[words]

Two quotes from two great thinkers. The first is from philosopher of science Karl Popper, from his intellectual autobiography Unended Quest:

Never let yourself be goaded into taking seriously problems about words and their meanings. What must be taken seriously are questions of fact, and assertions about facts: theories and hypotheses; the problems they solve; and the problems they raise.

The second is from man of letters G.K. Chesterton, from his hilarious novel The Ball and the Cross:

“Well, we won’t quarrel about a word,” said the other, pleasantly.

“Why on earth not?” said MacIan, with a sudden asperity. “Why shouldn’t we quarrel about a word? What is the good of words if they aren’t important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn’t any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn’t there be a quarrel about a word? If you’re not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are only things worth fighting about.”

What say you? Chesterton or Popper? I think I tend to side with Chesterton…

[sound doctrine pt. 5]

Something I think I’ve been learning lately is that Christian discipleship is largely growth in being satisfied in Jesus. We were created in God’s image to glorify and enjoy Him as the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism so directly reminds us:

Q. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

The tragedy is that, as sinners, we are bent and deviant from this end. We take God’s good created things–other people, our abilities and talents, prestige, sex, food, whatever–and try to make enjoying one or many of those created things our chief end. We are idolators. And we self-destruct in pursuit of these things that, divorced from the enjoyment of God, can never satisfy. Whenever delight in God is first, all of these lesser delights fall into their proper place and can be truly enjoyed with gratefulness toward their Creator.

The Gospel is the good news that God has given us Himself in the life, death, and resurrection of the God-Man Jesus Christ. He has paid the price of our idolatry, and wants to put away our sin so that He, the only One Who can satisfy, can be the treasure of our hearts again. As John Piper has put it, God Himself is the Gospel.

Once God has rescued our idolatrous hearts, we begin the painful and joyful process of cultivating joy in Him above all. We are all trying to get to the place where we can say with Asaph in Psalm 73,

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

There is nothing that I desire besides You; that is, literally, there is nothing I want as much as You. We have other good desires, but all of them ought to pale in comparison to our desire for God Himself and be tempered by gratitude towards Him.

So this song is a musical meditation on that Psalm, and hopefully it will be of some use to us in cultivating satisfaction in Christ. You can get the audio by clicking on the title.

All I Want (Psalm 73)
music and lyrics by Jonathan McGregor
I’ve looked around, and I’ve seen
All the violence and the riches of the proud.
I’ve looked around, and I’ve seen
That righteousness is vanity.
I’ve felt the rod of wrath,
And I have walked a hard and narrow path,
And I have found no rest,
Just a bitter bleeding in my chest.

[tag]

I look to You, and I see
Your glory in the sanctuary.
I look to You, and I see
You governing with equity.
You hold my hand, and I know
To be near You is good for me.
And You will spare no cost to bring
Me with You into glory.

[tag]

Oh, all I want is You.
Oh, all I want is You.

(It cost the cross to bring me near to You.
It costs my life for me to come to You.
My heart, my flesh will fail, but You will not.
You are the Rock Who bears up my heart.
You are my refuge; I will hide in You.
There is no one for me in heaven but You,
And none on earth I want beside You.
You are Your gift, and I receive You.)

[five reasons to thank God for john calvin]

Today is the five-hundredth birthday of Reformation pastor and theologian John Calvin. I can think of at least five reasons to thank God for his life and ministry:

5. In the political sphere, Calvin argued for limited government.

I, for my part, am far from denying that the form which greatly surpasses the others is aristocracy, either pure or modified by popular government, not indeed in itself, but because it very rarely happens that kings so rule themselves as never to dissent from what is just and right, or are possessed of so much acuteness and prudence as always to see correctly. Owing, therefore, to the vices or defects of men, it is safer and more tolerable when several bear rule, that they may thus mutually assist, instruct, and admonish each other, and should any one be disposed to go too far, the others are censors and masters to curb his excess. This has already been proved by experience, and confirmed also by the authority of the Lord himself, when he established an aristocracy bordering on popular government among the Israelites, keeping them under that as the best form, until he exhibited an image of the Messiah in David. Institutes, IV.20.viii

4. By writing the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin systematized the teaching of the Reformation. He left us a great example of writing theology that is relentlessly Biblical, not speculative.

3. Calvin’s commentaries on Scripture continue to provide a wealth of insight to students of God’s Word.

2. Calvin’s Geneva gave refuge to English-speaking Protestants during the reign of “bloody Mary.” With the help of Calvin, his successor Theodore Beza, and the Scottish reformer John Knox, these scholars produced the Geneva Bible, the most important translation of the Bible in English before the King James. The Geneva Bible also included many annotations, making it the first “study Bible” of sorts. Bruce Metzger writes,

For about three-quarters of a century the Geneva version was the household Bible of a large section of English-speaking Protestantism. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I alone, seventy editions of it were published. About 150 editions, either of the whole Bible or of the New Testament alone, were printed between 1560 and 1644…In England the Geneva Bible was the version used by Shakespeare, by John Bunyan, by the men of Cromwell’s army, and was brought to America by the Pilgrims and other early settlers, many of whom would have nothing to do with the more “modern” King James version of 1611…In short, it was chiefly owing to the dissemination of copies of the Geneva version of 1560 that a sturdy and articulate Protestantism was created in Britain, a Protestantism which made a permanent impact upon Anglo-American culture.

1. Calvin points us incessantly, in his life and work, to the glory of God. John Piper writes,

“to set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God”. I think this would be a fitting banner over all of John Calvin’s life and work – zeal to illustrate the glory of God. The essential meaning of John Calvin’s life and preaching is that he recovered and embodied a passion for the absolute reality and majesty of God.

[a perpetual forge: anti-idolatry resources]

“The human mind is a perpetual forge of idols.” -John Calvin

The theme of idolatry has figured greatly in my meditations of late. Here are some resources I have found helpful in seeing how the Gospel smashes the false gods of our hearts so that we may worship the true God.

Tim Keller:

Gospel Realization

Gospel Communication

Gospel Incarnation

These three sermons on Jonah come from The Evangelists’ Conference 2007: Smashing False Idols.

The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry

This sermon comes from The Gospel Coalition Conference 2009.

C.J. Mahaney:

Discern Your Heart

This sermon comes from the New Attitude (now known as Next) Conference 2007.

David Clarkson:

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven

Clarkson was a Puritan pastor who lived from 1621-1686.

Martin Luther:

The First Commandment

This study comes from the Reformer’s Large Catechism.

[Christ-centered apologetics]

(Part two of a two-part series on Christ, the cross, and apologetics.)

Yesterday morning in my philosophy of religion class, we were studying a famous exchange between logical positivist A.J. Ayer and Jesuit philosopher Frederick Copleston. These two intellectual giants were tangling over the question of whether it was possible to have empirical knowledge of God. Copleston argued that one could, but the difficulty, Ayer maintained, was that intuitions or feelings of God’s presence were not quantifiable in terms of the five senses, and therefore not properly empirical.

“Because on Copleston’s view God doesn’t have a body, you can’t experience Him through the senses, although you may have a direct perception of Him with your mind,” my professor said. “Of course, you could experience Jesus empirically…”

I admit I kind of tuned out after this point in the lecture, because it set me off on a tangent resonating with my meditations on apologetics and the theology of the cross from this weekend. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between god and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Might it be the case that many of the “problems” in Christian apologetics and philosophy of religion come from trying to come to knowledge of God apart from His appointed Mediator? This was one of the prideful errors with which Luther indicted the theologians of glory. The thought stayed with me throughout the day.

How might this kind of Christ-centered approach to apologetics work in practice? Let’s consider the above problem of coming to knowledge of God’s existence and character. One might think, following Kant, that it is problematic or even impossible to know what God is like in Himself from our limited human perspective. It is not problematic, however, to believe that mere humans can come to the knowledge of an utterly transcendent God if that God Himself became a man. In fact it is utterly crucial that we have a God-Man Mediator in order to come to knowledge of God, as the context of 1 Timothy 2:5 is about coming to know the truth. Let us consider, too, the present tense of that verse: “There is one mediator.” Christ’s Incarnation is ongoing. As He sits at the right of His Father in Heaven right now, He is fully God and fully man. Is it strange to think, then, that He may reveal Himself to human beings? Christ’s Incarnation, Atonement, and ongoing Mediation mean that the epistemological and moral (because of the effects of sin on our minds) problems of coming to know God are not problems at all. Whenever God chooses to reveal Himself, He does. Scripture goes on to indicate that the way He does so is through His spoken word of the Gospel and His inscripturated word of the Bible, which includes the apostles’ testimony to their empirical experience of Jesus (Rom. 10:17, 1 Cor. 15:1-8, 2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Peter 1:16-21, 1 John 1:1-3).

Or take the problem of evil. A Christ-centered approach to evil would include some of the following points:

1. Jesus suffered for sin. If God Himself suffers evil in Christ, then our suffering is not meaningless.
2. The cross of Christ shows that God undermines the greatest evil for His good end.
3. The cross shows God defeating and destroying evil and bringing justice, inviting us into His Kingdom.

I believe these three points have been argued by Tim Keller, Carl Trueman, and N.T. Wright, respectively. None of them argue in an abstract and, what is in at least one sense of the term, sub-Christian way. Neither do they offer a clean syllogism for an answer. I think that is a good thing.

Well, this is just a thought, a starting point for further discussion. What do you think? Might a Christ-centered approach alleviate some of the perennial problems of Christian apologetics?

[an apologetic of the cross]

(Part one of a two-part series on Christ, the cross, and apologetics.)

The week of Easter is always a sweet time. With all of Christendom, we focus our hearts with rapt attention on those things that Paul said are of first importance, the heart of the Gospel: Christ’s death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection, all according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

In my meditations this weekend, I came across this sentence from Martin Luther: Crux probat omnia. “The cross is the test of everything.”  That set me thinking on what an apologetic tested by the cross–a defense of the Christian faith that is true to the mysterious, humiliating, glorious first principle of that faith–would look like.

These thoughts led me to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul writes,

For the word of the cross is folly those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (vv.18-25)

The cross is a scandal, an offense to every human mind whether Jew or Gentile. What does this mean for the apologist? Do we then abandon the project of making a reasonable case for the Christian faith?

I don’t think so. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Paul makes clear that God uses us as means in His destruction of worldly wisdom. I think the import of this text for those who would defend and commend the Gospel of the offensive cross is this: It is a critique of the motives of our own hearts. Do we study arguments and evidences for Christianity in order to make ourselves more respectable to the world? Are seeking to carve out a niche of comfort for ourselves in the face of skepticism? Are we capitulating to the City of Man instead of contending for the City of God? If this is what we expect from the apologetic project, we will be disappointed. Rather, as we soundly reason in support of the Gospel, we will only make clear that Christ claims the whole man–that the cross is indeed the test of everything, the mind as well as the heart. And though many will surrender to the claims of our King as we do so, the general opposition of the world will increase. Our folly and humiliation and weakness will increase. And so will the power of Christ upon us (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

In his Heidelberg Disputation, Luther famously contrasted the “theologian of the cross” with the “theologian of glory.”

19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened [Rom. 1:20].
20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.
22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.

Would we use apologetics to avoid suffering the shame and ignominy of the way of the cross? Then we are apologists of glory. Would we proclaim the Lordship of Christ over every area of thought and life, and so draw the ire of the City of Man? Then we are propounding an apologetic of the cross.

[iconoclast!]

Iconoclast! I would bear
asdfthat name–
Smashing my heart’s high
asdfplaces and
Hacking her Asherah
asdfto bits.
Let no pagan-passion King
asdfAgag
Live in my consecrated
asdfseat of
Thought and affect.
asdfI stand
Destructive with that man
asdfof God,
Dread Samuel, bearing a
asdffell blade.

Where do you run for
asdfcomfort,
O my soul? At what
asdfaltars
Do you offer up
asdfyour plea?
What ghost-town Gilead
asdfhaunts my
Heart in search of balm?
asdfFrom forth
What broken cisterns gushing
asdfgood do
I expect? O idolatrous,
asdfGentile
Heart, be circumcised:
asdfBelieve.

[seven stanzas at easter]

RIP, John Updike. (1932-2009)

“Seven Stanzas at Easter”
by John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

More (and Moore) here.

HT: Justin Taylor

[book review: death by love]

Death by Love, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008.

Brutal. That’s the best word I can think of to describe this book. Pastor Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church Seattle fame, is unsparing in his treatment of the death of Jesus, the wickedness of sin, and the power of the Gospel in Death by Love. The work is composed of several letters written to people Mark has met, counseled, and pastored, applying the truth of Christ’s multi-faceted work on the cross to life. Each chapter is capped off by an “Answers to Common Questions” section by Driscoll’s mentor and writing partner Gerry Breshears. The book does a good job of defining and giving Old Testament and New Testament background for Biblical and theological terms like “Christus Victor,” “propitiation,” “expiation,” “redemption,” and “Christus Exemplar.” It is refreshing in the way it combines theological depth and rigor with practical application: Theological concepts don’t float around in the air in this book. I was refreshed and challenged by the Pastor Mark’s intent on communicating the life-changing truth of the cross. Don’t expect to agree with everything in here. Driscoll’s positions are nuanced and likely to raise questions all around in matters like spiritual warfare, the extent of the atonement, and the relationship between Charismatic and Calvinist theology. Also, be forewarned that there is some rough content in here. Sin is dealt with in all its ugliness.

I learned a lot as I read the book throughout last semester. But mostly Death by Love dogged and hounded me, constantly whispering, “Look to the cross and live!” as I battled through sin and struggle. For that I am grateful.

Recommended.

[sound doctrine pt. 4]

Happy Christmas, everyone. Here’s my version of one of my favorite carols. Sorry about the sound quality.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll’d along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bow’d my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play.
And through the warp and woof of wrong,
They yet ring out their hopeful song.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play.
And through the warp and woof of wrong,
They still ring out their truthful song.

The Lord will come and make an end
Of all our woe and all our sin.
His heavy blow fell in that fray
When Christ was born on Christmas day.

Hallelu, Hallelu
Hallelu, Hallelu
Hallelu
Hallelujah

Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Music by John Calkin
Additional words and music by Jonathan McGregor

[reformational politics redux]

As election night draws to a close, I’ve got politics of a less practical, more philosophical/theological sort on the brain. I thought I’d repost this from last year: the conclusion of a research paper I wrote last year, “Toward an Evangelical Politics: Abraham Kuyper, Francis Schaeffer, and Beyond.”

A Five-Point Proposal, Being a Starting Point for a Reformational/Evangelical Politics:

Theonomy: An Evangelical politics must embrace theonomy in its understanding of law. Abraham Kuyper calls for a subjective theonomy in the Lectures: “God’s Word must rule, but in the sphere of the state only through the conscience of the persons invested with authority.” (“Politics” 104) However, in our post-Christian culture there is very little of God’s Word in anyone’s conscience, let alone the politicians’. The “hard theonomy” of the Christian Reconstructionists, wherein the Old Testament law is adopted as the law of the land with its prescribed punishments, except where specifically superceded by the New Testament, seems to stray too far in the other direction. It smacks of theocracy. (Rogers) Francis Schaeffer’s “soft theonomy” has the constitutional law of the land resting consciously on Scripture as an unchanging standard of justice and right. This position maintains the Evangelical tension between the absolute authority of Scripture and the separation of church and state. It is also in line with the teaching of John Calvin himself. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin calls the idea of rule by the totality of the Mosaic Law “perilous and seditious,” but he affirms that the law of the land must rest on the “moral law,” which he boils down to the principles of charity and equity. The eternal standard of the moral law prevents destructive sociological law:
“But if it is true that each nation has been left at liberty to enact the laws which it judges to be beneficial, still these are always to be tested by the rule of charity, so that while they vary in form, they must proceed on the same principle. Those barbarous and savage laws, for instance, which conferred honour on thieves, allowed the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, and other things even fouler and more absurd, I do not think entitled to be considered as laws, since they are not only altogether abhorrent to justice, but to humanity and civilised life.” (Institutes 910)
Under this conception, justice, ethics, morality, and religious conviction are inseparable. Evangelicals have the right and duty to continue to push for legislation on ‘moral’ issues like abortion and gay rights as the highest priority, because they undermine the very foundation of state authority, which rests in just law.

Uncompromised principles: An Evangelical politics must be principled, not pragmatic. This is a direct result of embracing a theonomic concept of law. A denial of Scriptural authority is concomitant to denying legislative goals that are directly based on God’s moral law. According to J. Budziszewski, the confession of biblical authority is the theological distinctive of Evangelicals. (“Evangelicals” 20) So a move like Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani effectively forfeits one’s status as an Evangelical.

Limited Sovereignty: An Evangelical politics must limit the sovereignty of the state by proclaiming the ultimate sovereignty of God and recognizing sovereignty within individual spheres. Proclaiming the ultimate sovereignty of God ensures that Evangelicals know the basic presupposition on which their politics is founded and creates a bottom line past which subjection to the state is no longer good or right. (Schaeffer, Manifesto 126-127) It seems from the Genesis account that Scripture recognizes at least four spheres, with separate sovereignties implied by the separate institutions of society (Gen. 1:26-28), family (Gen. 2:23-24), church (Gen. 4:26), and state (Gen. 9:5-6). Applying this principle would require the government to retract its authoritative position in areas like education, as in the Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind Act. Schaeffer writes, “[I]f the United States is to move back toward the original Reformation basis, this would mean severely limiting the scope of Federal State authority.” (Manifesto 114) In fact, it would mean a very nearly libertarian conception of federal authority. Evangelicals should seek constitutional amendments specifically delineating societal spheres and denying the state sovereignty therein. Evangelicals must also determine how the sphere sovereignty doctrine would apply on an international level. It precludes ceding state sovereignty to international organizations like the U.N. and prohibits an interventionist foreign policy, both as violations of the sovereignty of individual nations.

Identification with Christian heritage: An Evangelical politics must make explicit the historically demonstrable connection between Reformation Christianity and liberty. Both Kuyper and Schaeffer go to great lengths to show the direct correlation between the degree of ‘reformation’ and the degree of freedom in Northern Europe and the United States. Kuyper locates the democratizing effects of Calvinism in its Presbyterian polity (“Religion” 63) and doctrine of unconditional election. (“Art” 166) Evangelicals should point unbelievers to the oppressive public squares of France and Turkey as ample proof that secular humanism does not lead to freedom, but tyranny. Even those who do not share the Christian worldview should welcome, rather than abhor, a Christian state because a Christian state alone provides a stable guarantee of freedom. An Evangelical politics must not compel belief or establish a state church, but it must of necessity preserve freedom of expression in the public square to maintain evangelistic efforts. (Schaeffer, Manifesto 136-137).

Plan for action: An Evangelical politics must provide a comprehensive strategy for achieving its goals on all fronts. Recognizing that Evangelicals are in a battle of opposing total worldviews, the fight must be taken to every sphere of life. Ethical personal living, raising strong families, theologically-informed art and science, petition, litigation, civil disobedience, running for political office, proposing legislation, production in every academic field—all of these must be practiced if Evangelicals take Kuyper and Schaeffer’s worldview theory seriously. Unfortunately, this is where neither Kuyper, nor Schaeffer, nor this paper can take us any further. Delineating strict action in these spheres would rise above a foundation and begin to define a total Evangelical politics, even a comprehensive Christian philosophy—a monumental work that waits for another scholar and another day.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” John 16:13

Sources:

Budziszewski, J. “Evangelicals in the Public Square,” in Evangelicals in the Public Square, Budziszewski, et al. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 2002. <http://www.ccel.org/download.html?
url=/ccel/calvin/institutes.pdf>
Kuyper, Abraham. Lectures on Calvinism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1943.

Rogers, Jay. “Van Tillian Presuppositional Theonomic Ethics.” The Forerunner. Accessed December 5, 2007. <http://forerunner.com/forerunner/X0518_vantil.html>

Schaeffer, Francis. A Christian Manifesto. Westchester: Crossway. 1981.

[edward knippers, artist of incarnation]

Check out this awesome artwork and commentary by Edward Knippers over at the Theology Forum blog.

(HT: Scriptorium Daily)

[reasonable faith]

Dr. William Lane Craig, a brilliant Christian philosopher and apologist, has some great resources at reasonablefaith.org. I don’t agree with him on all points, particularly the way he conceptualizes divine sovereignty, but these Q&A’s on the witness of the Holy Spirit I find extremely helpful.

The Witness of the Holy Spirit

Counterfeit Claims of the Spirit’s Witness

[the power of words and the wonder of God]

Video from the Desiring God national conference this weekend is up here:

Conference Video :: Desiring God

I watched Sinclair Ferguson’s message on James this afternoon, and it was good stuff.

[sanity, sin, and the gospel]

These articles by Dr. David Powlison at Boundless have been very pastoral for me. What do you think of Biblical counseling? And what do you think of this quote in particular, from part 3:

It’s crucial, by the way, to understand sin accurately. Most people think that to identify something as “sin” means saying that the person consciously chose to do some bad action. The person also has the power to Just Say No.

But the Bible comes at sin from the opposite direction. We do many wrong, unloving things without even knowing what we’re doing or why. Most sin is not a matter of conscious choice. The “high-handed” sins are conscious. But much of what we do, think and feel expresses that we are blind, self-deceived, metaphorically drunk or sleepwalking, calloused, acting like brute beasts, walking in the dark. So we do not have the power to Just Say No.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[total war]

So often I confute the Spirit/flesh conflict that Paul talks about with a Greek idea of spirit versus body. That was the error of the Gnostics in the first century church! (Think about this: If Spirit versus flesh means spirit versus body, then Paul is talking nonsense when he speaks of “spiritual bodies” in 1 Cor. 15.) I make sanctification into a process of my mind’s high reason mastering my body’s low passion… which is a deadly simplification. The reality is that the corruption of sin extends much deeper than just bodily desires. My reason, will, and affections are, apart from Christ, just as corrupt as my bodily senses. There are sanctified, “spiritual” bodily desires, like that of a husband for his wife, and there are fleshly desires, like lust for a woman not your wife. There are spiritual affections, like the “joy inexpressible and full of glory” that Peter talks about (see Jonathan Edwards for more on that), and there are fleshly ones like the anxiety against which Paul warns in Philippians 4. And there is godly reasoning that recognizes the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7), and there are “arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5).

And all of these reside in me. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25)

Jesus paid the penalty for all my sins–sins of reason, emotion, and cupidity. And he broke the power of sin, even though it still abides in me in this life, so that my outer man, the fleshly man, is wasting away, and my inner man, quickened by the Holy Spirit, is being renewed day by day. So I can be confident to go after my sin in total war, on every front fighting in the power of the Spirit.

So with reference to this truth, I’m going to post a couple of things from my Art, Emotion, and Morality class on the blog–because Christian scholarship is spiritual warfare.

[the holy war]

It is true:
A just war is a glorious endeavor.
But that glory, with acidic fear
And reality’s bitter gall mixed,
Makes a heady cocktail offered up
To cracked and bleeding lips on
A soiled sponge.

Our Savior
Grappled invisibly with the evil one
As He hung bearing wrath
Upon the rugged tree and drained
The sour cup to dregs.

But O!
What small but mighty taste
Of joy lay at the bottom of
That cup! Out of His anguish,
By foreknowledge inexorable,
He saw His many offspring
Counted righteous, and the
Spoils for the resurrected Strong
Awaiting.

Now may I,
Made righteous by His blood
And with Him united, blessed,
And seated in the heavenlies,
Possessing all good things in Christ,
Remember, accept discipline,
Cast off every weight and sin besetting,
Look to Christ taste and see
Afore the joys laid up in Heaven,
Lift drooping hands and strengthen knees,
Strive for peace and holiness,
And take up again my God-given
Armor, become like Him in His death
And bear away the Kingdom-life
With holy violence.

May I hate
With perfect hatred every spiritual
Enemy, and my own sin indwelling,
Waging war not according to the flesh,
Armed to the teeth, weapons of
Righteousness in my right hand and left,
With full confidence not in
My own skill or strategy, but in
The gracious Sovereign under
Whose banner I rage.

These three
Are the secrets of war: Joy,
Mourning, and Liberty. Let me fix,
As did Christ, on sure knowledge
Of future joy vouchsafed to me
In Holy Scripture: I am destined
For glory; this war’s outcome
Is sure. At present let me
Mourn for sins abiding and be
Comforted by the Gospel, putting
To death the body’s deeds.
A free man fights most valiantly,
And when freedom is at stake
He fights with the strength
Of a score of slaves. Stand firm,
Then, (O Lord, grant it that I would!)
And submit not again yourself
To slavery. Grace sweeps over
All my sins from past to
Future, a crimson tide, as the
Red Sea swallowed up Pharaoh
And his armies.

O Lord God,
Let me live in the faithful tension
Between “The battle belongs
To the Lord” and “Everywhere
You put your feet, you will conquer.”
Grant that I, your soldier-servant-son,
Free in bondage to the Truth, would
Fight unending and courageously,
With faith not in those efforts
But in Your mighty hand. For Your
Name’s sake, O God, give me
Victory against my foes.

Amen.

[uk update 3 // london, oxford, cambridge]

Whew! It’s been a while since my last update; I have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s see…

Two weekends ago, I went on a day trip to London and spent the afternoon at the British Museum. It is breathtakingly massive. I saw the Rosetta stone and Cleopatra’s mummy. My favorite part was the ancient Assyrian art, showing the old kings of Nineveh hunting lions and having battles and other such things. One panel even showed an Israelite king paying tribute to the Assyrians! That night, I went to see King Lear at the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The performance was great and just being in that theatre was unforgettable.

Two Wednesdays ago, I went to a tea-tasting and found out a few things:

-White tea tastes like clouds. (How do I know what clouds taste like?)

-Suchongs taste like leather. (How do I know what leather tastes like?)

-Most teas sweeten as they cool.

So that was fun. The next night, I went to a lecture given by Oleg Gordievsky, an ex-KGB agent who turned into a British operative during the Cold War. After he was caught, he was put under house arrest in Moscow. He gave us an account of his crazy escape to Finland that deserves to be turned into a book/movie and talked about the current state of Russia.

Last Saturday I took a daytrip to Oxford, that other British university. It was amazing; the colleges were very similar to Cambridge, but Oxford felt like more of a “city”, whereas Cambridge has a laid-back college town vibe. The highlights were visiting the old divinity school, shopping at a used book store across from Christ Church College, and having an early dinner at the Eagle and Child pub where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest of Inklings used to meet back in the day.

This past week I finished up my first module of classes. That means my Art, Emotion, and Morality class is over. My final paper was entitled “Fiction and Moral Education: Making Men With Chests”. The title comes from the first chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, “Men Without Chests”, which inspired my thesis.

My parents came to Cambridge this weekend! This August marks their 25th wedding anniversary, so they decided to vacation in the UK…which just so happened to allow them to spend some time with me! It was really special to be able to share the experience of Cambridge with them in person, so that they could catch would I could never express in words and pictures. Friday afternoon I gave them a tour of some of the colleges, and we caught half of As You Like It as part of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival. Saturday morning we went “punting” on the River Cam. (See pic…it’s not us, but it gives you the idea.) Dad dropped their camera in the river and had to jump in the freezing water to retrieve it, which after briefly mourning the camera, made for some good laughs. Punting is really quite difficult…it took me about 45 minutes to get the hang of it! Saturday afternoon we took tea at the The Orchard Tea Room in Grantchester, which I visited once before as documented in update 2. On the way, we ran into my friend Justin, and we all hung out together having tea and scones and enjoying the idyllic location and the spectacularly warm weather. After church and brunch at the Pembroke College dining hall, the parents headed off to Edinburgh.

Backing up a bit, we had Bible study on Tuesday, hosted by my friend Drew. Drew, Justin, and I constituted the crew, and I taught on Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God. It was a good reminder to me that our Holy God reigns, seated on His throne… things are never out of His control. He is not taking counsel from anyone; He works all things according the counsel of His own will. Getting a full dose of 20th-21st century philosophy and being immersed in a community of students that is largely non-Christian can be a little discouraging until you remember exactly Who our God is. The study helped bring the three of us together in closer community, too. We hung out and talked for about an hour after Bible study was over. The Lord has really blessed me with the friendship of these two brothers.

Church at Eden Baptist the past few Sundays has been an incredible blessing. Thick, meaty, hour-long T-bone steak sermons on the patriarchs out of Genesis that consistently point forward to Christ and the cross from Assistant Pastor Marvin Wong have been rocking me. I’ve met some awesome, friendly people in the congregation as well.

I spent this afternoon in the Fellows’ Garden at King’s College, a lovely expanse of the most well-manicured grass you’ve ever seen, punctuated with two flower-and-tree islands in the center. I was doing some preliminary reading for my Political Philosophy class when Justin showed up, book in hand. We were chilling out on the grass reading when our friend James showed up…actually I didn’t meet James until this afternoon, but we are definitely friends now! James is a newly-wed and a Mormon, and he was writing a letter to his wife at home. The three of us got started talking, and we covered everything from faith and academics to marriage to William Tyndale to what we do for fun to the differences between Mormonism and Evangelical Christianity. It was a well-spent afternoon talking about the things that matter most. Please pray for more opportunities like this, and specifically for the opportunity to set the Gospel that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25) clearly against LDS doctrine.

One of the biggest blessings of the past couple of weeks has been getting to talk to Jessica on Skype! The East Asia teams have been back safe and sound for a while now. If you get to hang out with any of them, ask them about what Father taught them this summer. I can promise you you’ll be blessed!

This weekend I’m planning on going to Paris with some guys…it should be a blast! I’m really excited.

Here’s some specifics for prayer:

-Pray for our Bible study this week. Drew is gonna be teaching, so lift him up for that. A couple of people e-mailed me for information about the Bible study that weren’t able to make it last week or got confused on the location… pray that we can get good info out and people will come.

-Pray for Eden Baptist Church, that their faithful ministry in this city would continue to be blessed by the Lord.

-Pray for James and our other Mormon friends on the program, and that the other Christians on the program and I will take opportunities to proclaim the Gospel.

-Praise the Lord for the community I’ve been able to find here at Eden and with Drew and Justin. Pray that we would build each other up and for our growth in grace.

-Pray for me, that my eyes would be turned from myself and totally on to Christ.

Thank you so much for your prayers and for reading and keeping up with me over here across the pond. Love you all in Christ.

Grace and peace,

Jonathan

[the grammar of the gospel]

Let this teaching from Sinclair Ferguson influence the way you read passages like:

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Roman 6:14

This is a promise in the indicative mood about what God has done! And:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

“For freedom Christ has set us free” is indicative, telling us truth about what Christ has already actually done. “Stand firm therefore…” is imperative, an exhortation based on the previous promise. We couldn’t stand firm unless Christ had set us free!

HT: desiring God

[uk update 2.5]

Hey guys! This update is 2.5, because it’s gonna be brief. I wanted to say thank you for all the encouraging comments and for all of your prayers! I’ll post a fuller update sometime this week, but I wanted to get this out there for you guys to be praying for:

Tomorrow night at 7:30 my buddy Drew and I will be hosting our first weekly Bible study. We’ve been advertising over the program list-serv and telling our friends, and we don’t really know who to expect. I’ll be teaching on Isaiah 6:1-8, and we’ll be praying for each other.

I appreciate you lifting us up!

Grace and peace,

Jonathan

[a little groothuis action]

Check out this cultural commentary by Dr. Doug Groothuis:

1. On the proliferation of the word “like” in our conversation.

2. On how to keep your mind alive.

3. On the contemporary trend of self-absorption in writing.

[beware rob bell]

Read this at The Resurgence.

[uk update 2 // london, cambridge, edinburgh]

Hey guys! Well, this update is overdue, and I don’t have a ton of time, but I feel I should let you know what’s up with me…

Well, I arrived safely in London on the morning of Thursday, June 26. I spent the next few days being orientated by Arcadia University staff, getting to know 7 other peeps who applied for the Cambridge program through Arcadia, doing a crash course of Tube-riding London tourism (minding the gap, of course!), and catching a little Eric Clapton in Hyde Park for the Nelson Mandela birthday concert. I particularly enjoyed the architecture of Westminster Hall and Big Ben, and seeing Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. I also snuck over to Elephant and Castle to Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle, still faithfully proclaiming the Gospel in London. I even met a couple of people there who were on a church workday, improving the facilities!

Sunday saw us boarding a 1:15 train for Cambridge at King’s Cross station (watch out, Harry Potter fans!). When we arrived at King’s College, Cambridge, I was blown away: perfectly manicured grass with a copper-green fountain running in the middle, a striking Gothic chapel, and a lovely blue sky streaked with clouds made a very picturesque greeting for us indeed. Sunday night I caught the end of the Eurocup football (that’s soccer to us!) finals in a pub down the street, and then classes started on Monday. Monday night we had a fantastic formal dinner. Tuesday I spent the afternoon reading Titus Andronicus on the grass by the River Cam, and then trekked over to the Orchard Tea Room, a place frequented by such figures as Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the 1920s, for a pot of tea and a scone! Wednesday evening I enjoyed an Anglican choral service at the King’s Chapel, complete with blasting pipe organ.

Thursday saw about 200 of us head off to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. Friday I hiked in the Trossachs, beautiful heather-covered hills over-looking Loch Lomond where my thieving, murderous, but dashing ancestor Rob Roy MacGregor used to roam. Friday night we had a 4th of July party in the University of Edinburgh debate hall, and Saturday I saw most of downtown Edinburgh, including John Knox’s house and the cathedral where he ignited the Scottish Reformation, the Scottish Parliament building, and Edinburgh Castle. Sunday we headed back to Cambridge, stopping on the way at the ruins of Fountains Abbey, a monastery built in the twelfth century.

Today saw classes resume in rainy Cambridge, and I spent the afternoon in the library and a coffee shop across the street reading Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Phiosophicus, a short but intriguing and important text of 20th century philosophy, in one sitting. The cool thing is, he was studying under Bertrand Russell at Cambridge when he wrote it!

My time in the UK has been fantastic so far, and praise the Lord for safe travel. My heart, however, has been a battleground where temptation, anxiety, and unbelief have raged. The Lord is faithful, though, and He has preserved me for His name’s sake. Praise Him for that! He is growing me by teaching me to trust Him more everyday, and not to lean on things like my emotional state, which ultimately can’t support the weight of my need. Only the cross of Christ can. I was unfaithful in the first few days with opportunities to share the gospel, but I have repented of that, and the Lord has graciously provided more. He has also started to grow friendships, including some with brothers and sisters who are on the program, and that has been invaluable. Here’s some specifics you can pray for:

-Protection from spiritual attack. That I would be strong in the Lord to go to war everyday in the fight for faith.

-For my friends Zach, Armando, Jane, and Keshia that I’ve gotten to have spiritual conversations with.

-That I would be sensitive to opportunities to speak the truth of the gospel and trust the Holy Spirit to give me words.

-For my friend Justin, a brother that I’ve gotten to spend some quality time with.

-For church this Sunday. I’m planning to go to Eden Baptist Church, a Reformed Baptist church in Cambridge. The past two Sundays I’ve not been able to attend church. Podcasted sermons are a great resource, but they can’t match the (comm)unity of the Body!

-For my Art, Emotion, and Morality test on Thursday…it’s coming so quickly!

-Pray that I would not just have conversations about the gospel, but get involved in people’s lives while I’m over here. (1 Thess. 2:8 )

Thank you for your prayers. Grace and peace to you; our God is good and faithful.

[what good is theology?]

Immanuel Kant once famously declared that, “Absolutely nothing worthwhile for the practical life can be made out of the doctrine of the Trinity taken literally.”

I think a lot of times we have a similar attitude toward any of those scary, distant concepts that fall under the heading of “theology”. We’re glad our pastors have to study it in seminary, but we’d prefer that they keep it out of the pulpit and “just preach the Gospel” or something like that. We definitely don’t want to study theology for ourselves…what possible benefit could it be? If anything, maybe we should learn about the practices of ministry or evangelism or discipleship or spiritual disciplines. But learning about God Himself is something reserved for pastors and uber-Christians.

Or maybe we acknowledge that it would be good to pick up some theological knowledge…knowing about God couldn’t be a bad thing, could it? But it feels impious of us to expect personal benefit from the study of God. We feel we ought to know more about God; theological study is a duty we know we should perform, though we expect nothing out of it personally.

Well, consider this: For the Christian, the study of God is not a purely theoretical, abstract practice. That’s because God, by His free grace, has brought us into relationship with Himself. We enjoy a ‘mystical union’ with Jesus Christ! So everything we learn about God has direct and blessed bearing on our own lives. There is indeed both practical value and personal benefit in doctrine, and God is glorified when we learn of Him, rejoice in Who He is, and thank Him for His activity in our lives. Let me give you a personal example.

This morning I was reading in chapter two of Wayne Grudem’s Christian Beliefs, “What is God Like?”, when I came across this:

Jesus affirmed that God is in no way limited to a spatial location when he said, “God is spirit” (John 4:24)…He is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses. To think of his being in terms of anything else in the created universe would be a misrepresentation, for he is more excellent than any other kind of existence.

This may seem banal at first glance. But this exposition of God’s spiritual nature revealed what was nothing less than idolatory in me. Maybe you can relate. The “butterflies in the stomach” feeling perceived with my bodily senses that often accompanies the presence of God I frequently confute with the presence of God as such. But if God is really spirit, whether I feel emotion or not has no bearing on the fact of His presence. He has promised to never leave me or forsake me, and because He is unbound by spatial limitations He can deliver on that promise. His Spirit indwells every believer on every continent at the same time. To confuse the (infrequent, because of sin in me) bodily emotional response to the presence of God with His presence as a reality (constant, because of His character, promises, and nature) is idolatory, because it thinks of God in terms of a lower kind of existence. Not only that, but because His nature is spiritual, I have good reason to always hope in Him because He is always with me!

So in the study of God’s attributes, I was shown my sin and given a good reason to thank Him and have confidence in Him. Now that’s good theology!

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grudem’s Christian Beliefs, or if you’re more ambitious, a copy of his Bible Doctrine or Systematic Theology. Read, worship, and be blessed.

[sound doctrine pt. 3]

We’re going to take a break from following the flow of redemptive history in this series, [sound doctrine]. If you remember, part 2 concerned God’s revelation of Himself in the created order, in Christ, and in Scripture, which is the foundation of all our knowledge. The only reason we know about God’s action in history to redeem lost sinners is because He has revealed it to us! The song that went along with that post was my musical adaptation of Psalm 19. This week we’re gonna back up a notch for a meditation on Psalm 18.

The title of Psalm 18 tells us that David “addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” It’s a Psalm about rescue and warfare, about the Lord going to war on behalf of David and rescuing David from his enemies.

Man, where I’ve been at this summer, this Psalm is a salve for my soul. I’ve been embattled with mind-games and anxiety and been close to despairing. Throughout the month of May the Lord was teaching me about how to daily go to war against sin and for faith, and in the ensuing weeks I abandoned that teaching and chose to believe lies. I’ve failed to oppose temptation and succumbed to sin. But the Lord went to war on my behalf, and He is mighty to save! He has delivered me from my enemies.

I can’t say like David that “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.” (v. 20) But I can say that He dealt with me according to the righteousness of Christ, Who stood condemned in my place on the cross and bore the wrath that I deserved. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

The Lord has “trained my hands for war” just as He trained David’s. (v. 34) But not against physical enemies like David faced. Rather, I battle against the sin that still dwells within me, the Enemy, Satan, who attempts to accuse and confuse me, and all the other enemies mentioned in the previous post. And the outcome of this battle is sure, because part of what happened at the cross is that God triumphed over evil in Christ. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Col. 2:15)

I don’t know if where you’re at this summer accords in any with me. But if it does, I hope you are encouraged, because you’re not alone. For all who have trusted in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sin, God doesn’t treat us as we deserve. He treats us according to Christ’s perfect obedience. And he trains us and empowers us to go to war against our enemies, especially indwelling sin, and we can know victory just like David. This week the Lord has delivered me from a miserable month into knowing His joy again.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Eph. 6:10)

The song that came out of this meditation on Psalm 18 is entitled Warfare Psalm. Just like what is written above, it takes the truths of Psalm 18 and sets them in New Testament context.

For your joy in the Divine Warrior,

Jonathan

Here’s a link to the file for your enjoyment and edification, and the lyrics are below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1i9j2gqtl3j

Warfare Psalm

I love You
O LORD, my strength.
You’re my Rock
And Fortress sure.
When I call
On Your great Name,
Worthy of praise,
Then I am saved.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

You have dealt
Well with me,
Not as I
Deserve, O LORD:
According to
The righteousness
Of Your Son
Given to me.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

The humble You will save,
For You equip with strength.
By You I run against a troop,
And leap a wall.
As I pursue my sin,
In this war within me,
Spirit be my strength to kill it
Until the end.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

[every man a soldier, every life an epic]

I don’t normally watch a movie more than once in theaters. But today I saw Prince Caspian for the second time. I think it’s a fantastic flick, and what really gets me is the size of it. It’s a BIG movie: the armies, the battles, the minotaurs, the stakes… everything about it is huge. Musing on the film over the past few days, I found myself wishing I was part of some epic struggle, to be an honorable soldier in a noble cause. Then I realized how foolish this was… because every day, if seen rightly, we go to war:

1. Against indwelling sin that abides in our flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

John Owen writes,

The saints, whose souls breathe after deliverance from its [i.e., sin's] perplexing rebellion, know there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare.

2. Against philosophies, ideologies, worldviews, and heresies that are contrary to true knowledge of God.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

This is the task of apologetics, and it begins in our own hearts, taking every thought captive.

3. Against spiritual forces of evil.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:10-12

Paul identifies two great ends of the struggle which the forces of evil endeavor unceasingly to short-circuit: the believer’s endurance (6:13), and the bold proclamation of the Gospel (6:18-20).

4. Against complacency, to remain faithful to Christ in daily life.

Paul uses warfare language extensively in his two letters of encouragement and exhortation to the young preacher Timothy.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12

C.S. Lewis has written that the Chronicles of Narnia are not intended as allegory in the same way as, say, Pilgrim’s Progress. But for the Christian reader, or viewer, the resonance of the stories’ characters and themes for the life of faith is undeniable. What I love about the Chronicles is not that they provide escape to a fantastic world so much as they remind us what is important in the actual world.

We live life every second coram Deo, ‘before the face of God’. Our every action, word, thought is endued with eternal consequences. Our lives matter; they are significant! When you read your Bible, or pray, or share the Gospel with a friend; when you write a poem, or critically analyze the worldview presented in a movie; when you relate differently to a parent or friend or boyfriend/girlfriend because of the principles of Scripture- you go to war, noble, broken Christian, with the power of the Holy Spirit, in the greatest cause of all: the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said,

From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven has been coming violently, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12

Who are these, the “violent”? John Gill comments,

[Those] being powerfully wrought upon under the ministry of the Gospel; who were under violent apprehensions of wrath and vengeance, of their lost and undone state and condition by nature; were violently in love with Christ, and eagerly desirous of salvation by him, and communion with him; and had their affections set upon the things of another world: these having the Gospel preached to them, which is a declaration of God’s love to sinners, a proclamation of peace and pardon, and a publication of righteousness and life by Christ, they greedily catched at it, and embraced it.

O that we would be violently in love with Christ, and wage the good warfare because of it!

[again i've gone a-whoring]

Again I’ve gone a-whoring,
After Canaan’s gods of filth
And drunk the pleasant poison
Of the idol, subtle Self,
At whose altar I would fain
Have offered time and time again
My life had You not rescued me
Who quivered ‘neath the knife.

I have made the ministrations
Of this covenant of death
And heeded all the preaching
Of my Accuser to my flesh.
All drunk off condemnation
For sin I did not do, I am
My master, slave at once. Lord, let
My mind be chaste to all but You.

cf. this post: [c.s. lewis and beating myself up]

and Jeremiah 3

[love and knowledge]

In my Logos small group Bible study, we are going through the Sermon on the Mount. One of the more puzzling passages in there for me has always been Matthew 6:19-23:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

The relationship between the “storing up treasures in heaven” and the “eye is the lamp of the body” parts has always been a little mysterious to me. The connection seems to be this: the question of knowledge is fundamentally an ethical question. Perceiving God, ourselves, and our world truly and rightly is contingent upon valuing all of those things rightly.

For example, if our values are skewed, we will tend to make the cross of Jesus Christ an expression of our own worth, a sort of nuclear-option self-esteem booster. “Look here, now. Don’t get down on yourself! God thinks you’re worth so much, He sent His Son to die for you!”

That’s a very subtle corruption of the truth. If we are ethically in line, we will see that God is infinitely valuable. The cross, then, can’t be an expression of our worth. If God valued us more highly than Himself, He would be an idolator! The cross must instead be “to the praise of His glorious grace,” an expression of His glorious, merciful character. It’s not about us.

In his book The Defense of the Faith, Cornelius Van Til extends that truth in this way: “Christ’s work as priest cannot be separated from his work as prophet. Christ could not give us true knowledge of God and the universe unless he died for us as priest. The question of knowledge is an ethical question at the root. It is indeed possible to have theoretically correct knowledge about God without loving God. The devil illustrates this point. Yet what is meant by knowing God in Scripture is knowing and loving God: this is true knowledge of God: the other is false.”

The view of the cross that makes it a testament to our own worth is correct on some theoretical points. It realizes our sin and the need for atonement that we cannot provide. But this view doesn’t love God; it doesn’t display Him as supremely valuable. It loves us. Therefore it is false knowledge, because it misses the fundamental truth of God’s value.

This is a good reminder for a guy like me who loves to think and read and coldly consumes theoretical knowledge without being moved to love God. It’s not that I have good knowledge that just needs to “get moved from my head to heart.” I have bad knowledge if I don’t have love!

Love and knowledge

Go together like a horse and carriage…

or something like that!

[mohler on manhood]

Examine yourself.

[starfire]

“The heavens declare the glory of God…The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” Psalm 19

He set their burning light in motion,
The ancient work of flaming fusion;
The singing, starry host of heaven’s
voice is silent in the sky.

The self-same Lord Who fashioned spheres
Of flame to sing in each man’s ears
His praise has brought His burning Word, this
sinful soul to purify.

[new attitude]

I’ll be there! Hope to see you in Kentucky…

[text + context]

Audio and video from Mark Driscoll and company’s latest conference, Text + Context, is up on the web here.

I watched the first video, ‘Putting Preachers in Their Place’, this afternoon, and it was awesome. A couple of intriguing thoughts from the lecture:

1. God brought the universe into existence by preaching a sermon. His Word is powerful and effective and always accomplishes His purpose!

2. Read through the book of Acts and see how absolutely central the purposeful preaching of the Gospel was to the early church.

3. If the Word is not preached, there is not a credible local manifestation of the Body of Christ.

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

[sound doctrine pt. 2]

How can we know anything at all?

How can we know Who God is or who we are or anything about the purpose and progress of history? How do we know the answers we pose to these questions are correct?

We don’t have to guess and hope at these matters because God has revealed Himself. In the order and beauty of creation, the laws of physics that govern motion, the moral truths that we recognize intuitively about the value of human life and private property, God shows His character. But more than this, from the very beginning God has revlealed Himself in language that humans can understand. In the Garden of Eden, He spoke and gave Adam instructions. He gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai. He delivered prophecies throughout the ages.

And He gave His final revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Hebrews 1:1-3a.

We can know God because He has revealed Himself to us in creation, His Word, and the Word made flesh- Jesus Christ.

As the Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us, “The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.” There can be no other source for our knowledge about His purpose in history. The Bible is the only foundation for everything in [sound doctrine].

Psalm 19 is one of the most potent statements of the doctrine of God’s self-revelation in Scripture. Let us apply ourselves to the study of the Word. As a pastor of mine once said, “How can you know the God of the Word without the Word of the God?”

For your joy in the God Who reveals Himself,

Jonathan

http://www.mediafire.com/?eydxxectoct

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God;
The sky proclaims His handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech;
Night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, there are no words
Whose voice is not heard.

Their measuring line goes out through the earth;
Their words go to the end of the world.
In them He set the sun a tent.
It comes out radiant, like a bridegroom,
And runs its course with strength and joy;
From its heat nothing is hidden.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
Reviving the soul.
His testimony is true,
Making wise the simple.
His precepts are right,
Rejoicing the heart.
His commandment is pure,
Enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean,
Enduring forever.
The rules of the Lord are right
And righteous altogether.

Your rules are more precious than gold,
Sweeter than drippings from the honeycomb.
Even more, by them I’m warned.
In keeping them is great reward.
Who can know his errors, Lord?
Declare me innocent, declare me innocent.
Keep me back from willful sin;
Let it not reign over me.
Then I shall be blameless
And innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth
And my heart’s meditations
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

[based on the ESV text]

[sound doctrine pt. 1]

“We must never forget that the first part of the gospel is not ‘Accept Christ as Savior,’ but ‘God is there.’” Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There

This post is the first in a series entitled [sound doctrine]. [sound doctrine] is a sequence of musical reflections on ‘redemptive history,’ the story of why God created the universe and what He has done to accomplish that purpose throughout time. It grows out of the conviction that the Bible is not just a collection of isolated books, but that it is driven by a unified plot of a God who speaks and acts in history for His Name’s sake.

The story begins with God’s existence. He is there; He has always been there and will always be there. His character doesn’t change. As long as He has been, He has been holy, just, loving, glorious, infinite and personal.

Some of these songs are old, some are new. Some are original, some will be familiar. Because God’s character and purpose in history don’t change, the reflections of godly men from the past on His mighty acts and person are just as valid today as the day they were written.

The first song is an old hymn penned by Isaac Watts. If you’ve ever been to a church with hymnals, you’ll find his name all over it.

For your joy in the God Who is there,

Jonathan

You can download the file here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?91dx1mwxxzd

‘Great God, How Infinite Art Thou!’

Great God, how infinite art Thou!
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to Thee.

Thy throne eternal ages stood,
Ere seas or stars were made:
Thou art the ever living God,
Were all the nations dead.

Nature and time quite naked lie
To Thine immense survey,
From the formation of the sky
To the great burning day.

Eternity, with all its years,
Stands present in Thy view;
To Thee there’s nothing old appears;
Great God! There’s nothing new.

Our lives through various scenes are drawn,
And vexed with trifling cares;
While Thine eternal thought moves on
Thine undisturbed affairs.

Great God, how infinite art Thou!
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to Thee.

[by Isaac Watts]

[atonement // a sonnet]

O, would that I did always rest
So sweetly in the merits of
My Savior, from Whose battered breast
Flow streams of fear-outcasting love,

As these two weeks of late have I.
The poor in spirit’s uttered cry
Of shame becomes a shout of joy,
Distresses vexed which did annoy,

As Death itself was made to die
When Christ absorbed the wrath of God.
So through the doorposts stepping, I,
Where “Victory” is scrawled in blood,

Do freely into Freedom go
When Substitution’s grace I know.

[(comm)unity pt. 4]

‘Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.’ Ephesians 4.25

So what does (comm)unity look like? Sharing levity and gravity, purpose and pleasure, laughter and tears: in a word, life! ‘This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously–no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.’ C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”

To recap, then:

1.) (comm)unity is rooted in the character of God.
2.) (comm)unity is commanded of the Church.
3.) (comm)unity comes from genuine love for one another.
4.) Genuine love for one another comes from valuing Christ supremely.
5.) (comm)unity is a means for reaching the lost.
6.) (comm)unity is, ultimately, a means to joy in God.
7.) Therefore, (comm)unity begins and ends with God’s glory.

All of this rests on the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Though (comm)unity doesn’t just ‘happen’ and we must work at it, it depends not on us, whose righteousness is filth and efforts are ineffectual, but on God ‘who cannot fail or fall.’ [George Herbert, "The Holdfast"]

Sources:

C.S. Lewis. The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses.
D.A. Carson. “The Supremacy of Christ and Love.” 2006 Desiring God National Conference.
Francis Schaeffer. The God Who Is There.
George Herbert. The Temple.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
John Piper. “The Supremacy of Christ and Joy.” 2006 Desiring God National Conference.
Jonathan Matthews. Sermons on John 17.1-5 and 17.20-26
Marc Sandhu. Sermon on John 17.6-19.

[(comm)unity pt. 3.B]

3.) (comm)unity is a means, not an end in itself.

B.) It is, ultimately, a means to joy in God.
‘…these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.’ John 17.13
‘Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.’ Philippians 2.2
‘So receive [Epaphroditus] in the Lord with all joy…’ Philippians 2.29a

Jesus says He is telling His disciples these things for their joy in the middle of praying for their (comm)unity and the (comm)unity of all who would believe through their word. Paul said his joy in Philippians would be complete if they would come to complete (comm)unity. And Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians sent to minister Paul for his joy, Paul sends back for their joy. Epaphroditus, like Timothy, is an expression of the mutually-loving, Trinity-displaying (comm)unity between Paul and the Philippians, and the result of his return is joy in the Lord. When we enjoy authentic Biblical (comm)unity, we are enjoying God, glorifying Him in our joy and our obedience. When the Gospel is preached by believers in (comm)unity, God is glorified in His saving purpose, and unbelievers are converted and drawn in to enjoy the (comm)unity of the Church. (comm)unity, then, ends just as it began– with the glory of Christ! ‘For from him and to him and through him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ Romans 11.36

[(comm)unity pt. 3.A]

3.) (comm)unity is a means, not an end in itself.
A.) It is a means to reaching the lost.
‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…and loved them even as you loved me.’ John 17.20-21, 23

Our love for each other is an apologetic to the world of Christ’s authenticity as Messiah and God’s love for the Church. In the practice of (comm)unity, we share ‘not only the gospel of God but also our own selves,’ which is the Biblical and effectual method. [1 Thessalonians 2.8]

[(comm)unity pt. 2]

2.) (comm)unity is rooted in the character of God.
‘Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.’ John 17.11b
God has existed as three mutually loving, mutually glorifying, happy Persons united in one Godhead from all eternity. This is what gives our concepts of love and joy and (comm)unity meaning. As the Body of Christ, the representation of God to the world, we are called to embody this love and joy among ourselves. ‘Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.’ Ephesians 5.1 And it is impossible to display the loving unity of the Trinity as a single individual; it can only be done together.

[(comm)unity pt. 1]

1.) (comm)unity begins with the glory of Jesus Christ.
‘For I have no one like [Timothy], who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.’ Philippians 2.20-21

Timothy, as the Apostle Paul’s loving emissary to the church at Philippi, is a model of authentic Biblical (comm)unity. Timothy does not seek his own interests. The text tells us this plainly. And he does not even have the Philippians’ interests at heart primarily. Timothy’s central concern is the interest of his Lord, Jesus Christ. And He is very interested in His Bride. ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.’ Ephesians 5.25-27 In other words, a focus on (comm)unity will never produce true (comm)unity; neither will a focus on loving one another. The final and only stable foundation for love among the members of the Body resulting in (comm)unity is the glory of Christ and His own love for the Church. So working backwards from the principle of (comm)unity, we see that…

(comm)unity
|^|
genuine love and concern for one another
|^|
a dominating concern for the glory of Christ

This order makes the best sense of the book of Philippians, with Paul’s frequent affirmations of the ultimate value of Christ [1.21, 1.23, 3.7-10, 4.13, 4.20] and his evident joyful love for the Philippians [1.3-11, 1.24, 1.27, 2.12-13, 2.19-29, 4].

[common grace]

“Chaos is dull.” -Chesterton

I slept and slept in fevered dreams
Of unmoored ships and wandering travelers,
Fierce seas and tangled roads,
Nights too black and days too grey,
Blizzards overwhelmingly white,
And felt the fallenness deep in my soul
Like a crack in the foundation of Self
Life, a slumping construction, rests on.

I woke to find the World instead infuriating order,
Lying down in a dampened meadow.
I found that though it drizzled,
The sun shone through a little,
Laid my hand upon a compass and a map.
On map the roads in grid arrayed,
Like engineering paper,
Indicated bridges out and blockage of the way.

Corruption could not undo Order;
Though all the marching feet of Time
Had trampled it for unknown years,
It, scarred, held fast and true.
Against all Sin and indication
Of thermodynamic law,
A Hand unseen upholds the World,
Or else a Word unheard.

[c.s. lewis and beating myself up]

I read C.S. Lewis’ sermon “Transposition” in The Weight of Glory today. The man is brilliant, and there was a word in it that I really needed to hear:

The attempt to discover by introspective analysis our own spiritual condition is to me a horrible thing which reveals, at best, not the secrets of God’s spirit and ours, but their transpositions in intellect, emotion, and imagination, and which at worst may be the quickest road to presumption or despair.

I’m no mystic, but sometimes I have a tendency to really try to “figure out what’s wrong with me.” This usually leads to beating myself up about symptoms rather than repenting over sin. This encouraged me to go the Word, and let the Holy Spirit show me my sin.

[vince on loving God]

My buddy Vince at Humble Pursuits on what it means to love God, with reference to Piper and Edwards. A post that really hit me where I’m at. Read the whole thing here.

“I think, perhaps, we must study the very character of God. His very essence, which while totally infinite, is still very real in my life. God is Holy. God is Righteous. God is Gracious. God is Steadfast. God is Just. God is Faithful. God is Good.

I think one should commit himself to studying and understanding and meditating and knowing who God is. When he does this, he will grow to love God, himself, more everyday. We must love God for who He IS.

So I say this: Know who God is and you will love him more and more.”

[the cross on every page]

A very lovely post on cross-focused devotion.

http://buzzardblog.typepad.com/buzzard_blog/2007/11/bible-reading-a.html