Displaying Grace (through Sin)

One of the greatest parts about being an R.A., and about life in general, is the privilege of living in community with other people.  When the Psalmist wrote "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!", he certainly was right.  But the down side of community, whether in a dorm, the local church, or a family, is that our sins affect each another.  And the longer life goes on, the sicker of sin I get!  It takes God's beautiful, good design and destroys it.  I'm sick of what it does to the world; I'm sick of what it does to my brothers and sisters; and I'm sick of what it does to me.  But the Apostle Paul wrote that even amid sin, God's grace is still working:

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Romans 5:18-20; NKJV)

Even sin and it's ugly effects are not outside of God's control, and sin and its ugly effects display God's grace and redemption as glorious.  Luther expressed it well when he wrote to Melanchthon that only a sinner can experience God's grace:

"If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life in not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."  (Weimar ed. vol. 2, p. 371; Letters I, "Luther's Works," American Ed., Vol 48. p. 281- 282)

Because of our unique position as sinful created beings whom God has redeemed for Himself, we have the opportunity to experience His grace in a way that would never be possible in a world without sin.  So, sin in the body of Christ is an opportunity to forgiven each other because Christ has forgiven us and to display His redemption and grace against the backdrop of human sin.  With Luther, while we fight sin dwelling in our flesh, we "look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13; NKJV).

In Luther's Words...

Instead of sharing Luther’s words in a small status, here is a selection in celebration of Reformation Day.  God used Luther, a fallen human being, to accomplish His purposes, which is comforting to me.

God and the Gospel
“We believe that the very beginning and end of salvation, and the sum of Christianity, consists of faith in Christ, who by His blood alone, and not by any works of ours, has put away sin, and destroyed the power of death.”
“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” 
“This error of free will is a special doctrine of the Antichrist.”
“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”
"He who is well acquainted with the text of Scripture is a distinguished theologian. For a Bible passage or text is of more value than the comments of four authors."

Good Education
“I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's word becomes corrupt…. I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.”

Theology and Music
“I firmly believe, nor am I ashamed to assert, that next to theology no art is equal to music; for it is the only one, except theology, which is able to give a quiet and happy mind. This is manifestly proved by the fact that the devil, the author of depressing care and distressing disturbances, almost flees from the sound of music as he does from the word of theology. This is the reason why the prophets practiced music more than any art and did not put their theology into geometry, into arithmetic, or into astronomy, but into music, intimately uniting theology and music, telling the truth in psalms and songs….I place music next to theology and give it the highest praise.”

On Studying Greek and Hebrew
"Do you inquire what use there is in learning the languages ...?  Do you say, 'We can read the Bible very well in German?'
Without languages we could not have received the gospel. Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the casket which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and as the gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude.
If we neglect the literature we shall eventually lose the gospel ... No sooner did men cease to cultivate the languages than Christendom declined, even until it fell under the undisputed dominion of the pope. But no sooner was this torch relighted, than this papal owl fled with a shriek into congenial gloom ... In former times the fathers were frequently mistaken, because they were ignorant of the languages and in our days there are some who, like the Waldenses, do not think the languages of any use; but although their doctrine is good, they have often erred in the real meaning of the sacred text; they are without arms against error, and I fear much that their faith will not remain pure.”

From His Own Life
“I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals.  I have within me a great pope, Self.”
“You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.”
“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” 
“Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.”
“I've got so much work to do today, I'd better spend two hours in prayer instead of one.”
“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”

Church Music: May the Mind of Christ My Savior

"May the Mind of Christ My Savior" was often sung at the close of the message at the church in which I grew up.  It's words provide a great response to the ministry of the Word during corporate worship.  We do not know much about the story behind the hymn, but it was written by Kate Barclay Wilkinson.  It's words, composed some time prior to 1912, are based on Philippians ("Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus") and appear to have come out of the author's involvement with the Keswick Conferences.  Although not a huge Keswick fan myself, the words of the hymn challenge me to view God as the ministering agent and myself as the means by which He works.

May the mind of Christ my Savior
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and pow'r controlling
  All I do and say.

May the Word of Christ dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
  Only through His pow'r.

May the peace of Christ my Savior
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
  Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me,
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
  This is victory.

May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
  As I onward go

May His beauty rest upon me

As I seek the lost to win,

And may they forget the channel,
  Seeing only Him.

Simple Answers

A good way to apply a theological question down to real life is to teach a pre-readers' Sunday School class.  My class at The Master's Community Church (themcc.org) is full of little people who have a great deal of energy, love to tell about all the things God made, and are learning how God keeps His promises to His people (amazingly, the exact same thing their teacher is learning!).  The class has put feet on a number of questions that have been in my mind for some time.

1) How do you teach Old Testament Bible stories of God's just punishment for sin and reward for faith without implanting a performance-based mentality in a child's mind?  This past week, the Bible lessons was from Numbers 21:4-9, the story of the Brazen Serpent.  Over the past several weeks we've been looking at the wilderness wanderings and noting how God blesses belief and disciplines unbelief.  On Sunday, I explained to the children that there was nothing magical about the snake on the pole; it was believing in God's promise that healed Israelites.  Someone asked if a person would be healed if he believed God but didn't look at the snake.  And here we were back at the performance vs. faith question.

2) How do you teach an Old Testament passage that the New Testament expands on?  Should you stick to the OT text or highlight the NT explanation of the OT passage?  The Brazen Serpent's significance is highlighted by Christ's reference to it in John 3:14-15: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  All the big questions of the New Testament's use of the Old Testament rushed into my mind.  Should I bring in the NT or stick to the OT?  If Christ used the Bronze Serpent as a picture of Himself, wouldn't it be doing the story injustice to leave out Christ's use of it?

3) What about passages whose meaning is dependent on your theological paradigm?  Upon further investigation, I discovered this was one of those passages.  What did Christ mean when He said that He would be "lifted up"?  Was it a reference to the Cross (John 8:28, 12:32-34), or was it also a reference to His glorification (Isaiah 6:1, 52:13).  There was a neat string of theology behind both views, and I wasn't ready to pick a position.

In the end, all three questions had much simpler answers than I was prepared for.  1) Someone who believed God's promises would look at the snake.  A person who believes God's promises obeys His commands.  2) Since Jesus used the Bronze Serpent to picture Himself, we should use the same picture when we teach the story.  3) Since John would have been familiar with Isaiah's use of "lifted up," it's possible that his use of the term included the Messiah's glorification from Isaiah.

The purpose of this post is not to say that these questions are not legitimately difficult or that I've found amazing answers to them, but that when it comes right down to explaining to pre-readers what the Bible means, the answers are amazingly simple.  Through prayer, submission to the Holy Spirit, and exegesis it is possible to know what Scripture means by what it says.

Bonhoeffer on the Psalms

Today, I began researching for my paper on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's view of Christ. While looking through one of his books, this chapter on the importance of personal and corporate use of the Psalms challenged me.

"Congregational Worship and the Psalms"
from Psalms: the Prayer Book of the Bible

In many churches the Psalms are read or sung every Sunday, or even daily, in succession. These churches have preserved a priceless treasure, for only with daily use does one appropriate this divine prayer book. When read only occasionally, these prayers are too overwhelming in design and power and tend to

turn us back to more palatable fare. But whoever has begun to pray the Psalter seriously and regularly will soon give a vacation to oth er little devotional prayers and say:"Ah, there is not the juice, the strength, the passion, the fire which I find in the Psalter. It tastes too cold and too hard" (Luther).

Therefore, wherever we no longer pray the Psalms in our churches, we must take up the Psalter that much more in our daily morning and evening prayers, reading and praying together at least several Psalms every day so that we succeed in reading through this book a number of times each year, getting into it deeper and deeper. We also ought not to select Psalms at our own discretion, thinking that we know better what we ought to pray than does God himself. To do that is to dishonor the prayer-book of the Bible. In the ancient church it was not unusual to memorize "the entire David." In one of the eastern churches this was a prerequisite for the pastoral office. The church father St. Jerome says that one heard the Psalms being sung in the fields and gardens in his time. The Psalter impregnated the life of early Christianity. Yet more important than all of this is the fact that Jesus died with the words of the Psalter on his lips.

Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, and incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power.

Personal Devotions

Personal devotions are foundational to a walk with God that changes our lives.

As Bible college students, it's easy to get spiritual nourishment from classes, chapel, church, Sunday School, or small group studies. However, not even the Church can substitute for studying God's Word and knowing God through personal devotions. Sadly, in 2000, Gallup released a study that reported that out of the Christians they polled, only 16% said they read their Bible every day.*

If my personal devotions were my only source of spiritual food, how hungry would I be?

The following clip was both helpful and challenging to me. It gives practical suggestions for Bible school students on personal devotions. Technically, the speaker is applying the message to seminary students, but the same principles work for Bible college students:) Featuring D. A. Carson, it is from the Desiring God blog, January 16, 2012. I hope it is a blessing!

Read the Bible Devotionally — and No Less Critically from Desiring God on Vimeo.

* Gallup, Alec and Wendy W. Simmons, "Six in Ten Americans Read Bible at Least Occasionally," The Gallup Organization, http://www.gallup.com, October 20, 2000.

Is Ministry a Job?

This morning in Biblical Worldview class we were discussing a Biblical view of work. The class motivated me to do a bit of study about what Scripture teaches about a person’s view of ministry. Many of us are either in some type of part-time ministry, looking at full-time vocational ministry, or looking forward to ministering as unto the Lord in a “secular” career, so what God says about minsitry is important to us. After all, all of life is really ministry unto the Lord. Ministry may function as a job, but that should never be the mindset of the person in ministry.

Scripture shows both negative and positive example of people’s attitude towards the ministry. The apostle Peter writes about false teaches who “Have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” These false teaches fell into Balaam’s sin – using ministry as a way to get money. He sold his prophetic ministry to a heathen king to curse God’s people to get money. Scripture consistently describes false teachers using the ministry to satisfy their greed for money (Jude 11).

The apostle Paul described the mindset of a person in ministry in I Peter 5:1-4; this passage refers specifically to leaders in the church, but the same mindset is to characterize all of God’s servants. “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” God’s servants are to care for His flock willingly and eagerly, not doing it for personal gain, but out of love for God and people. Their job is not a set of tasks lasting from 9-5. It is a mindset of love and service for people flowing from love for God.

John Piper writes in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, “We are most emphatically not part of a social team sharing goals with other professionals. Our goals are an offense; they are foolishness (I Cor. 1:23). The professionalization of the ministry is a constant threat to the offense of the gospel. It is a threat to the profoundly spiritual nature of our work. I have seen it often: the love of professionalization…kills a man’s belief that he is sent by God to save people from hell and to make them Christ-exalting, spiritual aliens in the world.” (3)

How do I recognize if I’m treating ministry as a job? When the “work” takes priority over the people. When people are an “interruption” to getting the “work” done. (ouch – that one hits close to home) When my motivation in ministry is my own agenda, instead of loving God by loving people. How can I change my attitude towads ministry? By repenting of self-centeredness. By praying that God would give me a love for people. By consciously putting helping people in front of doing jobs.