All God

I feel bad when I don't pay attention to the sermon, but sometimes I get distracted. One verse — one phrase, really — from the day's passage set my mind to racing on one of the most important topics in Scripture.

Our Emaciated Gospel

We don't tend to share the whole gospel. We share a very scaled-down version. This is something we've been doing for generations, and we've gotten away with it for quite a while, but our society has changed. It's time we reconsider how we present the gospel.

Living in a Wicked World

People can be horrible. As the apostle said, they are "foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures." They spend their lives "in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." This is the natural state of fallen mankind. So how do we deal with living among them?

When are We Saved?

There's something puzzling in the scriptures. Sometimes our salvation is spoken of in the past tense, sometimes present tense, and sometimes as future. Isn't that contradictory? How can that all be true?

Some deal with this by proposing that the past refers to our justification, the present to sanctification, and the future to glorification. In some passages, that seems to work. In others it doesn't. Let's look at a way to read those other passages and see if it clears things up.

12 Types of People

There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary and those who don't. OK, sorry, nerd joke. How about this one:

There are two types of people: Those who put people into groups, and those who don't. That's kind of a joke, kind of not. Sometimes it's good to see people as "just people". Dividing everyone into "us" and "them" usually ends badly for "them". But if we fail to see important distinctions, we can fail to give people what they really need.

I want to look at 12 types of people that we can find in our lives and what they need from us.

Preparing the Soil

Jesus' Parable of the Sower is a lot to chew on. In some ways it can be a little terrifying. But it also raises an interesting question in my mind, one I'd like to set before you.

Telling the Gospel

Do you have a favorite way to present the gospel? There are lots of good ways to do it, but I've come upon one that I think really has a special appeal.

Bending the Knee

Why is faith necessary to be saved? Even if faith isn't "blind faith", why should it be necessary for God to save people? Why can't God just save everyone?

There is an element in salvation that doesn't get a lot of air-time these days, so a lot of American Christians get the gospel wrong. This results in many raised in the church not understanding salvation. It also aids those outside the church in misunderstanding or misrepresenting the gospel and Christian teaching.

Remind Yourself

I'm forgetful. Not that I have a bad memory. In fact, my memory is full of easily accessed trivia from decades ago. But when I really need to remember something, what's right in front of my face tends to overshadow everything else.

I don't think I'm alone in that. We easily lose sight of what's important because of what's pressing, so it's easy for us to forget important truth because of life. For that reason, I'd like to share something I observed in our small group over the last year.

Remember the Gospel

Dear friends,

I do not know the world you will live in, but I know the Lord said, “In this world, you will have trouble,” so I want to give you some advice on how to continue to honor Christ when that trouble comes. There are so many things I’d like to be able to share with you, so many precious truths that can comfort your soul and transform the way you live. But if I only have the opportunity to tell you one thing, let’s make it this: No matter what happens, when life is easy, and especially when life is hard, remember the gospel!

Anything

In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped 20-40 inches of rain on the Houston area in just a few days. Thousands of houses were flooded, including the homes of some of the couples in our “newlyweds” Sunday school class. Our class of mostly 20-somethings descended on those houses hauling out furniture, ripping out carpet, and tearing out drywall.

Good Medicine

My thirtieth birthday brought me the gift of a chronic stomach problem. I’d taken the day off from work, but I woke up feeling bad, and it only got worse as the day progressed. But stomach bugs happen, and I fully expected it to last no more than a day or two and then life would get back to normal. I was wrong. That was the new normal.

I struggled with that condition for years. I spent most of 2006 nauseous. Finally they found a medicine that helped. It didn’t cure it, but it made the symptoms manageable. Ten years or so later, the doctor wanted to wean me off the medication and see how it went. By God’s grace it went well. I still have the occasional flare up, but nothing like the way it began. So the medicine worked. How do I know? I got better.

The Problem of the Likable Lost

For many people, the thing that makes Christianity hard to believe is the miracle stories — talking donkeys, burning bushes, and walking dead people.

But for another group of people the hard thing is the people they meet. This can be true for both non-Christians and Christians, and it's the latter that I want to talk about.

Bearing Bad News

No one likes being the bearer of bad news. When everything seems to be going well, bringing bad news is not going to make you popular. When you’re already unpopular, the natural inclination is to just keep your head down and try not to be noticed. You don’t want to stand out. You don’t want to attract attention to yourself. You certainly don’t want to tell people something they don’t want to hear. But sometimes we have to.

For our next Lesson from Babylon, let’s look at the time when Daniel had to bring bad news to a king who was on top of the world.

So What?

Why does it matter if there is a God? What difference does it make if Jesus rose from the dead? Why should anyone care that Christianity is true? So what? That’s what a lot of people are asking these days. The new atheists have come and gone; today we need to be able to answer the apatheists.

If you were sharing your faith with someone whose only question was “so what?”, what would you say? We would do well to borrow from an apostle who did exactly that. Paul’s speech in Athens provides a succinct answer to that question, one that can be used for apatheists and also the “spiritual but not religious” and those of other faiths.

The Product of Grace

A good campfire begins with a spark. That spark creates a small flame. If you work with it, that small flame can be coaxed into a roaring fire that will warm cold bodies and light up the night.

In my latest read-through of the pastoral epistles, a passage in Titus grabbed me by the shoulders and demanded my attention. I can’t say how many times I’ve read it, but this time I was struck by how well it speaks to our generation.

Evangelism and Apologetics

It's easy to think that evangelism and apologetics are separate, even opposite. After all, evangelism is telling people about Jesus, and apologetics is arguing with them, right? I'm going to make the case that evangelism requires two hands: the gospel is the right hand and apologetics the left.

I think we can boil the message of the NT down to this:

• Jesus said the world will be judged.
• Jesus said the proof of his authority would be rising from the dead.
• Jesus rose from the dead.
• Therefore, the world will be judged, so you need to believe on Jesus and repent of your sins.

We can quibble over whether that is a good statement of the gospel message another time; it'll serve to make my point, which is that someone out there will object to just about every one of those statements.

Jesus said the world will be judged: How do we know he said that? Why should we believe that the gospels accurately convey what he said? How do we know the gospels we have are the same as the ones that were written. Why should the world be judged; wouldn't a loving God forgive people their sin? Wait, what is this sin thing — morality is relative and there are no "sins." The world is not going to be judged, and neither are you, because there is no God.

Jesus said the proof of his authority would be rising from the dead: Jesus didn't say that; his followers made it up years after his death. It's not possible to know the future, so Jesus could not have known that he was going to be crucified.

Jesus rose from the dead: That's impossible; dead people don't do that. Why should we believe Jesus rose from the dead? That's just a legend that grew up generations after Jesus and his first followers died. The disciples stole the body, or hallucinated, or lied. Or copied earlier pagan myths about dying and rising gods.

So you need to believe on Jesus and repent of your sins: "Believe" means to accept something you know isn't true. "Repent" suggests I've done something wrong, and I haven't. I don't want to be a Christian because Christians are hypocrites. Jesus works for you, but my religion works for me, so I'll be fine. It's cruel to say that you have to follow Jesus one way to be saved. 

We can, we should, prepare to answer those questions because we know they're likely to come. Besides our concern for the other's immortal soul, a stumped Christian sends the message that we have not thought this through, that there is no intellectual basis for our faith, or that Christianity is a religion for a bygone era. An objection gently answered, even if it's not as convincing an answer as they would like, sends the opposite message — we have thought this through, and you don't have to check your brain at the door to be a Christian.

There may be times when you'll share the gospel with someone who is ready to receive it, and they'll accept every word you say, but I'll bet you're going to get more resistance than that from the average postmodern American or European. Having the gospel in one hand and apologetics in the other will allow you to answer questions and address objections. Maybe you won't always get people to the "accept Jesus" stage, but you'll leave them with something to think about, and that may in time grow in their hearts so that the next person who shares the gospel with them will reap the benefit of your hard work.


Image via Pexels

What the Angels Said About Jesus

Before John called Jesus the divine Word who "was with God and ... was God," before Paul called him "the image of the invisible God," even before Jesus ran around Judea and Galilee claiming divine prerogatives for himself, people were warned what to expect from this Jesus. The angel Gabriel did not just tell Mary, "You're going to have a son." The angelic visitations attending the birth of Jesus laid out the story for anyone who was ready to listen.

Luke 1:26-38
"You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.

"The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

Matt 1:20-21
"...what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ... She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Luke 2:11
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

"He will be called the Son of God." In the Old Testament, there are many "sons of God." There is whoever Gen 6:2 refers to, there are references to angels being sons of God, and kings and all Israel are called sons of God. So what makes this kid special? This son will be conceived when "the Holy Spirit will come upon" Mary. He will be no normal man. Many in the Bible were unable to conceive without God's help, but this time it will be without the involvement of a man. Furthermore "He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever." Forever. This is no mere mortal. He's not mortal at all.

He will be "holy." Holy, especially when talking about people, means to be set apart. Samson was set apart from birth. So was John the Baptist. You know about Samson's hair. Zechariah was told about John, "He is never to take wine or other fermented drink" (Luke 1:15). These restrictions highlighted that they were set apart for God's use. There are no special instructions for this child. He's not a Nazirite. He's not "set apart for a special work." He's intrinsically holy. Like God.

"He will save his people from their sins." Do you think Mary and Jospeh wondered how he would accomplish that? I doubt they could have imagined the form that would actually take, but besides that, how can a human being save anyone from their sins? A human being cannot. The blood of bulls and goats does not bring forgiveness of sins, and neither would the blood of any mere man.

"He is Christ the Lord." "Lord" in the New Testament means different things. It can mean as little as "sir." It can mean a servant's master or an exalted person. Or it can mean the king. Calling him "Christ the sir" makes no sense, so he's obviously exalted to some extent. To what extent? He's no mere mortal. He's the Son of David. He's the special Son of the Most High. He'll reign as king forever. He will not be a lord but the Lord.

The Savior that was born to them and to us was no mere man. To anyone who was listening, the angels spelled out that this baby was going to be God in the flesh, come down to save mankind and call the nations to himself. The shepherds "spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child" (Luke 2:17), and so should we. We worship him best by joining his mission to call all nations to be reconciled to God.

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Related:
Of Sons and Promises
The Forever King

The Rest of the Gospel

Are we selling the gospel short?

Ask a child what the gospel is, and she'll (hopefully) say something like, "It's God forgiving your sins so you can go to heaven." And all of that is true.

As adults we should know that it's about so much more than that. But I think we forget.

Here's a verse almost everyone knows: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Here's one less well known: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

"Eternal life" is more than going to heaven. We get to know God!

Here's another one: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them" (2Cor 5:17-19).

Through Christ's atoning death, through the forgiveness of our sins, "God was reconciling" us to himself. He was healing the broken relationship between us.

"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).

The mystery of the gospel is "Christ in you." We are united with Christ. God now lives in us.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" (Rom 8:29).

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves" (Eph 1:4-6).

And he has adopted us, rebellious sinners though we were and are, as his own children, "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17), and now "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:6). This was the big plan. This isn't a fringe benefit. This is what God set out to do. We are forgiven, promised "eternal life", reconciled to God, and united with Christ so that we can be adopted.

So what is the gospel? It's God forgiving your sins through Christ so that he can make you his child.

I think this is the message our culture needs to hear today, partly because "heaven" seems to remote and far away, and partly because the child version of the gospel has become trite, I'm not sure people really listen to it anymore. But Christianity is not about an escape plan or a get-out-of-hell-free card. It's about becoming what God always intended us to be. 

Jesus died on the cross to make us like him. And that is very good news.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"

He's Not Wicked, He's My Friend

For many people, the thing that makes Christianity hard to believe is the miracle stories — talking donkeys, burning bushes, and walking dead people.

But for another group of people the hard thing is the people they meet. This can be true for both non-Christians and Christians, and it's the latter that I want to talk about.

For Christians, likable non-Christians can be a strong anti-apologetic. Once we leave our Christian enclaves, we run into nice Muslims, homosexuals, and atheists, and it's hard to think that these people are "wicked sinners" who deserve hell. I've been there. Some of the nicest people I've ever met were Mormons. I've got friends and family living a gay lifestyle. I care about a number of people whose philosophy of religion can be summed up as "meh."

These people make us want to believe that big chunks of Christianity aren't true. Jesus rose from the dead? Sure, fine. God is love? Cool. There will be a judgment after which the unbelievers will be cast away and punished forever? Whoa, wait a minute, I don't like that one.

There are two very important things that we have to keep in mind when we struggle with this.

First, we didn't just come up with this. People ask how we can believe in terrible things like hell. I counter that I believe it for the same reason I believe if you step off a cliff you'll fall to your death — it's true. The truth isn't always nice. Important truths frequently aren't.

We didn't just sit around making up a theology and decided we needed something to do with the "others." We didn't decide that Jesus is the only way to God. We didn't decide that there would be a judgment. We didn't just make up everlasting punishment for unbelievers. Jesus said that.

If we believe Jesus rose from the dead we have to accept that he pointed to that as a vindication of all of his work and teaching. And he taught that one day he would have to tell many people, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Secondly, we have to remember that, as much as we hate this truth, God hates it more.

CS Lewis put it this way: "I said glibly a moment ago that i would pay 'any price' to remove this doctrine [of hell]. I lied. I could not pay one-thousandth part of the price that God has already paid to remove the fact [of it]" (The Problem of Pain, emphasis added).

God paid a high price to keep people from going to hell. And then he told us to go tell everybody about it.

So don't let your love of your non-Christian friends and family make you shy away from the truth of the gospel. Make it make you determined to share with them the good news:

We're all wicked sinners, but while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.