“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph 2:19-20).
Now we come to the core of Christianity, the person and work of Jesus Christ. It may seem odd to say that it is Christ, not God, who is the core of our faith, but it is what Jesus did — his work — in which we place our trust, and his character and teachings are the ultimate revelation of God. As William Lane Craig said, “The Christian religion stands or falls with the person of Jesus Christ. Judaism could survive without Moses, Buddhism without Buddha, Islam without Mohammed; but Christianity could not survive without Christ.”1 That’s probably why God the Father is covered in two lines of the Apostles’ Creed while it takes ten lines to cover the fundamentals about Jesus. The Nicene Creed goes into even more detail:
“[I believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”
People today have as many misguided ideas about Jesus as they do about God. Everyone wants to have their own personal Jesus. Pop culture, New Agers, and political parties all want to give you their version of Jesus. Their version always looks an awful lot like them. It’s fine if everyone wants to have their own take on the Tooth Fairy, but we have to base our beliefs about Jesus on the real man and the life he really led. We are no more entitled to our own personal Jesus than we are to our own personal Abraham Lincoln. The facts have to be our guide, in this case the facts as recorded by his friends and followers. That some people don’t like the facts does not make them any less factual.
The scriptures say that Christ is the chief cornerstone of the Church. He determines the shape of what she can be. When we try to build something out of line with him, the whole structure falls apart. History has shown that to be true time and again. So we’re going to spend some time learning about the real Jesus of history as revealed by the apostles who knew him and their disciples.
1 William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith
image credit: Cornerstone, R Miller used by Creative Commons
Part of Christianity 101
“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” (Rom 8:19).
God is not content to leave his image marred in humanity.
God had a plan, conceived before the foundation of the world, whereby he would rescue his rebellious, broken images. The first big truth about humans is that we are immensely valuable to God. The second is that we are all in rebellion against God and so deserve destruction. The third is that God plans to set all that right at great cost to himself.
Tim Keller writes, “The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone.”1
People who think that Christianity is down on people have not listened to the whole gospel. Not only does God want to rescue us from the consequences of our sin, he plans to make us more than we ever were. The image of God will be repaired when his people are united with him through Christ. Don’t read that too quickly. United with him through Christ.
He is not going to just fix us. We’re getting an upgrade. We’ll go deeper into this later, but God’s plan is that those he redeems should become his children, “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17, cf Tit 3:7, Gal 4:7, 1Pet 3:7), who will “participate in the divine nature” (2Pet 1:4). CS Lewis wrote:
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."2
God’s plans for redeemed humanity are glorious. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1Cor 2:9). Until that day, we wait patiently for the restoration of all things and work to make sure that as many people as possible are in the company of the redeemed.
For more on this topic, I recommend “The Weight of Glory” by CS Lewis.
1 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
2 CS Lewis, “The Weight of Glory” in The Weight of Glory, emphasis in original
Part of Christianity 101
"The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:2-3).
Humans are born at war with God. How did we go from the image of God to enemies of God? The answer is the fall.
In Genesis 2 we learn that God put his humans in a beautiful garden that supplied their every need, then he gave them one rule. In chapter 3 we see them break that one rule. Some people want to deny that those events are literal history, but in some way or another, human beings learned to sin. More than that, they rebelled. And when they did, the image of God was broken.
Nature was designed such that everything reproduces after its kind, and for humans that meant passing on that new, fallen nature. Now, the human heart “is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). So sin comes naturally to us. We don’t have to teach children to sin; they figure that out on their own. It’s often said, we aren’t sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. This is called “original sin” — what GK Chesterton called “the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.”1
So what exactly is sin? Erickson defines it as “any lack of conformity, active or passive, to the moral law of God.”2 It is the things we do and the things we don’t do. It can be found in our actions or our intentions. It’s anything in which we deviate from God’s character. And we do it as easily as breathing.
The result of our sin is alienation. We are alienated from nature, from God, from other people, and from ourselves.3 The world is broken because of us; we were cast out of paradise into a world that wants to hurt us. We cannot have peace with other people or even ourselves for very long. And we are at war with God. This is the second truth we have to grasp. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
All of this doesn’t mean that we’re completely wicked. But it does mean that everything about us is tainted. Theologians call it the doctrine of total depravity. It says that there is no part of us that isn’t touched by sin. That doesn’t mean we are only terrible all the time. We can follow God’s law when it seems like a good idea to us. But doing “good” for our own reasons isn’t honoring God; we’re still rebelling. That is why even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags to God (Is 64:6).
It gets worse. When we sin, we join in the devil’s rebellion. We are committing treason. And the penalty for treason is death. When Paul said “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), he wasn’t being melodramatic. Sin introduced death to the human race, spiritual and physical, and eternal death is the just penalty for treason against an infinitely holy God.
These are hard truths, but they are truths we need to embrace. People don’t go to the doctor unless they think they’re sick. But once they know they’re sick, the treatment is precious to them. Human beings are desperately sick, and they need to know it.
But this isn’t just for lost people. Christians are still sinners, and we have the same problem. When we lose sight of our sin, the cross loses its beauty. Meditating on our sinful condition helps us appreciate the gospel. It also yields the humility that the Lord desires in us (Is 57:15). And it makes the cross shine forth in all the glory of the grace of God.4
People have never liked hearing they are sinners, but it’s probably even worse now. We cannot be ashamed of this truth. Refusing to tell a sinner he’s a sinner is no different than a doctor refusing to tell someone with a tumor he has cancer. We have the cure for the disease. They need to know they’re sick.
For more on this topic, I recommend “The Nature and Source of Sin” in Millard Erickson’s Introducing Christian Doctrine.
1 GK Chesteron, Orthodoxy
2 Millard Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine
3 RC Sproul, Everyone’s a Theologian
4 Richard Phillips, What's So Great About Total Depravity?
image credit: Fractured Sand, Brian Williams
Part of Christianity 101
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).
What are human beings? What makes them more valuable than anything else in God’s creation?
Genesis 1 tells us how God created the earth. Again and again God said, “Let there be ...,” and it was. Then God begins to make humans, and things change. The pattern is broken. God says, “Let us make mankind ...” and then “So God created mankind...” (Gen 1:26-27). Gen 2 goes into more detail: “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (2:7). God didn’t speak humanity into existence. He got his “hands” dirty. He crafted humans. No other part of creation receives that kind of attention.
It also says, “God created mankind in his own image.” There is nothing else on earth that is described as being created in God’s image. “When the Creator of the universe wanted to create something ‘in his image,’ something more like himself than all the rest of creation, he made us.”1 Throughout the scriptures, and throughout history, this has been taken to mean that humans, just by virtue of being humans, possess a special dignity. This is why murder is a capital crime (Gen 9:6).
What does it mean to be made “in God’s image?” Theologians debate whether it means that humans are created with certain characteristics that make us like God or whether we were created to be God’s special representatives on earth. I think it’s probably both. RC Sproul says, “The image is a unique ability to mirror the character of God such that the rest of the world should be able to look at humans and say, ‘That gives us an idea of what God is like.’”2 We were meant to oversee this planet as God’s regents in a way that reflects him.
But we weren’t just made to represent him; we were made to know him. In Genesis 3 we find that God visits his humans in the evening after their work is done. Again and again in the scriptures we see that God desires intimacy with the people he has made. God did not make us to be pets or employees; he made us to be friends.
So the first truth we need to grasp is that humans are very valuable to God. We are special in a way that nothing else on earth is special. God cares for all of earth’s creatures, be we alone are made in his image. We alone were made for fellowship with God.
There are some implications we need to make clear.
First, all humans are made in God’s image. All humans are descended from these first two. There is no human being who is not of inestimable value. All of the artificial divisions we have created in the human race, all of the “us versus them” fighting, is a result of sin and losing sight of this truth. In the same way, “male and female” are both made in God’s image. There was never supposed to be one human who was less “the image of God” than another, and everyone you meet should be treated like an image bearer.
Second, “because humans are God’s creation, they cannot discover their real meaning by regarding themselves and their happiness as the highest of all values, nor can they find happiness, fulfillment, or satisfaction by going out in search of it. Their value has been conferred upon them by a higher source, and they are fulfilled only when serving and loving that higher being.”3 Or, as Augustine said in his Confessions, God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they can find rest in him.
Finally, we have already seen that God exists in community, so it shouldn’t surprise us that, when the man was made first in the image of God, it was “not good” that the man was alone (Gen 2:18). We were never meant to be solitary creatures because we were made like the triune God. Not everyone is called to be married and raise a family, but everyone needs other people.
Spend some time reflecting on this: You were created to represent, resemble, and know the God of the universe. You are immensely valuable to him simply because of how he made you.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)
Yet the God who measures the heavens with his hands, who calls the stars each by name, cares deeply about you.
1 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, emphasis in original
2 RC Sproul, Everyone's a Theologian
3 Millard Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine
image credit: Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel
Part of Christianity 101
I believe in the sovereignty of God. Except when I'm in traffic. When I'm stuck behind someone going 40 in a 55 on a country road where it's impossible to pass, or when I'm caught in stop and go traffic on the freeway, it's easy to forget that I believe that God is in control. My frustration over my schedule, where I want to be, or just how fast I want to go can distract me from the truth.
We believe that God's control extends to everything, no matter how small. We believe that God has a plan that he is working out. The scriptures say that God leads kings where he wants them to go and manages the diets of sparrows. Nothing is too big or too small for God's sovereignty.
In case you hadn't noticed, there's an election coming up. Lately it seems like every election is billed as "the most important election in history," but the stakes will be high in this one. Not only are very different viewpoints vying for control, but, since politics has devolved to the control of the Supreme Court, and since there are at least two justices not likely to serve for another four years, the next president will get to shape the nation for decades to come.
It's easy to feel anxious about that. The stakes are high, emotions are high, and the world is crazy. It's hard to predict how next weekend will work out, much less an election. It's easy to be distracted by all the drama.
When you feel anxious about the election — or anything else — take a deep breath and tell yourself that God is in control.
That doesn't mean that God will do what you want him to. God sometimes gives us the things we don't want. And the scriptures are clear that sometimes he gives us exactly the harmful thing that we do want. Our society is sick, and sometimes people want bad things. God may give it to them (cf, Rom 1:18-32).
What do we do? Pray and trust God (Phil 4:4-9). Pray that God will not give us the leaders we deserve but leaders that will lead us toward righteousness. Also pray that, however the election works out, people will be respectful and peaceful toward one another.
And remember that God is in control. In human terms, after a presidential election, one of two people will be the next president. The numerous minor parties have no chance of actually winning. But the God who parts the sea, who leads kings around by the nose can put whomever he pleases into office. Trust God can and will do as he sees fit.
But whether we get what we think is good or what we think is bad, a good God is in control. He is working everything out according to his holy, loving, just plan. When your party loses the election, when your kids are giving you trouble, when a pandemic is raging, and when you're stuck in traffic, remind yourself God is on his throne, and he wants what is best for you.
May I suggest spending some time meditating on Psalm 104 and Isaiah 45?
Image credit: Daniel R. Blume
