is not only unhelpful, but unfair. It is proper to judge Arius by Nicea; to judge Clement's theology by measures made centuries later does not even ask the right questions of Clement.

So as I regear my paper and despair at my failure to have realized this problem on my own, I relate this incidence to contextualization as a whole. I'm becoming continually more convinced that the main thing in life is asking the right questions. The problem with my thesis was not what I wanted to examine, but the questions I asked in that examination.

Just as stepping into the 2nd century requires me to gear up with different questions, so does every different ministry field, local or abroad. Learning to ask the right questions of people, of religins, and of institutions—now that's the rub.

Green Letter Bible

When I was younger I thought that red and green went well together. I would often be found wearing a bright red, Bucky Badger T-shirt with forest green sweatpants (I didn't wear jeans for most of my childhood. I found them uncomfortable). I thought that since they were Christmas colors, they must go well together. Thankfully, my sister has slowly educated me so that I now dress pretty well, at least when I care. I save the red and green combination for the exegesis students.

But now, red and green come together again. Red letters and green...letters. HarperCollins is going to make a buck or two by publishing this eco-friendly version of the Bible (it even uses soy-based ink). Just as there is a long-standing tradition of red letter Bibles with the words of Jesus in red (an approach to reading the Bible that is problematic in itself), this Bible simply puts in green any verse that relates to nature.

I only wonder whether the whole part about this earth passing away will be printed in green.

Calvin's Apt Humour

"It was a shrewd saying of a good old man, who when some one pertly asked in derision what God did before the world was created, answered, "He made a hell for the inquisitive."

John Calvin (quoting Augustine), Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.13.1

Swindoll, Scripture, and Sufficiency

"I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep it from being boring, having sat through a lot of boring chapels in my life, I know the misery of that sort of thing.Every one of my three talks will start with a statement. It will then be followed by a story or an illustration that I hope drives that statement home. Then we'll glance at the Scriptures and see something in there that might tie in with the opening statement and the illustration and we'll close with another story, that's my plan."

So were Chuck Swindoll's first words in chapel at Wheaton College this fall. I want to say right up front, don't get me wrong: I have a lot of respect for Dr. Swindoll, and think that he preaches the Gospel.

But in this introductory paragraph to the three chapel talks he gave, I hear an approach toward preaching that betrays the text of Scripture as the normative, informative substance of teaching in the church. Swindoll is not teaching in the church when he speaks at Wheaton. He doesn't even neccessarily claim to be preaching. He's giving a talk. What I'm saying is that in Swindoll's introduction we hear an attitude not foreign to the churches of middle America over the last 20 years.

It's the "hip" churches of my parent's generation in which I grew up. Churches that weren't those churches that bored you when you were a kid. They weren't the fundamentalist churches that gave boring sermons about legalistic rules that didn't seem practical for today. At all costs, don't bore people. My personal irony is that I was always bored. I never quite saw why anything mattered.

What is revealed about Swindoll's doctrine of Scripture in this statement? Is it fair to say that, based on how he designs his talk, he believes that it will be the illustrations he gives that most powerfully drive home the statement he makes? I fear the message his outline gives is:

I. Thesis
II. Supporting Evidence
III. Related Ancient Text
IV. Final Supporting Evidence

What is being implicitly said about Scripture with such an approach as this? Scripture is not immediately applicable. It doesn't directly address our life. We have to bring it to bear by relating it to a pithy, non-biblical, easily applicable statement that is already twice illustrated by extra-biblical illustrations. It takes the Bible from being an organic narrative of God's faithfulness through the lives of countless saints to being no more than a book of proverbs, rules, and bland, removed theology.

I think the faults of this approach—which was all to common to my experiences with churches in the 90's—show why many people were ready for the Emergent movement (whatever it is). What parts of the emergent church realize is that stories do matter. Religion that is not organically and intricately tied into daily life does not captivate, transform—or matter. But rather than moving back to the biblical text to see these stories, the emergers took another step away, relying on their personal experiences rather than the normative force of God's word. They make the same mistake as Swindoll, only on a different level.

This is the point where I should have a perfect solution. Fail. But I do offer this: The Bible illustrates itself beautifully. The Bible is full of relatively pithy statements of profound truths, which are very helpful in teaching. Part of the duty of the teacher is to, by means of how he teaches, show that Scripture is what he says it is. That it carries sufficient knowledge for salvation. That it bears immediate weight and implications on our lives. That we can understand it. That it is worth working to learn, appreciate, and meditate upon.

I know you well enough to not like you.

The people I know and understand the best are, almost without fail, the ones who have the most ability to frustrate me. They are the ones whose faults I see the most clearly, and the ones who I often feel least inclined to forgive. The better I know someone, the easier it is to see their sins. And, seeing their sins, I have one of two reactions.

One is anger. I know that they are doing something wrong, and even if it not directly to me, I know the ramifications of it. But I know Romans 2, and I know that when I respond in this way, God's Word stands in condemnation against me. To consider these things in terms of how God sees me but for the blood of Jesus, I shudder in fear.

The other is love. When, by God's grace, I see my friends' sin with regenerated eyes, I respond in love. This can mean rebuke, but it is love. It seeks to restore. It seeks to build up. To consider these things in terms of how God sees me through the blood of Jesus, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness.