The Hole In our Gospel (Reader’s Den Review) June 28, 2010
Posted by Ivan in Gospel, Reader's Den Review.add a comment
I eagerly welcome any book that proposes to pinpoint blind spots in the church. I know there are many. I also believe that the American church has traded the sufficiency of God’s Word and the clear proclamation of the gospel for a message more appealing to the itching ears of our generation. So when I saw Richard Stearns’ book The Hole in Our Gospel, I immediatey thoughts he would confront this issue. I was disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to commend and even applaud in the book. Stearns very honestly traces how his faith was a private faith; he saw no need to step out of his comfort zone and get into the messy needs of those around him and around the globe. So throughout the book he wants Christians to stop being so ingrown and not simply believe some facts about Christ that require any real sacrifice. Amen. I agree. But as the book progresses, it seems that he shortchanges the message of the gospel for the implications of the gospel.
While one can learn much from this book and even take action to do more, I believe that the theological foundation for much of what Stearns attempts to argue is somewhat shoddy and anemic. There is a hole in our gospel, but it is not the hole that Stearns presents.
An Ugly Death April 11, 2009
Posted by Ivan in Gospel, Notable Articles, Video.add a comment
From TeamPyro (Dan Phillips):
It depicts Jews preparing, then slitting the throat of a sacrificial animal, and gathering its blood.
You watch it, hearing their ritual in rapid Hebrew, not understanding. But you have this feeling of dread, a horror for what you know is coming. Odds are that you had never quite seen the like, as I hadn’t. But you feel it coming, you watch perhaps with a hand to your mouth, wanting to look away, but stopping yourself. The struggling victim, no clue what is coming; bound, prepared, shaved, given some liquid (sh’teh! sh’teh! — “Drink! Drink!” a speaker urges in Hebrew).
Then the blade slashes, the blood spurts and is gathered, and surprisingly quickly, the victim’s struggles subside.
This was God’s ancient pedagogy. From the very start, He taught us all that sin called for shed blood. He showed this to Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:21). Somehow Abel knew it (Genesis 4:4). Shed blood meant death (Genesis 9:6), and shed blood was the means that Yahweh instituted, for covering and paying for sin (Leviticus 17:11, 14).
This was God’s pedagogy for the nation of Israel. The sight that so shocks us in the video is a sight every Israelite was exposed to from childhood, by divine design. Had they heard Yahweh, had they listened and learned, they would have known: sin-blood-life. Sin can only be atoned for by innocent life, life is in the blood, blood brings life and forgiveness. Violent death of an innocent victim, a substitute on whose head the offerer presses his hand, transferring, marking it as his substitute.
Yet all those animals never really finish the job. God forgives the believing worshipers… but then they have to bring another victim. And another. And another (Hebrews 10:1-4, 11).
Then God tells Israel that these animals would one day be summed up, fulfilled, in one grand Substitute, a Man who would die for His people and bring final and lasting peace and atonement (Isaiah 52:13—53:12).
That Man comes. Many reject Him, many do not. He dies. God removes the Temple. No more sacrifices according to the prescription of the Law are even possible. As if embarrassed (but not humbled), the nation fabricates substituted traditions, works, programs, rituals. The reality has come, but they keep trying to pencil in shadows.
It is like a child that ignored its entire childhood instruction. Blood is necessary for atonement; it would be offered, it has been offered. But the lesson was not heard.
Don’t feel smug, Gentile reader, Christian reader. From our own numbers, from professed “evangelicals,” there are plenty who just as badly — more badly — miss the point.
Imagine that, instead of watching a video of an animal’s death, you somehow saw this day, nearly 2000 years ago. Imagine that, instead of that animal, you were watching Jesus Christ at last night’s supper, at prayer in the garden, arrested, subjected to mock-justice, condemned. Imagine you were watching him being beaten and whipped, and led away.
Imagine the sick, nauseated, worsening clench in your gut as you saw Him stagger off, carrying the cross. You want to tear your eyes away. You want to make it stop. You want to scream “Stop! STOP! This is wrong!“
Yet He goes. He hangs. He bleeds. He dies. He is buried.
Why such an ugly, horrid death? Why, if penal, substitutionary, blood atonement were not indispensable for our salvation? Do we dare shake our heads at Jews who don’t “get” the millennia of instruction?
Best not to mock, while such folly is tolerated in our numbers.
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?Refrain
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.Isaac Watts, 1707
A Day with Dr. Don February 9, 2009
Posted by Ivan in Gospel, Preaching, Spiritual Growth, Video.add a comment
Dr. Don Carson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School did a daylong series of lectures on Christ over at Mars Hill. They’re great! You can watch/listen to them all for free here.
The Great Gospel September 16, 2007
Posted by danielbuckley in Gospel.add a comment
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
This gospel, something for which the writer of Romans, the Apostle Paul was willing to suffer shipwreck, stoning, persecution, and flogging, is a message for which thousands have died, and millions have lived. It isn’t just some kind of cultic hidden belief that is revealed to a select few, it is powerful!
What makes the gospel great? Well, the fact that it bridges the chasm between us and God, made by our sins, and formerly uncrossable. We could never have made it to God through our own efforts.
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Rom 1:18-25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Thank God we weren’t left to die in our selfish wallowings! We aren’t allowed to go on chasing false baits and candies that lead us to hell! We have been made aware of our heinous sins against a holy God and have been given a path to salvation and eternal life with Christ in a new perfect world, where there will be no more sin and death! All through the blood of Christ, at whose name EVERY KNEE WILL BOW!
Knowing God: God Knows Me! August 16, 2007
Posted by Ivan in Gospel, Notable Quotes, Spiritual Growth.2 comments
“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands; I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends of His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend. . . . There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can now disillusion Him about me.”
- J.I. Packer
I came across this quote by J.I. Packer a while ago in his classic Knowing God and it has resonated with me ever since. What great comfort it is to know that God knows me. He knows me as I am. He knows my constant wayward heart. He knows my ever-failing obedience. He knows me as no individual would ever be able to know me (including my mom). He sees my every sin. And you know what the amazing part is? Despite His perfect knowledge of me, God, in His sheer mercy and grace laid down His life on the cross for men such as I to crucify Him with the nails of our sins.
Whenever I read 1 John in my quiet times, I cannot help but stop and linger on, “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). Our love for God and others is based on His initial love for us. I am always dumbfounded by this statement. What a glorious truth to ponder!
The Cross: Our Debt Paid August 10, 2007
Posted by Ivan in Gospel, Spiritual Growth.add a comment
As a college student I am very good friends with Mr. Debt. Having to owe money is not a nice thing when you start realizing that one (and soon) you’ll be paying it all back (and for a very long time)—I guess it’s that way with most people (that are poor). On my side of the bill (no pun intended) I’m doing everything within my power to incur the least debt as possible knowing that it’ll one day affect my future education plan, my marriage plans, and with enough foresight, my children’s plans. I will one day pay it all back in one form or another.
Do you ever stop to realize that we all share one debt that one day we all will have to pay for? It’s a debt that is not optional but comes with the package of just being human. It isn’t for school and it isn’t for a mortgage; it isn’t for a car and it isn’t for a house. In fact, it doesn’t even exist materially (insofar as it cannot be paid with any material asset). What I’m referring to is our sin debt. We all carry this debt on our accounts whether we realize it or not—its existence is not dependent on our knowledge or assent to it, it’s outside of our control.
The apostle Paul traces this debt all the way to the early days of the world, saying, “. . . [T]hrough one man [Adam; cf. Gen. 3] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. . .” (Rom. 5:12). Adam passed down to all of us our natural bent to sin. Ain’t that something special! From the moment we are born our sin is present as David makes clear, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5). In Romans we find a dark picture for mankind, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and then with a strong follow-up, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).
In the garden of Eden (before the Fall [in chapter 3]), God warned Adam, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16,17). One must see the full scope of “death” as the Bible describes it. It is death physically, but it is also death spiritually. In other words, spiritual separation from God occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God mercifully spared Adam and he lived to be nine—hundred and thirty years (Gen. 5:5) but spiritually, there was a debt to be paid that could not be escaped.
In our complete absence of good we are dead in our transgressions (Col. 2:13a), which only adds to the utter helplessness. We are unable to pay back God even if we mustered enough willpower to somehow appease Him for our sin. The inescapable result is death—to be banished eternally from God presence.
Being in that predicament God “. . .made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:13b,14).
Do we have hope? An emphatic yes! Our Savior bore the sins that we committed and the wrath of God was poured on Him. Having abolished sin by His death, Christ stamped “PARDONED” on us and more than that, He gave us His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).
In the Old Testament:
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:4-6).
In the New Testament:
“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. . . .He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:16-17,21).
That is the heart of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, who “knew no sin,” didn’t sin, but became sin for what?. . .so that we would become the righteousness of God. Our disobedient lives were traded in for the sinless and righteous life of Christ.
Our “certificate of debt” (Col. 2:14) was, along with Christ, nailed on the cross where He gave up His spirit saying, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30). At that moment, the entire work of Christ redeeming His own and canceling their sin and giving them His righteousness had been complete. The love and justice of God had been met and the words of John 3:16 never rung truer,
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
While in this life I’ll be paying off debt for a while, there is one debt that has been paid for already. I rest assured in the grace of God who loved me and gave His own Son for me. I place my trust in Him and He gives me all that ever matters: being with Him forever. Remove all else in this life and one thing remains intact—my debt has been paid and I belong to Him.
The Five Sola’s August 8, 2007
Posted by Ivan in Church History, Gospel, Reformation.1 comment so far
I have recently been studying the lives of men such as John Hus, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and many others, who played a crucial role in the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. The Reformation stands as one of those singular events in history that changed the course of the church and the world. At the root of it all were five statements known as the solas which set a firm biblical foundation which girded and fueled the Reformation. The Latin word sola simply means “alone.” I want to briefly examine these five solas, which if grasped, will fuel our faith and place the glory of God in its proper place, in biblical truth.
SOLA SCRIPTURA
“Scripture Alone.” This vital truth is foundational for the other four solas (that will covered later on) in that without this truth, truth would simply be relative and subjective. But if indeed God’s Word is truth and God’s Word is the final authority, then everything else must come under the scrutiny and subjection of the Word.
On April 17, 1521, Luther stood before a general assembly (known as the Diet of Worms) of the Holy Roman Empire, where he was asked to renounce his heretical ways and and retract his writings. He asked for time to think about it and it was given to him. The next day he appeared once more before them and said,
“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.”
What Martin Luther had realized was that God’s Word was the final authority, not the pope or some council. It was the Word alone. It wasn’t (and isn’t) the Word plus traditions, or plus commentaries, or plus opinions, or plus cultures that contain the counsel of God. Far too long the Bible had been eclipsed by the Roman Catholic Church with other additives, but when that eclipse was removed, the brightness of God’s glory and majesty was evident to the common ordinary people as revealed in Scripture. The elevation of the Word over the Church had brought about the genuine faith of the people (cf. Rom. 10:17) which energized the Reformation.
SOLUS CHRISTUS
“Christ Alone.” Christ is the gospel. At the heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In speaking of Jesus, Acts 4:12 makes it clear: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Only Christ can act as the Mediator between us and God through His atoning death (2 Tim. 2:5). It isn’t Christ and the sacraments. It isn’t Christ and rituals. It isn’t Christ and money. Christ alone is the unequivocal Savior! We as sinners come to Christ without anything through the small and narrow gate (Mt. 7:13,14); empty handed we fall before the Cross–we bring nothing to the table but a contrite and broken heart.
SOLA GRATIA
“Grace Alone.” In Ephesians 2:8,9, Paul says that we are saved by “. . .grace. . .through faith; and that not of [ourselves], it is a gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” God does not depend on our good deeds to save us. Our salvation is a sheer result of His divine grace on our lives. The poet Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) captured eloquently the grace of God on undeserving sinners in his hymn Not What My Hands Have Done:
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.
How beautiful is it to know that before the foundation of the world, God chose His elect to receive His grace (cf. Eph. 1:3,4). God knowing our state of complete bankruptcy (spiritually speaking), bestows on our hearts the gift of divine grace–unaffected by our actions. Our salvation is totally free and independent of our works which are like filthy rags before God (cf. Isa. 64:6b).
SOLA FIDE
“Faith Alone.”Salvation is received by faith alone. In Ephesians 2:8, which we looked at with sola gratia, one cannot miss that we are saved by grace which is appropriated by faith. Faith as well is a gift of God. Faith alone is what saves us. It isn’t faith and our participation in Sunday School. It isn’t faith and our attendance at church. Isn’t faith and our baptism. Paul tells that we “. . .[have] been justified by faith” and as a result “. . .we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1,2, emphasis added). How liberating is it to know that we all come the same way. Whether rich or poor, whether healthy or sickly, whether outgoing or reserved, we all come to Christ the same way, namely, by faith alone. Our being made right with God was accomplished on the cross which we receive by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
“To the Glory of God Alone.” The climax of the Bible is reached when we see that all of history is for the glory of God. Every act of God–be it creation or salvation or whatever else–is fueled by God for His glory. The four previous solas set the foundation for this final apex of redemptive history. When we recognize that our salvation is clearly presented in Scripture, and that Christ is the Object of it where He is seen as the One who purchased our salvation on the cross, and that by only grace are we saved, and that that grace is appropriated by our faith, it is then when God receives the glory.
We are not the center of God. He does not bow down to our whim, we bow down to His awesome splendor. He is the center of all that we are. To Him be the glory–alone!
These five Latin phrases are more than object lessons in the history of the Church. They are to be personal truths that are derived from the Word of God. The Reformers saw it as such, and they unashamedly called the church to see its errors.
In speaking of the five solas, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mobile (Alabama), Steve Lawson, concluded with this exhortation:
If we are to see a new Reformation in our day, it will require a return to these same history-altering doctrines that once shocked the church. May God again restore such a commitment in His church. And may it begin with you.
Will we be known as such people?
[More Info: THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION]
Shocking Message July 4, 2007
Posted by Ivan in Evangelism, Gospel, Lordship, Spiritual Growth, Video.add a comment
This is a message given by Paul Washer of the Heart Cry Missionary Society. He was invited to preach at a church; so shocking and confrontational was the message that he has (to this day) never been invited again to preach there. This message was delivered to the 2002 Youth Evangelism Conference in Montgomery, Alabama. His text that evening was Matthew 7:13-27. [You can read the sermon in pdf format here].
Making a Worldwide Difference May 10, 2007
Posted by Ivan in Evangelism, Gospel, Spiritual Growth.add a comment
This is an excellent clip of a conference message asking the question, “How does a person make a worldwide difference?” His words resonate with truth in a day in age when we Christians in America become so attached to this life and its enticements.
