It’s funny how God often uses odd little coincidences to hammer home something he wants to say to you. I realized, thanks to the posts from my recent sermon, that I hadn’t shared the next installment of my story with you. So I dug out the old version of this post, set about beginning to edit it, and considered if it needed any expansion.

The first few paragraphs were all about how I had decided to take a blog break and how that break had reminded me of something that God had taught me many years ago. I nearly deleted those paragraphs altogether as, at first, they didn’t seem very relevant to my situation at the moment. I wasn’t just finishing a blogging break, nor surely was I about to start one.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me. I have three messages to give in the next three weeks. The last of these is one of the seminars at Together On A Mission. So I have plenty of prayer and preparation to do alongside my normal work. I suddenly concluded that it is indeed a good time, therefore, for me to put my blog into hibernation mode, probably until the beginning of the conference, at which I will once again be live-blogging. It is possible that I may sneak a post or two in before then, but if not, I will definitely be back at the latest on the 7th of July. I have edited the following post less than I thought I would, and am grateful for the reminder. I hope to be able to spend some of the time I save walking in the woods, praying

Just before Christmas 2006, someone I know asked me what I was going to do on my blog to “follow” my interview with Wayne Grudum. In that moment I knew exactly how I was going to follow it—with silence. Sometimes the best way to try and follow something is quite simply not to! To be honest, I felt like I needed a break anyway. During that time not one of my readers wrote to me asking me to write something on my blog. Either that means they didn’t miss me—perhaps because they had all been busy—or they simply took me at my word that I was taking a “prolonged break.”

Or, perhaps more likely, it shows the place of a blog in the average reader’s day—it's a piece of light entertainment that we can live with or without—in a snatched moment in-between everything else we do that is much more important. So my little “sabbatical” back then, and the times I did the same thing since, didn’t cost you guys anything—there is always another blog to read. And, in any case, if for some strange reason someone was desperate for a dose of “Warnie,” then this blog has been around long enough that simply looking in the archives would uncover something you hadn’t read yet. In fact, especially when I have had breaks that involved recycling old material, I found that sometimes my readership actually increased!

Putting ourselves to one side for awhile to reflect is no bad thing; indeed it has biblical precedent, as does the thought that God tends to do things in “waves” or “seasons.” I really felt at Christmas 2006 it was right for me to just stop blogging for a few weeks. It also coincided with a needed pause in my preaching commitments, and although I still worked at my day job, it almost felt like a holiday. I then started 2007 blogging with a personal post reflecting on a period of my life when it was God who put me on the substitute bench, and for a period that lasted several years and not just a few weeks.

By the age of 18, I had a lot of the over-confidence of youth, but that was tinged with the realization that I had a lot to learn. As I left the safety of my parental home and launched out into London to study medicine, God had a plan to teach me one of the most important lessons of my life—one which every now and then I am reminded that I still do not fully live in the light of.

My youthful enthusiasm for God was, at least in part, because I felt I could hold my own socially in a church environment much better than I could out in the world. It's funny, because like many outwardly confident gregarious people, I was far from confident on the inside. Although all my evangelistic activities at school made me feel like public enemy number one, I would console myself that surely God was pleased with me despite the views of my school colleagues. In church, I had a different role and I took a lot of solace from feeling that people there valued my contribution. As I already described, I had been given leadership and preaching experience and received a lot of encouragement. I was convinced that some sort of ministry awaited me, having had a sense of “call” since early childhood. I foolishly persuaded myself that if life at school was hard, at least my work for God’s church showed that I had something to offer. God was about to go to work to begin to destroy the pride that I didn’t even realize I had.

God has a way of taking a dream and killing it—stone dead. Sure, he will often resurrect it years later, but you don’t tend to think much about that at the time—all you can see is (to paraphrase Monty Python) your dream is “stone dead, demised, passed on, no more, has ceased to be, a stiff, bereft of life, snuffed out, up the creek and kicked the bucket, extinct in its entirety, an ex-dream.” I remember well once during those years, when someone suggested that I might preach, the thought that went through my mind was simply, “No way!”

All this happened to me over the course of a few years, and much as you might think that process couldn’t have been from God, as I look back, I am more and more convinced he was, in fact, orchestrating the whole thing.

I am glad of two things, both of which suggest that perhaps the dream wasn’t in truth totally dead. Firstly, although during this time I found myself worshipping in different kinds of churches, I kept my links going with Newfrontiers by attending the Bible Weeks, and also through a friendship with a pastor, a dear man named Henry Tyler (who was my mentor for many years and who comes back into the story later on). Secondly, I did not lose my relationship with God, nor my love of reading theology and the biographies of preachers of the past. But I'm rushing ahead of myself. I haven’t told you how my dream came to die.

When I arrived at university I was suddenly a small fish in the big pond of London. The successful University Christian Union didn’t seem to need me to exercise the gifts of which I'd sadly become proud, nor did the charismatic church I attended in the morning or the evangelical Anglican church I attended in the evening. Suddenly I was not “doing things” for God anymore; no preaching, no leadership, not even leading Bible studies. This carried on for several years, and I didn’t press for things to happen, but instead slowly, and initially reluctantly, began to refocus my relationship with God from “doing” things to “being” his child.

Terry Virgo describes receiving a prophetic word early-on in his Christian walk that told him he was called primarily to be a worshipper of Jesus, and that anything else was a bonus. That was the lesson God wanted to engrave in me in those “fallow” years as a medical student. I only wish that I could honestly say that my teenage years were the last time I busied myself with too much activity and not enough falling in love with Jesus. The truth is, sadly, that like so many of us, there have been many times in my life where I have been so caught up with what I was doing for God that I forgot that the most important thing he wants from me is for me to simply be his son and worship him. In fact, when re-reading these words it made me realize that right now I need to I need once again to be reminded of exactly this point.

How foolish we are to believe that we can give anything to God with our hard work. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

God has given us everything we have, and even our serving him is just another expression of our dependence on him. He is the one who gives us every breath that we take as a gift of grace, not as our right. How often do we Christians get frustrated because our so-called “rights” are violated, or because we didn’t get what we wanted, or because our hard work wasn’t appreciated, or even because our “ministry” isn’t recognized by others? The true servant of God is immune to such thoughts for he realizes that even the strength he uses to serve is given him by God, and that it is God who decides what paths he wants us all to take.

I wish I could learn this once and for all, but I guess we are put on earth to struggle with this issue all our lives. There is something within us that longs for self-sufficiency, self-fulfillment, and self-worth. God, instead, wants us to be God-dependent, God-fulfilled, and worthy only because of what Jesus has done for us.

In the second half of 2009, I want to refocus my life once more on Jesus and knowing him better. Everything else must flow out from that. There is a sense of dissatisfaction within me once more with filling my life with activity and not leaving enough time to reflect and grow as a worshipper of Jesus. I am brought back to a passage I am often reminded of:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead . . .

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (Philippians 3:7-16)

Those quiet years were, for me, a time of pruning. There were, however, a couple of things going on in addition to my education. Firstly, God arranged for a family to mentor me during those years in understanding other cultures, which would prove very helpful later on. And secondly, my reading was slowly turning me into someone who thought he understood theology. As the years went on, sadly, I became more and more focused on having theological arguments with other Christians. I am ashamed to say that it got to the point where pretty much every time I met someone, I would sniff out the areas of theology with which I disagreed with them and aggressively engage them in debate. I became someone who wasn’t always very pleasant to be around. Fortunately, God had a plan to help me to learn better social skills, and also to revive my dream of serving him in some way. But you will have to wait for the next post in this long-running series to hear about that.

It's that time of year again. As I have done in previous years, I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on the year that was. This post will consider personal matters, family matters, and my church.

The year began with my regular tradition of putting the blog onto autopilot to give me time to reflect, pray, and recuperate. I have a tendency to end the year feeling exhausted and drained, and find the discipline of switching off my blog after the holiday period gives me a real lift. This year I am busier than ever, but I don't feel as drained. I still plan on shutting down the blog during the month of January, and probably into February, as my book deadline looms closer, but I have set Blogger to republish some posts three times a week, and, as always, the Warnie Box remains to lead you to other great sites.

I felt like the year got off to a slow start, but then in February, I took a lovely holiday with two of my children. Watching all five of the kids grow has been another great highlight this year, with the baby becoming a toddler and our oldest rapidly on her way to becoming a teenager, having started high school.

It's been a good year for me personally. I found myself thrust into new roles, including writing a book, which wasn't something I ever expected to do. In spite of the business, and the fact that my annual leave was all burned up by the summer, I don't feel as if I'm ending 2008 running on empty as much as I've felt that way in previous years. I praise God for the way he has sustained me.

One joy this year has been that in the latter half of the year I started the Every Day in the Bible reading plan together with my wife (also available as a podcast or printout). We listen to Max McLean, and it has helped my relationship with my wife and my Lord in one fifteen-minute chunk of time every day.

We have enjoyed a stable year as a family. No pregnancies. No births. No house moves. The same job. The same church. No major sickness. We are so grateful to God. We plan on staying right where we are for the forseeable future, still being convinced God has called us to remain here for at least another couple of decades or so. I stay where I've been planted, but I hope I can somehow encourage and support those who do go.

I have been so glad to be part of Jubilee Church this year. Our growth continues, we are often over 400 on Sunday morning now, and are seeing a prolonged period of regular weekly responses to the gospel. God is blessing us in so many ways, and we are all very grateful. The kids love the church too. Over the last year I have preached there eight times, as well as giving other talks to smaller groups of people at different times during the week and continuing to serve in the leadership team. Below are links to the sermons I've preached this year. Tomorrow I will give a brief review of the blog in 2008.

• Comfort Like a Mother (Mother's Day Sermon)


• God's Gift of Life (Thou Shall Not Kill)


• Work Rest and Play (Sabbath-keeping)


• Philippians 1 - Living for the Future


• Philippians 2 - Living for the Good of Others


• Philippians 3 - Living to Know Jesus


• Nehemiah 3 - Building for the Glory of God


• Nehemiah 8 - Back to the Word

John Piper is a great preacher—not just to listen to, but also to watch. I find God stirring my heart through him every time I play one of his videos. It also reminds me of what I'm aiming for when I preach, which is "logic on fire." I pray that God will draw many into his purposes in the way he has drawn John Piper.

Today I want to highlight one of the sermons in his series on the new birth - Why Do We Need To Be Born Again? (Part 2). Here is an excerpt of this excellent sermon, which serves as a wonderful reminder of how desperately we need GOD to act in saving us. This is one of the sermons that form the basis for his forthcoming book, Finally Alive, which is now available for only $5 on preorder!

No man can make anyone else become a Christian. May God move and bring many into his kingdom.

1. Without the new birth, we won’t have saving faith, but only unbelief. (John 1:11-13; 1 John 5:1; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29; 1 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 1:3).
   
   
2. Without the new birth, we won’t have justification, but only condemnation. (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:17; Philippians 3:9).
   
   
3. Without the new birth, we won’t be the children of God, but the children of the devil. (1 John 3:9-10).
   
   
4. Without the new birth, we won’t bear the fruit of love by the Holy Spirit, but only bear the fruit of death. (Romans 6:20-21; 7:4-6; 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 5:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:14).
   
   
5. Without the new birth, we won’t have eternal joy in fellowship with God, but only eternal misery with the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41; John 3:3; Romans 6:23; Revelation 2:11; 20:15).

— John Piper, Why Do We Need to Be Born Again? (Part 2)

This is the third part in my short series on multiculturalism. The first two in the series can be found here:

1. Multiculturalism—You Are What You Eat?
   
   
2. Does Multiculturalism Mean I Have To Eat Blood?

When you mix with a number of different nationalities, you begin to realize that cultural differences are more complicated than you appreciated. They can also extend to quite surprising areas of life. One such area is that of whether or not it's a good idea to circumcise baby boys.

In the UK this practice is definitely on the decline. Articles in the Guardian and Times have sought to further discourage it, although, even by 1975, fewer than 6 per cent of boys born in the UK were circumcised, whereas in the USA this figure was more like 60 per cent, even today. Christianity Today has an article about the decision-making process on whether to chop or not that stays neutral and lists additional links that provide helpful information.

I was raised within a tradition that was not in any way convinced by the arguments of some that circumcision is good for "hygienic reasons." It was not all that uncommon during sermons to hear throw away comments about how glad we men were that circumcision was no longer required under the New Covenant. In fact, some would have gone further still and argued that circumcision was not permissible for Christians at all. They would have pointed to verses like the following to state that no Christian should allow themselves or their sons to be circumcised.

"Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:2-3, emphasis mine).

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace . . .

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (Galatians 5:7-12).

At first glance these verses would indeed seem pretty conclusive. A bit like the eating blood question, I would, in many ways, love to find biblical support to buttress my prejudices. But not so fast! There are, however, two cardinal rules of biblical interpretation that I must not break. The first is to always consider the context of the passage. The second is to consider the difference between the situation that the words are spoken into and our own situation today, and the implications of this, if any, for our understanding of what the Bible means for us.

So, to the context. Those three dots should be a clue. Let's have a look at what I deliberately excised from the second passage: "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." Paul here seems to be stating that circumcision itself is not the issue. It would seem that, to Paul, being intact or otherwise is not what's at stake here. In fact, in Acts we learn that Paul actually circumcised one of his helpers—Timothy (Acts 16:3), and yet on another occasion he strongly resisted doing so for another of his helpers—Titus Galatians 2:3. Can you imagine the locker-room conversations between those two?!

Therefore, it does seem to Paul that whether to agree to a circumcision or not is a circumstantial decision that would perhaps hinge around what meaning is going to be given to it. Modern Christians who do circumcise their children are doing so, not for religious grounds, but for what they believe to be health benefits, or just because, unlike me, they have grown up in an environment where the tradition is that you are expected to do it.

I have yet to meet a modern Christian who believes that to carry out an operation on their son will make him more acceptable to God and in any way contribute to justification. Therefore, it would seem wrong to apply these strong warnings against circumcision to the many thousands who do this as a cultural practice. I should be gracious and accepting of such people, and ensure that if the conversation ever comes up, I don't appear incredulous that people still carry out this ancient practice. But, equally, I hope that those who do this will not consider those of us on the other side of the fence to be somehow "unclean."

Of course, this can all seem very irrelevant, and by now some of you may be wondering why I have even taken the time to bring this up. I do so because, if we are building churches together, and even marrying across clear cultural divides, these issues can cause division if we are not careful. The truth is, being circumcised or not can certainly be very important in forging your sense of belonging to a group—your "identity." Even without a conscious rejection of others who are different, there can easily be a feeling of dislocation and disconnection. For example, a careless joke made by someone from "the other side" about remaining intact (or not!) might go flat and leave people feeling unwelcome.

When two people from groups with different perspectives on this issue marry, they may find that it is best to have the conversation about which way their new family decides to go on this issue before any sons are born.

Should Christians circumcise their sons? If you're looking for a legalistic answer, I'm not at all sorry that I have to disappoint. Like so many of these issues, while there are some biblical guidelines, the answer is—at least on this occasion—it all depends on why you want to do it.

My friends at Crossway continue to outdo themselves in the area of excellence. I sometimes think I should just issue a blanket recommendation—buy ANYTHING they print. But for some specifics, I thought I'd post some mini-reviews today. They have also recently started a book blog which has already had some great posts, so I've decided to award them a "Warnie Award," which means that their headlines will appear in my sidebar from now on.

Here are a few Crossway books that have helped me as I have dipped into them in recent months:

THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST IN A POSTMODERN WORLD
Each year the Desiring God Ministries Conference seems to spawn a book. This is one of them, and in it John Piper, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Voddie Baucham, and David Wells all interact with the vital issues of how we can be both faithful to Scripture and relevant to the culture. Avoiding the extremes of compromise and alienation, this book charts a course we would be wise to follow carefully. Here is a quote to whet your appetite:

"This culture basically says that there is no rhyme or reason, so we're here to make the most of it. Consume. Enjoy. That's why we're here. That is the overarching mentality in our culture, both inside and outside the Church, resulting in an unquenchable materialism and causing us to look at children as a blight and as a burden. While many in the poorest nations of the world talk about the number of children with which they can be blessed, we talk about the number of children we can afford. We have houses that are larger than they've ever had and families that are smaller than they've ever had.... Why? Because they get in the way of our consumption and our enjoyment" (page 60).

WHAT JESUS DEMANDS FROM THE WORLD
For a religion founded on the God-man Jesus, it is amazing how little attention we tend to give to what he said. John Piper's book goes a long way to correcting this omission. If you thought commands and demands were only found in the Old Testament, this book will surprise you. Far from making things easier for us, Christ actually lays out a set of demands that far exceed the Old Testament law in their reach and challenge to us. Of course, he does this to show us our need for him, but nonetheless, empowered by the Spirit, we are intended to live as Jesus tells us. After all, he commanded us to make disciples of all nations and teach them to obey whatever he has commanded us (see Matthew 28). This book will help you understand and obey these commands.

IN MY PLACE CONDEMNED HE STOOD
We can never have too many books helping us to understand the glory of the cross and everything it accomplished for us. Mahaney recommends reading a book on the cross every year, so it's no wonder he encouraged his friends in this endeavor, which brings together short essays from Mark Dever and J. I. Packer.

One other fantastic thing about Crossway is that they have published 29 books by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I can't comment on this author enough. Although based on sermons he preached decades ago, the books sound like they were written for the 21st century. More and more of his talks continue to be adapted for publication. They are supreme examples of what preaching should be like, but also function very well as books. If you haven't discovered the Doctor yet, where have you been? His sermons are also available at mlj.org.uk. Here is an extract from one recent book, Compelling Christianity, based on Acts 8:

"The Christian message does not stop at the mere proclamation of the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God. It goes on to say say that this Gospel changes men and women. . . . Christ came into the world not only to bear my punishment and to reconcile me to God, but also to fit me for heaven. He came to do something to me that enables me to enjoy God even in this world. What is it? I must be "born again"....

That is it! We must be made anew, we need a new nature, a new heart, a new mind, we must be new persons. And he has come to do this for us. This is the wonderful, amazing, astounding doctrine of regeneration and rebirth.

This new creation is the act of God. The God who made the world and made man at the beginning makes us anew in Christ. Get rid forever of the notion that becoming a Christian simply means being forgiven or trying to be a little bit better than you were before; you cannot be....

He is there! I am not left to myself. I have a new nature. The Spirit is working in me, getting rid of the pollution, sanctifying me, preparing me for Glory; and even before I get there I have, in Christ, access to God" (pages 59-63).

Finally, I should not neglect to mention a commentary I found helpful when preparing my talks from Philippians earlier this year. It's a slim volume that nevertheless manages to get to the pith of the message of this vital book. The "Preaching the Word" series deserves to be read.

Yesterday I preached at Jubilee and thought, as usual, that I would share my notes and the audio here. But before I get to that, since it's Monday and my habit in "normal" times is to share a quote with you from Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, this quote is a good one to begin with as, in many ways, it sets the scene for what I was preaching on.

"What should we be seeking? We should always be seeking the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to know him, and know his love and to be witnesses for him and to minister to his glory . . . The Apostle Paul says that the height of his ambition is 'that I might know him'. Not that he might have experiences, but that he 'might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings' etc.... We should seek to know him and his love. You see, we are told of the Spirit, 'The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.'

Now take that great term again, 'shed abroad'. Do not put your little limit to it and say, 'Oh yes, I love God'. Paul says that the love of God is 'shed abroad' in great profusion, overwhelmingly, in our hearts. Now that is what we should seek. We believe in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the doctrines of salvation. All right! But the question that confronts us at this particular point is not that of believing, but love! A belief that does not lead to love is a very doubtful belief, it may be nothing but intellectual assent. The emphasis of the Bible is always upon love .... 'What is the first and the chiefest commandment?' Not that 'thou shalt believe in the Lord thy God', but that 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength' ....

There is nothing that will enable a man to do that but the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can believe and in a sense have a measure of love; but the thing put before us is not just a measure of love, it is an abounding love .....

Here, then, is the question—to what extent do we know this love of God to us and how do we love God? We are meant to love him with the whole of our being and there is nothing that can make us do so but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts ....

This is New Testament Christianity! New Testament Christianity is not just a formal, polite, correct, and orthodox kind of faith and belief. No! What characterizes it is this element of love and passion, this pneumatic element, this life, this vigour, this abandon, this exuberance—and, as I say, it has ever characterized the life of the church in all periods of revival and of reawakening. That is what we must seek—not experiences, not power, not gifts. If he chooses to give them to us, thank God for them and exercise them to his glory, but the only safe way of receiving gifts is that you love him and that you know him."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Ed. Christopher Catherwood, Kingsway Publications: Eastbourne, 1995, pp. 360-361.

You can download my sermon or listen to it right here:


Philippians 3 is a great passage. In some ways, it's one of my favorite passages, one God has kept bringing me back to over the years.

The Apostle starts this passage with the phrase, “Finally, REJOICE in the LORD” — and he is going to come back to that, but as he says that, he almost gets excited and goes off into a bit of a tangent, a diversion that will be our subject today. It's almost as if that word "Lord" triggers something in him, because for him the Lord is, of course, Jesus. It excites him and he starts to think about our subject today. He starts off by saying, "Look, it's good for me to remind you of these things." And sometimes I think when we hear God's Word, especially if we've been Christians a long time, we think, "Oh, yeah, I know it all" — and, in a sense, there will be nothing new today. So why does he say these things?

Paul gets angry. Preachers get angry. Why? Because TRUTH MATTERS. He has strong opposition to false teaching. Urges them STRONGLY to avoid DOGS—not talking about pets here! Talking about "street dogs," dangerous dogs, potential killers. But can be disguised to look like sheep. Watch out for those who mutilate flesh. Outwardly appear on God's side. Wolves in sheep's clothing. So Paul then asks what are the marks of living as a true Christian?

MARKS OF LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN

• Christians have the "real circumcision" i.e. HEARTS cut out, new heart, regenerated, devoted to Jesus. It's not about externals— circumcision, clothing, hair styles, etc. (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians are worshippers, every moment of every day, looking for opportunity to give God glory (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians worship by the Spirit of God — no confidence in the flesh, not man-empowered. Christians are Spirit-empowered (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians glory in Jesus—the one we honor, delight in. Paul could have written our church motto “It's all about Jesus.”
  
  
• Christians have no confidence in human ability/qualifications (verse 3ff) Paul was the Jew of Jews. Thought killing Christians was serving God. You can be sincerely WRONG! He was religiously blameless, but a murderer!! Hypocrisy of religion knows no bounds. But we are not looking for holy people here, rather people who know they need God. Jesus didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners.
  
  
• BIGGEST mark of living as a Christian is simply this: LIVING TO KNOW JESUS

WHAT DOES "LIVING TO KNOW JESUS" LOOK LIKE? WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?

A DECISION — everything is DUNG compared to the SURPASSING WORTH of knowing him, the risen, ascended, glorious, loving King. COUNTS everything unimportant. Do the math! (verses 7-8).

A LOSS — of everything! “I have suffered the loss of all things ...” (verse 8).

A GAIN — “... that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (verse 8).

A HIDING PLACE — from the world “in Christ” and from God's wrath (verse 9).

AN ALIEN RIGHTEOUSNESS — a righteousness that comes from outside of ourself, a goodness. But it's only those who know Christ. “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (verse 9).

But notice this! It doesn't stop there! There's a goal, not just that your sins will be forgiven, as glorious as that is. Not just that I might feel better, or not feel guilty anymore. Danger of turning gospel into merely something that deals with our felt needs. Rather, A PRECIOUS RELATIONSHIP — THAT I MAY KNOW HIM!!!! We were made to have a relationship with Jesus. He wants us to know him. That's the goal! It's not merely about being religious!

A POWERFUL FORCE — the power of his resurrection (verse 10). Christians should be conscious of the glorious power of the resurrection pulsating through their bodies. This is the heritage of the Christian. [Jonathan Edwards' quote—See below.]

A COMMUNITY OF SUFFERING — Not all glorious, however. Don't want to deceive. We share also with him in his suffering Become like him in his death (verse 10).

A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION — But also become like him in his resurrection. A glorious resurrection to come, but also experienced even in the here and now. (verse 11). “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” — a perfect relationship with Jesus in heaven. But God says in this passage you don't have to wait until heaven for "pie in the sky" when you die. There is cake on your plate while you wait! There is an obtaining, even in the here and now. Live the resurrection empowered life—know the power of God at work in me, experientially today to foretaste what will be mine in perfection in glory (verse 12ff).

Paul finishes the chapter by talking about an example for others to follow — “Imitate me, follow me, keep your eyes on people who are walking this way, copy them.”

Example not to follow: those who are enemies of the cross. But Christians don't glory in the damnation of anyone. Don't have enemies we are angry with, but have enemies for whom we weep. The belly is their god (their desires), running after flesh, whether food, sex, new clothes, etc. But for us, our bodies will be transformed, become like Jesus. They glory in their shame; we glory in our Saviour. Their end is destruction; our citizenship is in heaven. Not of this world (verse 17ff).

Background Quote

"Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The Person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud . . . I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity.” (Jonathan Edwards, cited by Martyn Lloyd-Jones in An Exposition of Ephesians 1, God's Ultimate Purpose, p. 275)

Terry introduced Mark by mentioning his currently available books, all of which he highly recommended. You can buy these from the Newfrontiers resources page. It was nice to see my pastor, Tope Koleoso, on the stage praying for Mark just before he began preaching. It was interesting that just a couple of weeks ago Tope also spoke on being missional in a talk that was impacting to me.

In case anyone hasn’t been reading blogs for the past two years, Mark Driscoll founded Mars Hill Church in Seattle in 1996. It has grown to over 6,000 people. He co-founded and is President of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, which has planted over 100 churches in the USA and internationally. Most recently he founded and leads the Resurgence Missional Theology Cooperative. The Church Report has recognized Mark as the 22nd most influential pastor in America. His sermons are downloaded more than a million times a year. Mark is married to Grace and they enjoy raising their three sons and two daughters.

More posts from this conference can be found on my TOAM08 label page. You can download the mp3 of Mark's talk or listen to it right here:


Driscoll began by speaking of being brought up in a nominal Catholic family. Then his mother was saved in the Catholic charismatic movement, so spoke in tongues to Mary! Later on he started going out with a pastor’s daughter, and as a result became a Christian. He explained, “If you are a Calvinist, God saved me; if you are an Arminian, I gave my life to the Lord.” He then spoke about how God audibly spoke to him, “Marry the woman, plant churches, preach the Bible, and train men.”

He explained that in Seattle there are more dogs than kids. Now eleven years into having started Mars Hill Church, they are in the top thirty fastest growing churches in the USA, are seeing many saved, and run a multi-campus church with seventeen services in seven locations. He plans to stay in Seattle for the rest of his life.

Driscoll then humbly explained that through his experiences here in Brighton he wants to learn from those of us in Newfrontiers. He is appreciative for the love of the Spirit and the passion for worship he has seen here. He was not afraid to say that he is also here to serve and build on our movement and contribute something to us. He stated up front that he felt that the particular thing he could contribute was to help us become more precise as missionaries. I found that phrase to be an intriguing one, but he didn't explain it immediately.

Rather, he began to explain that while he himself clearly holds a charismatic theology and prays for the sick and demonized, he has a number of concerns about charismatics in general. He has often described himself as a “charismatic with a seat belt.”

Having looked at charismatic movements, he listed five problems he has with them, and boldly stated that he believed that we in Newfrontiers have avoided four of the five. He warned us to brace ourselves because some friendly words of rebuke were coming. At that point you certainly wanted to pay attention! As he listed his “problems” and explained them—and as nice as he was when he told us he thought we were okay on them—we braced ourselves for the blows we knew were coming!

MARK DRISCOLL’S PROBLEMS WITH CHARISMATICS

Sometimes charismatics focus on the wrong person. The Spirit’s objective is to teach us to love Jesus. He feels from his observation of Newfrontiers that we as a movement have avoided this common error of an over-focus on the Spirit to the exclusion of Jesus.

Sometimes charismatics focus on the wrong event. He explained that for many charismatics, Pentecost is their primary focus. But Pentecost was not the primary moment—it pointed back to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The cross was not just the prelude to the so-called “main event” of the coming of the Spirit. You only rightly appreciate Pentecost when you see it as the application of the cross. Driscoll also believed we in Newfrontiers have avoided that error and are cross-centered.

Some who love the Spirit have been corrupted by the view that it is all about prosperity. Driscoll commended Newfrontiers for being a Bible-loving people, and that we have not given way to the “health and wealth” teaching. Driscoll’s big problem with such “word of faith” teaching is that it basically says if you have enough faith in Jesus you will not be like him. He was poor and suffering! Some say all Christians should be rich and healthy!

Sometimes charismatics focus on the wrong person as the definition of what it is to be Spirit-filled and Spirit-led. As a result, charismatic leaders are often held up as an example to follow. The person gets lifted up. What Driscoll appreciates about Terry Virgo is that he lifts up Jesus. As Mark would go on to explain, it is in the life of Jesus that we find the perfect example of how to be filled with the Spirit, not in some leader.

Sometimes charismatics are insufficiently missional. He feels this is a big danger, especially if the charismatic is wedded to reformed theology. The danger is that we can begin to say, “It’s all up to God.” I thought here about people who do nothing about sharing the gospel, but instead just wait for revival. This is the one he feels that we in Newfrontiers may not have completely avoided. We are committed to mission, but not quite. We have almost hit the bull’s eye, but not quite. He did not mean this as a criticism, but as a way to help us improve. We have planted a lot of churches, but we should be moving even more quickly. We should be planting more. We should be giving more money. What is lacking sometimes is how we connect to culture and reach out to cultures and plant churches.

ROLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE BOOKS OF LUKE AND ACTS

Mark made a strong case for Luke and Acts being a joint work which focuses on the work of the Spirit in the life of Christ and then in the Christian. It is striking how many times Luke reports on the work of the Spirit.

The structure behind Driscoll’s talk was to point out all the different things that the Holy Spirit does.

The Spirit fills people.
Luke 1 — “Filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.” We are to be filled with the Spirit also, and to love the Spirit.

Spirit-filled ministry includes miracles.
The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will overshadow . . .” A virgin gives birth. The Spirit prepares the coming of Jesus, works in the ministry of Jesus, and continues to work in the Church.

Spirit-filled ministry includes prayer.
When Mary met Elizabeth it says that her baby was filled with the Spirit. “The baby leaped for joy.” Elizabeth then prays gratefully, and also blesses Mary.

Spirit-filled ministry includes prophecy.
Zechariah was Spirit-filled and prophesied. Later, when the shepherds were in the fields and the angel came, they were filled with fear, and good news came. The news was revealed to them. Here is a Savior, Christ the Lord—which actually means one who is anointed by God the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was brought to the temple as a baby, more prophetic revelation came.

One of the ministries of Jesus is to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire for mission.
Luke 3:15 — “Baptize with the Holy Spirit.” There was also a division that came. Jesus inspires wonder and worship and also opposition. When the Spirit is in your midst, there is conflict and division. There are seasons of conflict. People get blown away.

At Jesus’ baptism the heavens opened and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. This is one of the clearest pictures of the Trinity in the entire Bible. God speaks from heaven to his Son, and the Spirit comes visibly and publicly. There is a clear demonstration to the public that the Spirit had anointed him. In Acts, the Spirit descends on the Church publicly to anoint the Church in much the same way as he anointed Jesus.

BUT . . .WHY WOULD JESUS NEED ANOINTING?

We must remember how Jesus came. He came in carnal flesh! In meat. The omnipresent came to a place. He who was without beginning and end was born of a woman. There is a great debate about how we are to see Jesus. Hypostatic union — Jesus one person, two natures — fully God, fully man. He did what only God could do.

God doesn't grow and learn, but as a man Jesus did grow and learn. The God who doesn't change changed physically. How could God become a man? Jesus didn't lose or dilute his divinity. Rather he added to it his humanity.

Christians tend to see Jesus as a little more human or a little more divine. The first are liberals. The second don't believe that Jesus was really tempted, or that he truly suffered. Jesus was like Superman, they say — like a Galilean peasant on the outside, but on the inside indestructible.

How did Jesus live his life? How did he resist sin? How did he love his enemies? How did he live for three years with Judas Iscariot? How did Jesus go to the cross and say, “Father forgive them”?

Some just say he was God. But Jesus was and is fully God, and while on the earth he was indeed still fully God. But he didn't live a life that we cannot imitate. Jesus wasn't faking it when he suffered. He was like us and tempted in the same way we are.

Philippians 2:5-11. He laid aside his rights. He emptied himself, became a slave. He was still God, but set aside the rights of divinity. He deserved to be worshipped and was scorned, he deserved to be praised and was mocked. He laid aside the continual use of his divine attributes, not the actual attributes themselves. He chose to learn, he chose to be tempted. He did use the divine attributes from time to time, e.g. to forgive sin. He didn't use them all the time.

How then did he do it? How did he live his life? He did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we see the Spirit coming on him and resting on him, to enable him to live his life on earth. He was the second Adam. How did he say "no" to sin? By the power of the Spirit. How did he obey? How did he heal? How did he cast out demons? It was all by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was Spirit-filled, spirit-anointed and Spirit-led. What does it mean to be a charismatic? It means to be like Jesus! Most of the creeds miss out on his life. They say he was born and he died. What else did he do? We must focus on what is missing in the creeds—the Spirit-filled and anointed life of Jesus.

Let’s apply this to missiology. Jesus lived in heaven and came to earth — that’s a missionary. He lived in heaven in a culture of no sin where God was honored. He came to a culture which was rebellious and sinful. We tend to overlook the fact that Jesus was a missionary. The Spirit loves to empower those who are on a mission. Not just so we can pray better, worship louder, give more generously, but that we will be better missionaries to expand the knowledge of God to the ends of the earth. To be Spirit-filled and Spirit-led is to be missional because Jesus was!

[At this point, Mark returned to describing for us all the various things the Holy Spirit does.]

The Spirit leads us sometimes into hardship, testing, and temptation.
Luke 4 — Jesus—full of the Holy Spirit. He was led from the Jordan into the wilderness. He was led by the Spirit to the devil!

We are led to active ministry, and to contemplative ministry. Connect to God before you go to serve him. Anointing leads to silence, solitude, prayer, and contemplation, as well as testing, temptation, and fasting. He tests our character and prepares us. If you go through such a time, remember the same thing happened to Jesus.

Don't be always doing, but never being. Jesus was tempted and tested, and because he resisted sin, it was confirmed that he was prepared for ministry.

Spirit-anointed ministry includes preaching.
Luke 4:14 — Silence precedes speech and contemplation precedes action. Spirit-filled preaching does not come without periods of silence, prayer, and fasting. The power of the Spirit is needed to preach.

Luke 4:17 — Spirit is still anointing him to do the work. He was anointed to proclaim liberty.

Spirit-anointed ministry includes justice for the poor.

Spirit-filled ministry includes joy in God.
Luke 10:21 — Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Driscoll feels this is something we in Newfrontiers can give to him. He says that he has a tendency to emphasize the negative, to see sin, to identify errors, to see what mistakes are being made. What he experienced in worship here reminded him of that verse about how Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. That is what we were doing here in the worship times. [Driscoll seemed to have been quite affected by our worship time.]

We can rejoice in God when we still see the suffering of this world, but beyond it we see God. We can weep or we can sing and dance and clap in the Spirit. Jesus saw the grace of God in children and enjoyed their company.

The Spirit is given to us by the Father.
Jesus said in a parable that if you know how to give good gifts, the Father will give the Spirit to those who ask. If you like to live a life like mine, says Jesus, you better ask my Father for the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit makes the Christian life possible. We need to continually ask the Father for more of the Spirit so we can learn well, suffer well, serve well, and die well.

The Spirit teaches us what to say. (Luke 12:11)
He enables us to speak to people. He helps us to speak in such a way that there is no explanation for the results apart from his power.

In the book of Acts, Luke continues with what Jesus did. He died for our sins, rose for our justification, conquered Satan. You would think that was enough and that he had done it all. Acts records the rest. Acts 1 says what Jesus did was THROUGH the Holy Spirit. Having seen what Jesus did through the Spirit, Luke introduces us to the idea that the same Spirit could come on the disciples so they could do the same things.

Power is needed to do ministry properly. This power is given so we can be missionaries. How do you know someone has the Holy Spirit? It’s because they are on a mission.

We are on a mission. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Start where you are. We can’t just go across the world. We need to go across the street. It’s easy to pray for the ends of the earth and neglect the ends of the street. How is your witness in Jerusalem? Do you KNOW people in your road? In your workplace? Is Jesus visible? If you are good witnesses in Jerusalem you will never be lacking for church planters. You harvest church planters in your church, in your neighborhood, in your street.

Jesus ascended into heaven where he had come from. You can imagine they would want to tell the world straight away, “Jesus is alive; he has conquered sin and death.” But they had to WAIT. Some of us have to wait. It’s not yet time. Imagine that—they sit on this news for weeks! It is an astonishing thing that even though their message was so wonderful, they were not allowed to proclaim it until they had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Charismatics have Acts 2 on the fridge. We all know this one! Sounds like a mighty rushing wind.

Jesus was a missionary. The Church is to be a missionary, too. A Spirit-anointed Jesus anointed the Church. He wants us to do the works of Jesus. We must connect Acts with Luke. We are to be enabled and empowered to live a life like Jesus—a life fill of authority and mission.

The Spirit anoints so that the gospel can be communicated in every language, tongue, and dialect so that the vision of Revelation can come true!

Spirit-filled ministry results in repentance.
Brothers, what shall we do? Repentance is one of the greatest evidences of the work of the Spirit within us. Many today preach encouragement—try harder, do better. But we must preach repentance. Preaching repentance is only fitting for those who practice repentance. We may practice worldly sorrow, but it doesn't rock us to the depths and compel us to change. We have our back to God and our face towards sin. Repentance puts our face towards God and our back to sin.

Spirit-filled ministry brings conversion.
The verse continues, “Be baptized and you will receive the Spirit. That day there were added to the church 3,000 souls.” Many today are not interested in true conversion. It’s about passing from death to life. We need the power of the Spirit to lead to repentance and conversion.

Spirit-filled ministry brings devotion to one another and awe towards God.
Acts 2 — Awe, prayer, food, fellowship. Jesus is alive! Are you in awe of that? All our sins are forgiven! Are you in awe of that?

We are part of the ministry of Jesus doing anointed work by the power of the Spirit — the same one who raised Jesus from the dead! Do you have a sense of awe? We don't deserve ministry. We need awe in it. Don't lose your sense of awe. That is the way Judas Iscariot became what he did.

We also need a sense of gratefulness that the Spirit has regenerated us and enabled and gifted us. Absolute wonder. We get to be a part of it!

We must not resist, quench, or grieve the Holy Spirit.

The Church was birthed by the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Lord added daily those being saved. What constitutes a church? Define what it is and does. You don't want to lose your faithfulness. It's not just Word and sacrament. Rather it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the Church does not exist.

EIGHT MARKS OF THE CHURCH IN ACTS

Community of regenerated believers. You are not a part of the Church if you are not a Christian! Jesus died for us, but the Spirit must regenerate us and cause us to be reborn. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Imputation goes both ways. The great exchange—the doctrine of justification. N. T. Wright gets the resurrection right and the cross wrong! Fight the war for justification, BUT don't neglect regeneration! Regeneration is that God gives us a new heart. A new creation. My new life as a missionary on the earth. Heart of stone gone, flesh given. Sin nature gone, new nature given. Life patterned after life of Jesus.

The heart is the center of everything—so a new heart means a new identity, a new passion, new gifts, a new purpose, new power, new desires. I get to live a whole new life. LEGALISM tells us that we HAVE TO DO things; the gospel tells us we GET TO DO things. “I want to serve God; I want to pray; I want to read my Bible; I want to learn humility; I don't want to be ashamed, I want him to say “Well done”; I want to enter into my rest. Living for our strongest desires, not merely to "not sin." It’s not merely to avoid the bad things, but to love God. It is the Spirit that delivers us and gives us new desires to love God and to do good. Temptations come, but our deepest desire should be for God and the things of God. Joyful, meaningful, purposeful life that never ends, but continues in his presence!

Mark didn't get a chance to cover all of the marks of the Church in Acts, but implied he would look at them later. He briefly mentioned them. The Church:

1. Is Organized
   
2. Is gathered
   
3. Observes the sacraments
   
4. Is unified
   
5. Is scattered as missionaries
   
6. Gives God glory
   
7. Experiences joy

Holy Spirit longs, desires, wills to anoint us for the glory of Jesus—to live like him, for him, and to him as a missionary to the ends of the earth!

Driscoll prayed for us as a movement and asked God to take our appreciation for the Bible and love for Jesus and unite within us fervent desires to live a life like Jesus, with Jesus, and FOR Jesus! He thanked God who sent the Son as an example, sent the Spirit as an enabler, and sent US to the world. He wanted us to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, justified, regenerated, spirit-compelled. He said our goal of 1,000 churches is too small! And that there were many nations where church plants were to be accomplished.

Jesus has a passion for the earth that he made!
We are to love Jesus because he first loved us, and to love the world because we love Jesus.

Here are some notes from the sermon I preached this past Sunday at Jubilee Church in Enfield Cineworld. You can download the audio or listen to it online in the following player:



I began by sharing the story of a mother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and refused the abortion she was offered in order to give the gift of life to her daughter.

She told her husband, "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

Said her husband after she had died, "She knew all too well she didn't have long to live. So she put little Liam's life before her own."

Full story in the Telegraph.

The sermon is based on Philippians 2. The notes are very much just an outline, but they are nearly identical to the notes from which I preached. I have been experimenting with preaching from shorter notes, so I hope they will still at least make some sense to you. If not, you will just have to listen to the message itself.

We will come later in the book to the ultimate goal for living—to know Jesus. But one key way we express our love for God is by loving each other and the world. Jesus said in John 13:35: "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

It is this love for each other that I am going to call "living for the good of others."

What is our motivation to live for the good of others?

"Because of" (verses 1-2) NOT “if” — but “assuming there is”

• Encouragement in Christ (paraklesis) ;
• Comfort from love (paramythion) ;
• Participation in the Spirit (koinonia);
• Affection (splanchon – spleen - bowels!) ;
• Sympathy.

Also, we do this to complete our leader's joy!

What does living for others look like? (verses 2-5 and others)

• The same mind (agreement).
  
• The same love (warmth, compassion, undertanding).
  
• Full accord “with united souls” (a combination of the two above – i. e. TRUTH AND LOVE).
• One mind (not clones, but scratch us and we bleed the same way).
  
• NO rivalry or conceit = opposite = poor me 'no one talks' versus living for self.
  
• Humility, NOT Mariah Heap “ever so 'umble.”
  
• Count others more significant than yourselves.
  
• Look out, not only for your own interests, but for those of others = being kind to others. “IF ONLY EVERYONE WAS LIKE THAT.” JESUS WOULD BE LIKE THAT.
  
• Do all things without grumbling or questioning (verse 14).
  
• We are to do EVERYTHING for the good of others, not ourselves (e.g. ministry, workplace, etc.). CHOICES FOR THEIR BENEFIT ARE NOT EASIEST!
  
• Genuinely concerned for your welfare (verse 20).
  
• They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (verse 21).

How and why do we do it? Mixed in!!! (READ verses 5-13.)

• Constant refrain - “IN CHRIST.” This mind is in Christ—ours by union with him and by following his example.
  
• MODEL = DO LIKEWISE. He who lived and died for others.
  
• We have PURPOSE!
  
• CHOICES—He didn't grasp his right of equality. he laid his rights down.
  
• Made himself nothing, rather than self-fullfillment or getting that promotion.
  
• Made himself like us, not holding himself aloof as superior (e.g. racism).
  
• Became obedient—not independent. JOURNEY FROM HEAVEN TO THE CROSS.
  
• Sacrificed himself for us—not just his preferences, but his life! — OUR CHOICES.
  
• Another reason here is because God raises the humble up.
  
• James 4:6—But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
  
• Matthew 23:12—"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
  
• Because we need to learn to OBEY this Lord over all! CHOOSE TO FOLLOW.
  
• Lloyd-Jones: Best summary of the Christian life is to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (verses 12-13).
  
• BY LOVING GOD, EACH OTHER, AND THE WORLD.

For the unbeliever, it's no use to just try and live like this. You need the Jesus who died for you and was raised for you to come and live in you and empower you.

To whom is Paul referring when he writes the following words?

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

— Romans 7

There are some theological questions that are not important. There are others that are potentially important. And then there are some that are always important. The question I want to throw out today falls into the middle group. It is very possible for us to disagree over who the man in Romans 7 is intended to be and still love each other, work together, and actually even have similar theologies because of how we interpret other Scriptures. But different opinions about this chapter can lead to a significant problem in our life if we come to certain conclusions.

There are two main interpretations that are frequently held (although see Piper's work below for a fuller list of different viewpoints). John Piper, for example, believes that this man is intended quite simply to represent the typical Christian life. John MacArthur would support him, as would many reformed scholars. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Terry Virgo are among those who would disagree and say, as Virgo did in the third of a series of talks on Philippians, that this is a “description of life before and outside of Christ, but looked at from the perspective of life in the Spirit.”

When Piper taught on Romans 7 he argued that his perspective on this verse would help protect against the idea, on the one hand, that Christians can ever become perfect and sinless in this life, and on the other hand, a passive failure to fight against sin. You can decide for yourself how well you feel he holds this balance. Here, though, are some of Piper's introductory words:

One of the biggest disagreements over this text is who this man is. Whose experience is Paul describing? Is this the experience of Paul, the believer? Or is this the experience of Paul, the unbeliever? Christian or non-Christian? Or should we pose the question with more precision: Is this a morally awakened but unconverted Paul? Or is this the spiritually quickened converted Paul who is new and immature in the faith? Or could this be the mature Christian Paul, but in times of lapsed faith and vigilance? I don't think I will tell you today what I think the answer is. I would like you to be thinking and studying this passage for yourselves without being sure what I think.

I do believe you can make a more or less plausible case for all of these possibilities and that none of them necessarily leads you into false teaching on the larger, over-all view of sanctification. In other words, it is possible to be wrong on our interpretation of one text but right in our view of the Christian life. You might say, "This text is not about Christian experience," and still believe that Christians have experiences like this - sometimes doing what we don't want to do. Or you might say, "This text is about Christian experience," and still believe that much more victory over sin is possible than this in the Christian life.

So what we conclude (about whether Romans 7:14-25 refers to Christian experience or not) does not describe our whole view of Christian experience. There are dozens of other very important texts in the New Testament that we have to stir into the mix to see the bigger picture of the Christian life. Beware of people who build their views on isolated passages. That is where most cults and quirky interpretations come from . . .

If the man is a Christian or not a Christian, in either case his misery ("O, wretched man that I am," verse 24) is caused by his indwelling sin, not by the Law. The Law is not sinful and the Law is not poison. I am sinful, and my sin is deadly poison.

Three times at least Paul makes the point. Verse 14: "The Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh." Verse 16: "If I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good." Verse 22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." So the Law is "spiritual" and "good" and a "joy."

This is true whether we decide that this divided man is a struggling believer or a conscience-quickened unbeliever. In either case, Paul's main point is the same: Justification by faith apart from works of the Law (3:28) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison. And sanctification by faith through death to the Law (7:4) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison.

Piper goes on to state that he believes this man of Romans 7 is, in fact, a normal Christian. I do agree with Piper that it is possible to come to different positions on Romans 7 without it affecting one's overall theological position. However, I also believe it is indisputable that if you do hold Piper's position—that this indeed represents the Christian—there is a very real danger that, unlike I am sure Piper himself, you might actually conclude that it is all right for a Christian to feel pretty helpless against sin and, frankly, become despairing.

Because of this result, and in light of my study of the matter, I am unusually ready to say here that I think Piper is wrong and Lloyd-Jones and Virgo are right. Why do I say this?

First, Romans 7 and Romans 8 seem to be setting forth two different life styles that are mutually inconsistent. The man who knows no freedom in Romans 7 has been set free from the law in Romans 8. While it is true that without the Spirit we can have the will to do good, but lack the ability to do it, with the Spirit it is no longer true that we cannot carry out good. Paul seems to almost yell at us in Romans 8—you CAN do it! I am no believer in Christians becoming perfect, but I do so hope that your view of Romans 7 doesn't lead you to a feeling of despair against ever enjoying living a victorious Christian life.

Lloyd-Jones expresses some of his reasons for believing the man of Romans 7 does NOT reflect the normal Christian life as follows:

"When the Christian talks about his sin and failure he does not talk about it primarily in terms of the law; he talks about it primarily in terms of love, about his failure to live to his glory. The Christian does not go on speaking in terms of the law as the man in Romans 7 does. He is no longer ‘under the law’ but ‘under grace.’ Furthermore, as the Apostle will show us . . . the Christian must never allow himself to feel the condemnation of the law . . . the whole object of this great 8th chapter is to emphasise that: ‘No condemnation . . . no separation.’ [MLJ Romans 7:1 to Romans 8:4 pp. 262-263. Cited online here.]

As one writer who holds a similar position to Virgo and Lloyd-Jones on this passage explains, with the understanding of Romans 7 that it does NOT represent the ideal Christian life, greater optimism about our fight against sin is possible:

"If, however, we, Christians, have "died to sin" (Romans 6:2), have been "freed from sin" (Romans 6:7) and are now "in (not 'controlled by') the Spirit" (Romans 8:9), then the possibilities of living lives that glorify God are as high and wide and broad and deep as the God who has called us. As people who are "spiritual," not "fleshly," we need not fall helplessly before the onslaught of sin (which was our life before Christ) but may with full confidence place our trust in Christ, through whom we have been freed from sin. Whereas before we had no choice but to go on doing the evil that we hated and not the good that we wished, now there is a choice."

I found the earlier quote from Virgo as part of my preparation for a sermon I will be preaching on Sunday on Philippians. Terry made the link between Romans 7 and the problems with willpower and inability, contrasting it with Paul's glorious challenge to us which shows that God gives us both the willpower and the ability to be broadly successful in our battle against sin.

". . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)

These are notes from the sermon I preached at Jubilee last Sunday. They are shorter than usual, but I thought I’d share the outline with you anyway. You can listen to the sermon by downloading it or you can listen to it here:




I. HOW TO LIVE FOR THE FUTURE—Philippians 1:1-11

• Know Who You Are (verses 1-2)
  
  
  
  • A slave of the RISEN Jesus (NOT man) and saints—i.e. set apart and being cleansed.
    
    
  • Conduits of grace and peace.
  
  
  
• Know Where You Are Going (verse 6) BE SURE!
  
  
  
• Know Who You Are Going With — Long-term, heart-felt partnership (verses 5, 7, 8)
  
  
  
• Know What You Are Meant To Do On The Way
  
  
  
  1. Verse 5—“In the gospel,” i.e. live in the good of it and live for its progress, don’t just keep the chair warm! What do we do in its good ...
     
     
     
  2. Verse 3—Thankfulness that comes from remembrance.
     
     
     
  3. Verse 4—Prayer that is joyful and full of anticipation.
     
     
     
  4. Verse 9—Abounding, growing love.
     
     
     
  5. Verse 9—Desire to study. We will spend eternity with . . .
     
     
     
  6. Verse 9-10—Resultant wisdom/discernment, i.e. the ability to lovingly apply to life the things we learn.
     
     
     
  7. ALL of this results in verses 10-11—Purity that honors God.

II. RESULTS OF LIVING FOR THE FINAL DAY (Philippians 1:12-17)

• Verse 12-14—Confidence that comes from knowing even tough times are for our good, e.g. prison making confident!
  
  
  
• Verse 14—Boldness to declare this wonderful news!
  
  
  
• Verse 15-17—Preoccupation with the advance of the gospel above all partisanship, etc.
  
  
  
• Verse 17-20—Rejoicing, eager expectation, hope, “full of courage”, honor to Christ.
  
  
  
• Verse 21-30—Glorious indifference to our own life and its sufferings. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22) Let’s study to be prepared to die well.

CONCLUSION
Live a worthy life and fight for the gospel—“It’s all about Jesus!”

BACKGROUND QUOTES

“Hence we have a service which is not a matter of choice for the one who renders it, which he has to perform whether he likes or not, because he is subject as a slave to an alien will, to the will of his owner . . .

[The slave is one] who not only has no possibility of evading the tasks laid upon him, but who also has no right of personal choice, who must rather do what another will have done, and refrain from doing what another will not have done.”

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vols. 5-9, edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin, Ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Electronic Ed., 2:261 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976).

“He is not merely putting up with his circumstances, he is going beyond that, he is exulting in his suffering. He is triumphant, he is jubilant. There is a marvellous element in this, he tells them, if they can but see it. This is characteristic New Testament teaching . . . Do not waste your tears on me or on my condition, says the Apostle.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in Ephesians—The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, Chapter 3, p. 17 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1972).

“Death was nothing to these apostles. They had already passed from death to life. Having passed from judgment to life in Him, they were not afraid of death. They knew where they were going—they were going “to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:23).”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Courageous Christianity, 1st U.S. ed., 173 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001).

Regular readers of my blog will remember that, together with my pastor, Tope Koleoso, we had the joy of being able to chat with Mark Driscoll when we went to Edinburgh to hear him preach live. We were deeply impressed with his graciousness and kindness to us. In this, he reminded me of a man who is one of my other living Christian heroes—Terry Virgo.

I know that many people were disappointed not to be able to make it to Scotland to hear Mark. So I am delighted to relay an announcement from Terry Virgo's blog today. Mark Driscoll has agreed to speak next July at the Newfrontiers Leaders Conference in Brighton, UK. Here is how Terry begins his post:

"The last time I checked, the Pope was still a Catholic, the death rate was still hovering at around 100%, and the chances of getting Mark Driscoll to speak at a conference in the UK in 2008 were averaging at zero.

It is therefore with great delight that I can announce that we have, with the aid of certain friends (for an inspired guess see Adrian Warnock’s blog), arranged for him to be our main visiting speaker at Together on a Mission in Brighton next year, 8-11 July 2008.

In recent months I have found myself listening to downloads of Mark Driscoll’s preaching, probably more than anybody else’s. I find him completely arresting, relevant, Biblical, funny, aggressive, and packing a real punch. I believe he will do us a lot of good.

I love his value system and I am impressed by what has been accomplished by God through his ministry based in Seattle, where a church of several thousand has been built in a few years, starting from almost nothing and largely not through church swapping, but conversion.

He is theologically reformed, Biblically orthodox, and culturally relevant, and particularly addresses the post-modern world with remarkable insight. I have just read his chapter in the Crossway publication, The Supremacy of Christ in a Post-Modern World. I found myself underlining sentence after sentence, and simply wrote ‘Wow!’ in the margin at the conclusion of the chapter. I am deeply grateful to God that he will be with us." Read more . . .

This is a fantastic piece of news. Terry and Mark are both pastors of pastors. Church planting is a major need of our world today. Leaders themselves need to be trained.

As an example of Terry's gifting in operation, he has recently finished a series of posts on the vital role of the pastor in the life of a church. He re-examines the biblical teaching. I will finish this post by giving you a taste of each post in the series, but do go and read them all; they are worthy of careful study.

Church Leaders

As a movement, Newfrontiers has tended to emphasise the role of apostles and prophets. The church was originally built on the foundation of apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20) so they gave the people of God their fundamental identity. I have argued that we were not built on a pastoral foundation.

My argument has often been expressed by noting that pastors are called to care for and feed the flock and meet the flock’s needs. An over-emphasis, therefore, on the pastoral role can result in pre-occupation with needs. We could become need-centred instead of apostolic and prophetic, thereby missing God’s intention and forgetting the bigger picture, building churches that gradually become foreign to the atmosphere of the New Testament.

I have been alarmed at the possible danger of a church becoming introverted, developing a culture where personal preference dominates and shepherds major on discerning and serving people’s so-called ‘felt needs’. However, in taking this stance, we may have failed to bring adequate positive Biblical teaching about the vital role of pastors and teachers. They are, of course, the most visible ministers in the local church. They have the most ‘hands on’ role among the flock. Read more . . .

Shepherds of the Flock

Jesus didn’t say, ‘I am the good apostle,’ or ‘the good prophet,’ or even ‘the good evangelist,’ but happily claimed to be the Good Shepherd. . .

Although the Lord was their ultimate shepherd, it is clear that God actually enlisted men to fulfil the shepherding role on His behalf. . .

As the apostles go, their intuitive strategy in obeying the command was to plant churches, establish flocks and appoint shepherds to care for them. Read more . . .

Other Sheep I Must Bring

When Billy Graham came to the UK in the 1950's and ‘60s, the call to return to God would have been generally comprehended by that generation. Today we live in a different era and though people can be born again through encountering the simplest message, we must not assume that initial conversion will result in inevitable Christian maturity, or even basic understanding of Christian living.

Deconstructing people’s world view
The role of the modern shepherd includes a call to deconstruct people’s previous world view. Nothing can be taken for granted. Lives need to be re-formed. Coming from a fragmented and aimless society devoid of any trace of Christian values, people need to be re-socialised and taught how to relate in godly ways.

Raised on self-indulgence, consumerism and rampant individualism, the new convert won’t automatically be transformed into a mature Christian who knows how to conduct himself in the household of God (1 Timothy 3:15).

God has promised to give His people shepherds after His own heart who will feed them with knowledge and understanding (Jeremiah 3:15). This feeding requires a radical approach. We are not called to build on a false foundation with teachings that imply merely personal fulfilment or the grasping of the individual’s full potential, or how to love oneself. The shelves of many a Christian bookshop are filled with titles which appeal to personal fulfilment as the goal of the Christian life. Coming from a culture where demanding your personal rights seems to be the bottom line, new Christians hardly need that diet. Read more . . .

Spirit-inspired Preaching

. . . Holy Spirit-inspired preaching brings about an encounter with God that demands a verdict and produces a changed life based on revelation, faith and love, not cold obedience to external rules.

God’s flock will intuitively hear His voice and respond as truth is fed to them by called and anointed pastor/teachers. Gradually a culture of God-centredness will emerge characterised by worship, faith, grace, mercy, respect, service and the awareness of being an alien people whose fundamental citizenship lies elsewhere (Philippians 3:20) . . .

The shepherd’s ability to feed and be a channel of God’s grace will result in the gathering of a flock. The sheep gather to the gifted anointing of shepherding and thus a flock forms.

The responsibility of the shepherds is not simply to expound truth but to develop relationships of love and trust, and in some cases to ‘parent’ a flock often made up of those who have never been parented before. Read more . . .

UPDATE The Audio of this talk is now available to download.

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Tonight's event took place in an ex-cinema, so I felt at home! It is the home of Destiny Church, Edinburgh. Destiny is a family of churches across Scotland, and they have some churches elsewhere in the world as well. The audience that gathered was a young one, and following an energetic time of worship, Mark Driscoll came to the platform to share with us. Here is a short video clip from the message. Following this, I will share my notes with you.

Mark spoke about the person of Jesus and his work on the cross. He said that he believed that it was important for preachers of the gospel from time to time to sit and hear the gospel.

He began in 1 Corinthians 2 — “... I resolved to know nothing when I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified ....” The only thing that must be preached is Jesus and him crucified. Apart from Jesus and his death, we have nothing to offer anyone.

It takes three generations to lose the gospel. One generation believes, the next assumes too much, and the third forgets it or denies it. We cannot assume anything. If we say Jesus, Bible, God, cross, sin—we must not assume that anyone has any idea what we are talking about!

Martin Luther said that in our preaching of the cross, we should “ ... beat it into their heads continually!”

Many traditions love one side of the jewel of Jesus' death. Mark believes we must appreciate eleven sides of the cross. We must also think of it in the context of Jesus' whole life—his incarnation, holy life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We need to emotionally encounter the significance of the crucifixion and all that it has accomplished for us. The Jews couldn't understand how God himself could be cursed by hanging on a tree.

It is perhaps the most amazing thing that has ever happened—that the cross should become the most popular symbol in human history. To call the day Jesus died “Good Friday” is also astonishing. We must understand the theological aspects of the cross.

ELEVEN ASPECTS OF THE ATONEMENT

1. The Central Theme—Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA)
   
   We cannot assume anything. A war is brewing over this issue. This is the issue we must be willing to fight over. If we lose this, we lose the gospel. Mark said that if you deny this, you have essentially lost the Christian faith. Isaiah 53:5 — “ ... FOR our transgressions.” Romans 5:8 — “Christ died FOR us.” 1 Corinthians 15:3 — “Christ died FOR our sins.” Sin results in death. In the Garden of Eden, our first parents sinned in our place. They substituted themselves for God—they made their own rules and lived as though they were God.
   
   As we substituted ourselves for God, God substituted himself for us to fix this. Sin is only atoned for in substitution — e.g. in the sacrifices of atonement.
   
   What does this mean practically? I MURDERED GOD! He died for MY sin! He paid MY penalty of death. As MY substitute he endured what I deserve in order to give me what I don't deserve. If you lose substitution, you lose all sense of gratitude.
   
   
2. Jesus is Our Victor
   
   Jesus conquered Satan and demons. We don't like demons, so this is a good thing! Colossians 2:13-15 — “ ... disarmed the rulers and authorities ...” It looks as if Jesus is defeated on the cross. Isaiah 45:15 — “God hides.” He hid victory in defeat because God is humble. Those who are proud (like Satan) don't see it! We aligned ourselves with Satan. Being "spiritual" is not good if it's not the Holy Spirit. Satan is real. There is a real war. Revelation 12:10 — Demons accuse people: “You are a loser; you are not a real Christian ...” The devil condemns people and haunts them with past sin. He loves death and wants to kill. Jesus cancelled the rights that Satan and demons have towards the children of God. He has been defeated and disarmed. There is victory over Satan and demons for the people of God.
   
   
3. Jesus is Our Redemption
   
   Don't teach this from the pagan slave market. Rather, speak about God redeeming his people from the slavery of Pharaoh—in slavery to sin. We can't stop. We are not free. We can't escape. But just like the people of Israel, we have been set free to worship God! We are liberated to live new lives. To have joy. To worship God together as his people.
   
   
4. Jesus is the New Covenant Sacrifice
   
   1 Peter —“... precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb.” Blood disgusts us. We must identify the horror of blood and death as sin. God is as disgusted with sin as we are with blood. God is horrified by sin. We should be as horrified by sin as we are by blood. God was the first person to shed blood in the Bible—to cover the sin of Adam. The Bible is a bloody book. The first thing Noah did after the flood was to sacrifice. Noah was not "a good guy." Noah found GRACE. He found unmerited grace, and then he became righteous. After the flood, it was as though Noah said, “God should have killed me, too”—that was why he had to offer a sacrifice. “I deserved to die.” He, of course, promptly went on to demonstrate why— by getting naked and drunk.
   
   Hebrews is clear on this. We don't need a temple or a priest or a lamb because we have Jesus. His blood was shed for our sins. When sinned against we often say, “I want blood!” Well, you already have it. The gospel is the good news that we should have died, but instead we are loved. So we must show love to others!
   
   
5. Jesus is Our Justification
   
   No one will be justified by works of the law. God would not be good if he let everyone into heaven. If he did that, when we got there it would be like earth, full of hatred and sin and evil. God's heart is gracious mercy and forgiveness. But because of his justice, he has to deal with our sin. God's standard is perfection. No one can say they are perfect. Lust counts as adultery and anger counts as murder. People want righteousness, which is why hard firm religions attract people. When you go to the bathroom, that's about how impressed I am with your righteousness. Our righteousness is described by the Bible as human excrement and menstrual rags. God hates religion. He despises it. You must call sinners to repentance, and also call "righteous" people to repent of their religious righteousness. Righteousness is GIFT righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. “Jesus was the most despised thing in all creation on the cross” (Luther). Righteousness only comes from faith in Christ. When we stand before God it will be imputed righteousness—that is what will appear on our resume. I trust Jesus.
   
   It doesn't end with imputed righteousness. He gives us a new heart and a new nature. This gives us a desire to do right things. He gives us new power through the Holy Spirit to live life. He gives us a fulfilling life. We are regenerated. We change.
   
   
6. Jesus is Our Propitiation
   
   Four times in the Greek New Testament. 1 John 4:10 — This is love—not that we have loved God. It's not because you are a good person that God loves you. You don't obey so God will love you; you obey because God already does love you!
   
   Propitiation is how God demonstrates his love. God hates sinners. You have been told that God loves sinners, but hates sin. No, Gandhi said that! God often says he hates people. We are by nature sinners. “I hate the essence sum and total of what you are, but I really love you.” We have a sinful nature and commit sins. “God hates all who do evil.” God hates a lot of people. God's wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the Bible. More verses talk about the wrath of God than those which state that he loves us. The gospel starts with “God hates you and it's going to go really really bad forever and ever!” Jesus suffered the wrath of God, and it is thereby taken away from sinners who are in Jesus. The question is not, "How can a loving God send anyone to hell?" The real question is, "Why does a holy God take anyone to heaven?" The passover demonstrates the wrath of God passing over the ones covered by the blood of Jesus. Jesus is our passover Lamb.
   
   
7. Jesus is Our Expiation
   
   This is different from propitiation. Propitiation takes away our wrath. Expiation deals with our defilement. This is often overlooked. Sins have also been committed against us. In 1 John it says that Jesus' blood purifies us from all unrighteousness. Expiation deals with the feeling of being dirty, a feeling that is experienced by both sinners and those sinned against. “Dirty people do dirty things.” Our identity is sometimes about what people have done against us rather than what Jesus has done for us. Feeling defiled, feeling dirty, is a huge issue. The scapegoat was set free. Sin was laid on Jesus and it was taken away. The blood of Jesus CLEANSES us. We are clean. We are clothed in white by Jesus. We should see ourselves and others that way. We can be clean. We don't need to manage, shift blame, or excuse sin; rather we need to face it and deal with it.
   
   
8. Jesus is Our Ransom
   
   There is only one mediator. Music, Bible translations, etc. don't mediate. If the music changes, we can still worship God. We owe a debt to God. Every sin or omission is a debt. We have a mountain of debt. We cannot possibly pay it to God. Doing good for awhile doesn't reduce our debt, it just doesn't increase the amount of our debt! A mediator pays the debt on our behalf.
   
   
9. Jesus is Our Example
   
   1 Peter 2:21 and Philippians 2 — “Christus exemplar.” Jesus has always been God. He came into human history as man. How did Jesus live his life? It wasn't a fake—like Superman and Clark Kent— i.e. God can't be tempted. Jesus DOES sympathize with our weaknesses because he was tempted. Jesus did not cease to be God. He set aside the use of his divine attributes. God knows everything, but Jesus had to learn. How did he do it? It was by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit filled Jesus. He was the Anointed One. All was done by the power of the Spirit. We can now also live Spirit-filled lives. Being spirit-filled means living the life of Jesus. We do what Jesus did. The Spirit led Jesus into temptation, into suffering. We suffer too (Philippians 1). We will be led into difficult times. We are perfected by our suffering, when we suffer like Jesus did, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't waste your pain or your suffering. Use it for a witness, use it for the gospel. Christians are like nails—the harder you hit us, the deeper we go.
   
   
10. Jesus is Our Reconciliation
    
    Sin separates us from God and each other. The cross brings us together. “... be kind ... forgiving one another as God forgave you ...” We are sinned against and either become bitter or become like Jesus. That is the choice we have. We often have two standards. When we sin, we want mercy; when others sin, we want hell. Bitterness is often caused by the person we love the most sinning in a little way against us. There are only two problems in a marriage—the man and the woman. We can either learn to forgive or let sin destroy our relationships. We can only be true community and reconciled in the cross. We need the Prince of Peace to know true peace.
    
    
11. Jesus is Our Revelation
    
    Who is God? Where do we begin? Start at the cross. Jesus reveals God to us. The centerpiece of Jesus' life is the cross. Look at the cross to see what God is like. Love and justice. Holiness and mercy. No other religion has a concept of God like that. Our God is not a god who asks for blood; instead, he offers his own. You can talk about the attributes of God all day; it is only in the cross that it all makes sense. The revelation of God comes together at the cross.

Mark closed with a few comments on 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 — the gospel must be reiterated to us, and we must remind our people of it. We must not assume it. If we do, they will deny it. It must be continually proclaimed and declared—not offered as a helpful suggestion! Jesus must be magnified. It must be RECEIVED. It is personal. We must be changed by it. We must go on believing it. It is central in every way. You can't teach marriage, parenting, work, or for that matter, anything, without the cross. It precedes everything else. The gospel gets passed on. Paul received it and passed it on. If anyone changes it, they are a demon. They are sent from Satan and they are going to hell. We don't change what we received!

It's all about Jesus!

• It is penal—Christ died.
  
• FOR our sins—it is substitutional.
  
• It is eschatological—Jesus didn't remain dead, but was raised. Forever is a really long time!

UPDATE—February 19, 2008
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 2nd all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 3rd most-read post was "The ESV: A Bible Translation for Everyone?"

This post was an expression of some of my own concerns and frustrations about the blogging world I have come to love so much. I said some things I had been wanting to say for a long time, and it was not a great surprise that the aftermath of this post would lead me to disable comments on my blog a month later. Tim's book addresses discernment, which lies at the root of many of my issues with the Christian blogosphere and its direction.

***************

UPDATE—November 3, 2007
Phil has now written part two of his reply, and I have responded with a post entitled, "Of Tone, Discernment, and the Charismatic Question."

UPDATE—October 29, 2007
Phil Johnson over at Pyromaniacs and I have been debating the issues raised by my criticism of him in the comments section of his original post. Just search for "Adrian" using the "find in page" function if you want to follow our specific debate. Phil has also written a new post, "If you can't say something nice," and we are debating in the comments on that post.

I will leave this post at the top of my blog for a couple more days as I want to give you all a chance to read it. If you are interested in some of my related thoughts on this subject, you could read the following posts:

• My Visit to the Billy Graham Center
  
• I Don't Want Balance, I Want It All!
  
• My Comments Policy
  
• Blogging Principles for Christians

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Those of you with an eagle-eye will have already noticed that I am publicizing Tim Challies' forthcoming book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. I doubt that many are surprised that I should want to encourage you to read his book, and I will show in this post why that is the case.

To begin with, however, I want to be very open and honest with you. When I first heard that Tim was writing a book I was actually a little concerned. This may surprise those regular readers who know how much I respect Tim and enjoy his blog. But I still had in my mind an old paradigm where those who are in some way "approved" as trained experts are the ones who should write books. Tim, like me, has no theological degrees. I also know that, just like me concerning this blog, he has been rather surprised by the way in which his readership has grown to an extent he never predicted (and, I should say, to a substantially larger figure than my own). So I was surprised that Tim put his neck on the line still further by taking on the challenge of writing a book.

Tim and I have both been riding a wave—the wave of blogging. In both the secular field and the Christian field, it seems that the most successful bloggers almost all seem to have something in common; they are not "officially trained" recognized global experts in their chosen fields. Perhaps this is because the real experts are too busy to write on a daily basis, or perhaps this is because of a new phenomena in our culture—one with which I'm not particularly thrilled, to be honest. In our 21st century culture there is a growing mistrust of any form of authority and of academics. It is actually rather sad to me that this now seems to be spilling over into the Church, and that it might seem, at first glance, to also include the Christian blogosphere.

One of the most influential early articles discussing the Christian blogging phenomenon was titled, "We Know More Than Our Pastors," and it embodied this trend. It concerned me immensely. David Wayne summarized this piece and sounded some very valid concerns about it. For me, I wanted almost nothing to do with the concepts outlined therein.

Even as I have enjoyed the way that I have been able to be buffeted in this hurricane called blogging, I have also been somewhat concerned about some of the implications of this new marketplace of ideas. I suppose that, despite these reservations, I remain in the blogosphere because I am drawn to it as surely as a bee is to a flower in bloom, and as the Apostle Paul was to the debating spots of ancient Athens.

I am also here because somebody has to be. I am certainly not here because I imagine myself to be at the vanguard of some modern reformation that will sweep away the "old guard" in the way some bloggers (usually not Christian ones) speak about. I am here because, ironically enough, I see this new media as a way that we can proclaim the old, old message. I am here because, in some small way, I can act as a signpost to direct passing traffic to wiser heads than mine. The more readers I find visiting here, the more I feel the need to both quote and link to others. Whatever the size of your blog readership, that filtering process is the single best gift you can give both to your readers and to the writers of even the biggest blogs. I am pleased that the headlines from several bloggers who deserve to be read more than I do appear in the "Warnie Winners" box in my sidebar.

The blogging community can be thought of as a road system, a library, an ecosystem, or perhaps most aptly of all, a jungle. With no single classification system or map, what is needed are good wise guides. There are precious few of them online.

One such wise guide is surely Tim Challies. I know that he shares many of my concerns about the world of blogs, and has a similar attitude in wanting to support those in positions of authority in the Church rather than tearing them down. I know that he is submissive to others. I like that he respects those, like me, who might differ with him on secondary issues, but firmly join hands on the Gospel. I have also met a godly man called Paul Martin who pastors him wisely. The more I came to know Tim, the more my concerns about the concept of a non-expert writing a book began to evaporate. If the modern world needs non-experts to grapple with the words of the experts and make them more accessible to the rest of us, then those who have been given that gift should be encouraged to find an appropriate outlet, even if that looks a bit different from previous models.

Writing a book is very different from writing a blog, even though the number of words involved in a blog over the years may be just as numerous. With a blog, there is instant feedback, and a chance to easily go back and reword or retract an argument. With a book, not only is it more permanent, it is somehow expected to be more accurate, so the responsibility feels greater. James 3 is ever present in the mind of a preacher, and should be in the mind of a blogger as well. Speaking personally, I have applied it even more strongly to the concept of writing a book, which quite frankly has always terrified me rather than attracted me.

But for some people there comes a time when a book finds them and demands to be written. That is what has happened to the man I am glad to call my friend, Tim Challies. He is painfully aware of the cacophony of voices available online, and the need to discriminate between them. The average member of your congregation might well be either theologically illiterate or have imbibed a watered-down, overly simplistic doctrinal system which he has heard away from your church pulpit. Blogs, mp3s, books, magazines, TV programs, conferences, and radio all compete for the minds of modern Christians. The battle has never been stronger. How should we respond to this?

There are a number of different approaches that could be taken. We could just ignore what is going on around us, which would not be wise. We could, instead, become great experts in the different types of false teaching that are being purveyed. There are some bloggers who seem to have the goal of ferreting out everything that is less than perfect. These are often termed "watch blogs." The temptation is to take some kind of perverse gratification out of proving others wrong. As the years have gone on, by God's grace, that temptation has increasingly looked less appealing to me, although there was a time when I frequently delighted in giving in to it.

Sometimes even bloggers with good intentions can fall into the trap of being over zealous in their discernment. I am sure I have fallen into that trap myself at times. But this past week, in reading a post by Phil Johnson, I thought I saw a classic example of someone who had over-reached himself in reacting to some things he had discerned. Now, don't get me wrong. I share many of Phil's concerns. I am indeed concerned about some aspects of Willow Creek's ministry philosophy. Personally, I am not sure how to interpret their recent "repentance," and certainly was VERY worried to see that they have invited Brian McLaren to speak at one of their conferences. BUT it bothers me that Phil seemed (at least to me) to be implying that Willow Creek has absolutely nothing to teach us. I am sure that if we fail to recognize something as being good and helpful and true, we fail in our discernment as much as if we blindly accepted everything in a naive way. I know it sounds cliched, but we really must be looking for the good in people, especially in those who have not denied important aspects of the Gospel. It is quite correct to say, "I like what this person says about the following subject, and have learned from them, although I disagree strongly with them on another subject." If, instead, we lump people and whole movements together into an amorphous lump of theological rejects, surely we risk alienating them and, ironically, driving some further away from the truth of the Gospel that I know Phil and I both love.

But if Phil was harsh on Willow Creek, he went on in the same post to be even harder on the charismatics. I mention this because this kind of over-zealous discernment is sadly quite common. Again, quite rightly, he was pointing out the sin in a specific charismatic minister. Also, quite rightly, he was pointing out that due to an absence of discernment this kind of error is all too common in the charismatic movement, and sadly is often covered up. So far so good. And, despite his claim that his charismatic friends would be angry at these comments, I agree! What I struggle with, however, is that he then makes plain that he believes that charismatic doctrine itself is to blame for these sins and the lack of discernment that allows them to continue unchallenged. Phil applies the red card of his disapproval to the entire movement that, despite all its acknowledged weaknesses, I am thrilled to have been part of for decades. Should we use discernment with such a broad brush stroke?

My dear friend, Jesse Phillips, took Phil to task admirably in the comments section and repeated this on his own blog. No one seemed able to answer his arguments that while it is true that some second-order implications which people draw from core charismatic doctrine do encourage gullibility and an absence of discernment, the core doctrines themselves do not need to do so. Phil, in reply, claimed that reformed charismatics were a new breed, and only caused by alien influences on the movement. This is not true. Men like Terry Virgo and C. J. Mahaney and the groups of churches they lead have been around for many decades now. Perhaps these groups are not as visible as they could be, but I know they are also not alone in being committed to a firm grasp on reality and the wisdom of the Bible.

To simply dismiss the entire charismatic movement in just one sentence does not seem a wise response to the fastest growing segment of Christianity. It is not, of course, wrong to disagree with charismatic theology (some of my best friends online are cessationists, like Tim himself, of course), but Phil does not seem to recognize any good that has come out of the movement. It would be like me refusing to acknowledge the fantastic work being produced by cessationists. Much as I disagree with some of the positions cessationists take, I am willing to go so far as to state I learn as much and perhaps even more helpful theology from their teachers as I do from fellow charismatic teachers. Doesn't discernment require that we identify helpful material even when it comes from those we disagree with on relatively minor points?

There is surely another way to respond to the marketplace of ideas to which we are exposed in today's church. The single best approach to discerning truth from error is to focus on understanding and proclaiming the truth more (while remaining aware of what is being taught around us). We need to learn to recognize the truth for ourselves by studying the Bible. But we must recognize that we ourselves are not immune to error. We need to ask God for humility wherein we submit ourselves to the views of others and are willing to be taught by them. Indeed, we should be willing to use our discernment as a sieve to strain out the good bits from a mixture of error in order to do so. None of us has a monopoly on truth, or for that matter, error. Some may grasp certain aspects of the truth with remarkable ease, while others of us may struggle to understand it for years. There is, in my view, often much truth in the very ministries of those who we eagerly criticize. We can learn from more people than we like to think we can—provided we have discernment. I am frequently provoked when I read the writings or listen to the teachings of others who come from different parts of the Church than I. This must be done with caution, of course, and requires that I have studied the Bible for myself first. The more we understand the biblical truth for ourselves the better skilled we will become at testing everything and holding onto the good. I love the way Tim says it in his book:

"We can best know what is wrong by first knowing what is right. Experts on counterfeit currency know this as well. They train others first to know the traits of genuine currency because such knowledge will make apparent what is fraudulent. Christians need to dedicate themselves to learning and knowing truth so that what is evil and abnormal will appear obvious. For this reason the Apostle writes, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). He encourages us to think first and foremost about what is right and true and pure and lovely. In Romans 16:19b he says this as well, exhorting the Roman church “to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” Never does the Bible tell us to dwell primarily or repeatedly upon what is false.

The relationship of truth to error is such that we can best know error by knowing truth. The opposite is not true. People who invest undue effort in concentrating upon what is false will not necessarily be able to identify what is true. By dwelling upon the beautiful truths of Scripture we will subsequently learn discernment. A discerning person will know that he must focus his heart upon what is true and pure and lovely, having confidence that in doing this God will bless Him with the ability to expose darkness."

Tim Challies takes us from the turbulent marketplace of ideas that is the modern western church back into the world of the Scriptures. Sadly, today many people fall into the trap of being naively blown from one wind of teaching to another. Others become so expert at straining out the gnats of what they believe to be error that they are unable to learn from anybody. Instead they believe themselves to be the guardians of "true" doctrine. Tim shows us from the Bible itself how to avoid both errors. Tim's reliance on the Bible is refreshing in an age when doctrinal pillars of our faith are being challenged by prominent preachers, and there is a constant search for novelty in parts of the Church. This book, like no other I have seen, aims to give ordinary Christians like you and me the tools we need to learn how to discern truth from error. I wholeheartedly urge you to get yourself a copy and read it, and then buy one for a friend.

I will close by quoting another passage from Tim's book that expresses well his aim in writing the book:

This book is written for the general reader who wishes to understand discernment, to understand what the Bible teaches us about discernment, and who wishes to equip himself in this discipline. It is not written primarily for people with theological training, though I trust they, too, can benefit from it. Rather, it is written for you and for me—average Christians living in a culture and in a church where it so often seems that anything goes. It is written for those who look at much of what is said and done in the name of Jesus and ask themselves, “How can this be right?” It is written for all those who believe that it is the duty of every Christian to think biblically about all areas of life so that they might act biblically in all areas of life . . .

I do not intend to do the work of discernment for you. There are many books, web sites, and ministries that claim to teach discernment but do so by simply listing all the things you must do and the things you must not do. This book approaches the subject differently and is the result of my studies in Scripture to find the tools of discernment that God provides to us in his Word. And so I will not present a list of ministries you should avoid or endorse, authors whose books you should burn or buy, and music you should not listen to or that you should immediately download to your MP3 player. Rather, I hope to teach biblical wisdom on how you and I can become more discerning. I will present to you the wisdom of the Bible as it teaches us how we can become men and women of discernment. I will present principles you can use as you walk this life distinguishing between what is truth and what is error, what is right and what is wrong.

During a brief trip to the USA this past week, I had a layover in the Chicago area. I had an amazing few hours. I ate lunch with two great friends who I had never met in the flesh before. It struck me that the impression I had of them when finally meeting face-to-face was almost identical to the one I already had through our electronic communications. I thank God for the people I have been privileged to meet through this blog.

What I want to focus on in this post is what happened next. I hadn't even realized that there was a connection between Billy Graham and the town I was visiting. At my friends' suggestion, I headed to the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

I am well aware that there are at least two different perceptions of Billy Graham among evangelicals. You can read about both perspectives in a 2006 MSNBC interview and the Wikipedia page about Billy Graham. There are many evangelicals who, although they might have some concerns, greatly rejoice in what God has accomplished through his preaching of the Gospel. In Philippians 1, Paul rejoices that Christ was preached even by those who had bad motives. Surely all Christians can rejoice at the preaching career of a man who has been in the media spotlight for five decades and yet has never been accused of a lack of integrity.

Wikipedia believes that 2 billion people have heard Billy Graham preach the Gospel and that 2.5 million of them made a public declaration of faith in response. There is no doubt that Billy has preached to more people than any other Christian minister in the last 2000 years. If there have been some weaknesses about Billy over the years (and certainly Billy himself believes that there are) then surely the fact that God chose to use someone weak in such a dramatic way only underlines the glory of his grace.

The Billy Graham Center moved me profoundly. An overview of evangelical history in America led into a more detailed report of the life of the man often called "America's pastor." The focus was not on his role as personal counselor to every president since Harry Truman. Rather it was his preaching and crusades that were reported in most detail. Walking past photographs of massive crowds while listening to clips of his preaching brought tears to my eyes. It seemed that in every era the extracts of the messages they had playing said almost the same thing, which I have paraphrased as follows:

Christ died, took the guilt for you, became sin for you, and rose again. He's a living Christ. He's here right now. He wants you to repent, trust him, and ask him to be Lord of your life, to come into your life so you can then follow him as Lord and Saviour.

The focus was not just on the death, but also on the resurrection. It was not just on sin and wrath, but also forgiveness and love. He was not content to speak only of God in heaven, but also of Jesus living in our hearts. I stood behind Billy's traveling pulpit and listened to his voice and wept that God would raise up more preachers of Christ in our day who can fill stadiums with the Gospel.

As the exhibition closes, if visitors are in any doubt about who the organizers really want to glorify, you are led through a passageway to the foot of an enormous cross. Then you are taken into a dark passageway clearly intended to be the grave. As you round the corner, a simple inscription is written on the wall "He is not here, but risen!" The passageway then opens into a light room clearly intended to reflect glory. I was quite simply undone by this and had tears welling in my eyes.

I was left with a strong impression of the need for us to preach the simple Gospel of Jesus' death AND resurrection. I also remember reading these words of Billy Graham there (which sadly I did not write down in a notebook, so they may not be 100 per cent accurate, although the sense is definitely there):

I find that when I preach the simple Gospel with authority, quoting the very words of the Bible, the Holy Spirit drives it home into the hearts of people.

The Holy Spirit was a major focus of the exhibition in several quotes. Oh, for a return to such an emphasis on the living Jesus sending his Spirit to convict the world and bring them salvation. Deliver us from an overly intellectual Christianity, oh God. Remind us that the Gospel is indeed simple enough that a farm boy with no theological degrees can become its most prolific ambassador!

The impression left on me was striking indeed. So much so that, somewhat surprisingly for such a fan as I am, seeing the writing desks of C. S. Lewis and J. R. Tolkein, not to mention the wardrobe which inspired The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, was frankly an anticlimax!

As regular readers will realize, this week I am swiftly working through the glorious doctrines of grace—the so-called "TULIP." Today we reach irresistible grace.

Today's first quote comes once more from Charles Simeon:

"A river flowing with a rapid and majestic current to the sea would defy the efforts of the whole world to turn it back again to its source; yet by the returning tide it is not only arrested in its course, but driven up again with equal rapidity towards the fountain-head. It is thus that a sinner, when rushing with the whole current of his affections towards this present world, is stopped in his career of sin, and turned back with an irresistible impulse towards high and heavenly things. Let men, yea, let all the angels in heaven, attempt to effect this change, and their united efforts would be in vain. Who then that witnesses this change, and beholds the believer’s victories over sin and Satan, and his progressive advancement in the ways of holiness, must not adore that power by which so great a miracle is wrought? In this Christ is indeed magnified: “the exceeding greatness of his power is made known;” and the sufficiency of his grace is incontrovertibly established."

Simeon, Charles: Horae Homileticae Vol. 18: Philippians to 1 Timothy, London, 1832-63, S. 25.

The second is from the Doctor, Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

". . . it is the internal operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul and the heart of men and women that brings them into a condition in which the call can become effectual. And when the Spirit does it, of course, it is absolutely certain, and because of that some people have used the term—which I do not like myself—irresistible grace. I do not like the term because it seems to give the impression that something has happened which has been hammering at a person’s will and has knocked him down and bludgeoned him. But it is not that. It is that the Holy Spirit implants a principle within me which enables me, for the first time in my life, to discern and to apprehend something of this glorious, wondrous truth. He works upon my will. ‘It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.’ He does not strike me; He does not beat me; He does not coerce me. No, thank God, what He does is operate upon my will so that I desire these things and rejoice in them and love them. He leads, He persuades, He acts upon my will in such a way that when He does, the call of the gospel is effectual, and it is certain, and it is sure. God’s work never fails, and when God works in a man or woman, the work is effective."

Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn: God the Holy Spirit, Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books, 1997, S. 73.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our doctrine of the cross that we forget the ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR WHICH CHRIST DIED AND WAS RISEN. It was, in fact, not first and foremost for us, rather it was for Him. It was—like everything God does—for the sake of His own name and His own glory. He died and rose again so that one day everyone would acknowledge His supremacy and His right to rule over the entire universe. The following Scriptures will help us to lift our gaze from the mundane and be filled with the vision of this glorious victorious resurrected Jesus.

• “ . . . he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8-11)
  
  
• “ . . . according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
  
  
• “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

The GOAL OF THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION FOR US was that we would be changed, and that we would come to know Him—a knowledge we will know fully on that day, but which is given to us in part now through the Holy Spirit.

• “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24).
  
  
• “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)
  
  
• “ . . . that I may know him” (Philippians 3:10)

I am joined again today by Terry Virgo, leader of the reformed charismatic group, Newfrontiers.

Yesterday I spoke with Terry about his ministry and his view of the wider evangelical scene. Today I would like to begin by taking him back to the early days of his Christian life.

Adrian
Terry, can you tell us who particularly inspired you when you were a new Christian?

Terry
My first pastor was a man called Ernest Rudman, who loved the Bible, was a real man of prayer and was committed to world missions. While the way he did church and did missions would be very different to the way I would do so later, I learned those three values that would stay dear to me for the rest of my life.

Then, in the 1960's I was both baptized in the Spirit and also read my first Banner of Truth book—A. W. Pink's Sovereignty of God—and hence became a charismatic Calvinist.

I longed for the Holy Spirit. I was looking for a more godly and effective experience. My pastor, Ernest Rudman, had experienced something more than the conventional following a crisis of faith which had led to something which he couldn't articulate or explain very well. As a young pastor, he had a crisis and an experience with God over a few days—praying for hours about Romans 12:1-2. He said, 'I gave my hands to God, my eyes to God,'—gave his body as a living sacrifice. Intriguingly, before that he had a tiny church, while after that experience, he had a big church— one of biggest Baptist churches in the country at the time.

I was longing for more, and aware of the inadequacy of my own experience of God, so I turned to two theological heroes of mine—Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Stott. I studied both of them on the issue of being baptized in the Spirit and found that they totally disagreed with each other. I thought if these two heroes of mine can't agree, what hope is there for me? So I was thoroughly confused.

Then out of sheer agony of longing for more, I went to a Pentecostal church with a friend and someone laid their hands on me. I felt the power of God go through me and spoke in tongues. That opened up a whole new world.

Adrian
What did you feel were the implications for you of this new experience?

Terry
During those days two distinct schools of thought developed. The first was the renewal school which emphasized the personal aspect of our experiences. We were told not to "mess with the church." I immediately felt drawn to the alternative perspective—the restoration school.

I felt that what had happened to me was so radical that it had immediate implications for how we do church. If the Holy Spirit has come, we couldn't do church the same way. It was like a string of dominoes, the fact that I now spoke in tongues, had the potential of the prophetic, and a far more intimate sense of God's presence meant that we needed a new wineskin for this new wine. This meant that I was committed to the restoration perspective. This was simply a goal of recovering New Testament church life.

As we started new churches that had no history or tradition, we had to learn. How do you do church? Who leads it? We started by looking at elders. We asked the New Testament the following questions: Who appoints them? Who starts churches? This all became a journey which led us to a rediscovery of things like apostles. Although I respect men like Lloyd-Jones and Stott, I felt their appraisal of these things was wholly unsatisfactory.

Adrian
What then was the destination you arrived at in terms of the structure of church life?

Terry
Alec Motyer in his opening remarks in his commentary on Philippians eloquently describes the structure of the church as seen in the New Testament. Paul writes to the saints, the elders, their deacons, "We have a remarkably full summary of the constitution of the New Testament Church: the body of believers, the local church officers, the over-arching apostolic work of Paul, and the occasional ministry of a person like Timothy coming into the local situation from the outside."

Scholars like Motyer describe it. We say, "Let's do it!"

Motyer describes exactly what we aim to do in Newfrontiers. G. K. Chesterton once said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. As I said in Does the Future Have a Church, maybe this is true also of the biblical pattern of church life so simply described by Alec Motyer, but so manifestly ignored by most ecclesiastical systems in our day.


Adrian
What does that look like in practice?

Terry
When we first got started I had a very intimate relationship with all the Newfrontiers churches, most of which I personally helped get started. I would pay regular visits, praying for the people, teaching apostolic doctrine, modeling worship, and highlighting things like the grace of God, until it was obvious that the church was enjoying grace and the Holy Spirit. Now teams of men do that. Currently some churches within Newfrontiers are more intimately interwoven than others. My desire is that every church should feel that security of apostolic involvement intimately, and the enjoyment of being caught up with that apostolic figure and the team that is working with him. As we grow on as a movement we need to see multiplied apostles with their teams serving the churches.

In the end the ascended Jesus gives gifts to people—whether it be evangelist, pastor, teacher, prophet, or apostle. We are told to ask the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers. We are asking God to give gifts to people. Although someone might go to Bible college or be trained in a certain way, in the end they have to be supernaturally empowered. Training can improve a person, but only God can give a gift. In summary, apostolic ministry today lays a foundation, and functions in a fatherly way—it is not only biblical exposition, but relational.

Adrian
Tomorrow we will talk more about just what this modern-day apostolic ministry looks like.

Continued in part 3 . . .

It was a real delight to have the opportunity to spend some time with the leader of the family of churches I am a part of when Terry Virgo came to preach at the church I attend. He was kind enough to sit with me for what was a very interesting and open interview.

Terry is perhaps not as well known to my American readers as he ought to be. He is , however, widely perceived among Christians of different backgrounds as something of an elder statesman in the UK church. Together with John Piper and Don Carson he will be a key speaker at next Easters New Word Alive conference.

Having founded a reformed charismatic family of churches in the 1970's, called Newfrontiers, there are few with a wider breadth of experience in church leadership than Terry. Newfrontiers has a lot of similarities with Sovereign Grace Ministries which is headed by Terry's long-time friend C.J. Mahaney.

Incidentally, it is not too late for you to sign up for this years Newfrontiers conference Together On A Mssioin which will take place in Brighton, UK from 10th-13th July 2007.

Terry Virgo is a man on a mission, and this interview will give us insight into how he is feeling about the church in general and Newfrontiers in particular at the moment.

Thanks for joining us Terry, Please can you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your ministry?

I am married to Wendy and we have five grown up children. I live in Brighton where I was born. I lived away from Brighton for 14 years but have been back for 25 years. I am one of the elders of the Church of Christ The King and also lead the Newfrontiers family of churches. Newfrontiers is now in five continents and is made up of 500 churches. There are now a number of teams of leaders that serve those churches.

Well, that sounds really busy, Terry. I understand that on top of all that you have recently added to your responsibilities a blog and personal website. Can you tell me how that came about?

I travel a lot and keep hearing about blogs wherever in the world I am. I was in America recently and discovered that people had already got some of my material from my church website but were asking about other material. It made me feel that perhaps I should have a site on the internet for my thoughts and teaching. I had no feel for blogging at all, but as time has gone on it has grown with me that I should do it. The more I think about it the more motivated I am to do so. It also gives people a chance to see my diary and pray for my trips.

Talking of your future diary, I notice that you will be speaking for the UCCF and Keswick next spring at the New Word Alive conference in North Wales. How did that arise?

I was first invited to speak at the UCCF forum two years ago, which was out of the blue to me. I had already become an advisor to them prior to this. When I went to Forum we had an exceptionally good time. I was impressed by the responsiveness to God's word by the student leaders listening to my preaching on Romans. Afterwards, I was told that the mp3 downloads of the preaching were very popular. Then, when they felt they were going to do a separate conference in 2008 they wanted to get me involved. They know that I embrace a reformed theology and have a high view of Scripture.

How do you feel about the wider evangelical scene at the moment?

Well to be honest, I am not very encouraged by the Evangelical situation in England. Although recent years have seen more harmony across the various denominations, my heart aches to see the gospel having more impact in the nation. Where are people of weight coming together? There are a lot of encouraging things happening in the States, however. There is a whole group of people, including John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Mark Dever, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Driscoll and others. They all love the Word and have found each other as friends. I am encouraged to see Driscoll's evangelistic impact in seeing many saved.

The Together for the Gospel initiative is fascinating. There is an energy among people who hold the scriptures dear and are trying to work it out. I fear that in England there is no equivalent group coming together in friendship and influence in a similar vein.

At the same time we have to work with where we are. I feel a sense of commissioning to gather some Christian leaders together, and am beginning to do so. I am praying about throwing a wider net to include more from reformed backgrounds. I am looking for men of the Bible who are men of goodwill to see what would happen. It has to be on a relational basis. I am not just looking at those who 'ought' to be there. It seems to me that the key is to bring together people who really care.

I would love to see a rallying point that was not just charismatic but for those who value the Word. I do feel God has given me a desire to have fellowship with leaders beyond Newfrontiers. We love the Word and want to see the Cross upheld as do others. I would love to see some kind of bridging of the Together for the Gospel type of movement in the UK.

It's encouraging to hear you speaking of meeting with other leaders from different church groupings. Which groups do you feel that you have learnt most from?

It is very important for me and the other guys I work with to rub shoulders with those outside our circles - both theologically for sharpening and also for spiritual breakthroughs. As an example, we met with a leader from a family of churches in Thailand who had seen success in church planting we had never dreamed of. As a result we experienced a surge of church planting.

We have also been shaped by our exposure over several decades to CJ Mahaney. He is a huge influence on me in his purity of soul and his zeal for God . He is a real delight and hugely provocative. Dudley and Tyrone Daniels and their group of churches are also currently stirring and provoking us.

Over the years there have been others that have similarly taught us things and, I am sure that there are more groups we can learn from if only we got to know them more.

You mention learning from others. What about what we can all learn from you? What do you feel your life message is that you can share with others in the wider church?

To recover New Testament church life is a real passion for me. That has to do with both the message and also its expression through the local church. The gospel is often lost through legalism or through sentimental ideas of what it is. Sometimes, there is a failure to grasp the overview of the Bible from Abraham through David to Jesus. The message of the Bible is that we, who are in Christ are the people of God and are the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham and his seed (Galatians 3:16).

Today, many Christians still live secular lives, attend church but have a privatized religion and a 'personal savior' instead of being captivated by the fact that we are God's people and are therefore at the centre of world history. Some people focus their attention on secular Israel and fail to understand that those who have embraced Israel's Messiah are the people of God, as Paul argues in Philippians 3:3.

What thrills me is a local church full of individuals celebrating the triumph of grace, knowing what it is to be a son of God, full of the Holy Spirit, enjoying personal fellowship with God in an intimate way and also reveling in a huge picture of our world mission to glorify Jesus among the nations, and the vast place of the Church in world history. That vision is both intimately personal and massively broad -- both things thrill me.

To be continued...

In an article posted just this week, John Piper writes about how the cross has efficacy because Jesus lived an obedient life. In the debates about the atonement, some people criticise us for over-emphasising the cross at the expense of the incarnation or resurrection. I have been arguing in my series on the resurrection that the cross and resurrection are an inseparable unit. Here Piper argues that the cross and Jesus’ obedience as a man throughout his life are also inseparable

If you put these ideas together, you come up with the conclusion — which might seem obvious, but nonetheless is worth saying in this climate of debate — Jesus life, death, and resurrection as a unitary event planned before the foundation of the world saved us. If you like, Jesus was our obedience substitute during his life, our punishment substitute in His death, and our rebirth substitute in His resurrection. The doctrine of unity with Christ teaches us that we become united with Jesus in such a way that His life of obedience, death of pain, and resurrection into glorious power are all credited to our account! What a Saviour!

Here is some of what Piper said:

“. . . so the death of the Son of God is sufficient to cover all our sins as the climax of a sinless life. This is no disparagement to the cross. It is not adding to the cross. The New Testament writers saw the death of Christ as the climax of his life. His whole life was designed to bring him to the cross (Mark 10:45; John 12:27; Hebrews 2:14). That is why he was born, and why he lived. To speak of the saving effect of his death was therefore to speak of his death as the sum and climax of his sinless life.

Similarly, the final obedience of Christ in his death is sufficient to justify his people as the climax of a sinless life. It is not likely that the apostles thought of Jesus’ obedience on the cross as separate from his obedience leading to the cross. Where would one draw the line between his life of sinless obedience and the final acts of obedience? Any line would be artificial. Do we draw it at the point where he submitted to the piercing of his hands? Or at the point when he submitted to his arrest in the garden? Or at the point where he endured Judas’ departure from the supper? Or at the point where he planned his final entry to Jerusalem? Or at the point where he “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51)? Or at the point of his baptism where he said, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15)?

It is more likely that when Paul spoke of Jesus’ obedience as the cause of our justification he meant not merely the final acts of obedience on the cross, but rather the cross as the climax of his obedient life. This seems to be the way Paul is thinking in Philippians 2:7-8: “He emptied himself . . . being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Notice the sequence of thought: He became a human. That is, he was found in human form. >>> He humbled himself. >>> The way he humbled himself was by becoming obedient. >>> This obedience was so complete that it willingly embraced death. >>> Even death in the most painful and shameful way—on a cross.

What this text shows is that between “being born in the likeness of men” at one end of his life and “even death on a cross” at the other end of his life was a life of self-humbling obedience. The fact that it came to its climax on the cross in the most terrible and glorious way is probably what causes Paul to speak of the cross as the sum and climax of all his obedience. But it is very unlikely that Paul would have separated the obedience of the final hours from the obedience that designed, planned, pursued, and embraced those final hours . . . .”

— John Piper

I have been thinking a lot about the resurrection this past week — which might surprise you given my blog’s current focus on the atonement. The sermon I preached on Easter Sunday wasn’t, for me, a “normal” sermon. I felt more conscious than usual of a sense of being specifically commissioned by God to preach on a particular subject — the resurrection. This happened to me in a similar manner to that which Martyn Lloyd-Jones described as happening to him: “. . . one morning while dressing, quite suddenly and in an overwhelming manner, it seemed to me that the spirit of God was urging me to preach a series of sermons on 'spiritual depression'.”

What happened to me was that I woke up earlier than planned one morning and found that the phrase “Adrian, preach on the resurrection” was already strongly in my mind. What was interesting about this was that the day before I had politely declined a request to preach on Easter Sunday. After a morning phone call, it was agreed that I would preach after all, and I began to study the resurrection.

As I did so, it became clear to me how little this subject is spoken about or written about in any detail. This led me to look again at the preaching of the Apostles as recorded in Acts. It was striking that every single recorded sermon in Acts focuses on both the death AND resurrection of Jesus — well, every one except the sermon which was interrupted by the preacher seeing the risen Jesus and telling his hearers about it! I was deeply struck by this — I discovered only yesterday that Spurgeon had also been struck by this near the beginning of his ministry.

“Reflecting the other day upon the sad state of the churches at the present moment, I was led to look back to apostolic times, and to consider wherein the preaching of the present day differed from the preaching of the apostles. I remarked the vast difference in their style from the set and formal oratory of the present age. I remarked that the apostles did not take a text when they preached, nor did they confine themselves to one subject, much less to any place of worship, but I find that they stood up in any place and declared from the fulness of their heart what they knew of Jesus Christ. But the main difference I observed was in the subjects of their preaching. Surprised I was when I discovered that the very staple of the preaching of the apostles was the resurrection of the dead. I found myself to have been preaching the doctrine of the grace of God, to have been upholding free election, to have been leading the people of God as well as I was enabled into the deep things of His word; but I was surprised to find that I had not been copying the apostolic fashion half as nearly as I might have done. The apostles when they preached always testified concerning the resurrection of Jesus, and the consequent resurrection of the dead . . .

The resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the righteous is a doctrine which we believe, but which we too seldom preach or care to read about. Though I have inquired of several booksellers for a book specially upon the subject of the resurrection, I have not yet been able to purchase one of any sort whatever; and when I turned to Dr. Owen's works, which are a most invaluable storehouse of divine knowledge, containing much that is valuable on almost every subject, I could find, even there, scarcely more than the slightest mention of the resurrection. It has been set down as a well-known truth, and therefore has never been discussed. Heresies have not risen up respecting it; it would almost have been a mercy if there had been, for whenever a truth is contested by heretics, the orthodox fight strongly for it, and the pulpit resounds with it every day. I am persuaded, however, that there is much power in this doctrine; and if I preach it this morning you will see that God will own the apostolic preaching, and there will be conversions. I intend putting it to the test now, to see whether there be not something which we cannot perceive at present in the resurrection of the dead, which is capable of moving the hearts of men and bringing them into subjection to the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”

— Spurgeon Sermon 66

As far as I can think, there is little change on that front today. Aside from some apologetic works, there are few, if any books, available today that look at the implications of the resurrection. Why should it be that we have so neglected this vital subject?

Gaffin (who was one of the sources I consulted during my preparation) believes that we have neglected to talk much about the resurrection since the reformation as an unintended result of our correct focus on the meaning of the cross. I have quoted from him and others at the end of my sermon notes which I posted earlier in the week.

Since I am currently in the midst of an extended series on the cross here on the blog, it has struck me that I, too, might be in danger of such a neglect of the resurrection. It seemed good to me, therefore, to initiate today a new plan on my blog. Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday — we only began to meet as Christians on Sundays to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Thus, for at least a season I will be blogging about the resurrection on most Sundays. I know many of you don’t read blogs at the weekend, but the posts will still be here on Monday mornings!

It was great to see that my dear friend, Andrew Fountain, has also been blogging about the resurrection this past week. He also quotes extensively from Gaffin, and his whole post is well worth a read. One point that Gaffin makes rightly is that the resurrection has implications here and now for us as Christians. It is because of the resurrection that the life-giving Spirit is poured into our hearts.

In the quotes that Andrew has shared from Gaffin, he also points out our lamentable neglect of the resurrection. He links it, interestingly, to a lack of emphasis on the work of God in sanctification — i.e. the activity of the Spirit in working in us by the same power with which He rose Jesus from the dead.

He even seems to believe that a lack of an understanding of the resurrection can lead to legalism. He concludes that the resurrection is vital to our understanding the following vital truth that all too often we neglect:

“‘He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 1:6, NASB). Sanctification, no less than justification, is God’s work. In the NT there is no more basic perspective on sanctification and renewal than that expressed in Romans 6: It is a continual ‘living to God’ (v. 11) of those who are ‘alive from the dead’ (v. 13).”

— Gaffin

It is thinking about precisely this notion of the dynamic effects of the resurrection of Christ on our Christian lives that led me today to come up with the title for today’s post— “The Resurrection Empowered Life”. I intend to explain a lot more about what I mean by this on future Sundays, but I think I have expressed some of it in my sermon series on the way that God revives us, and I also touch on this to some extent in my article on learning to love God as a real person.

The next two articles in the Together for the Gospel Statement discuss the nature of God. The concept of the Trinity is so entwined with God’s attributes and who He is I have decided to roll these two articles into one. I have already posted an extensive set of notes and an audio on the attributes of God and the Trinity. In my talk I demonstrated that Jesus can be shown from the Bible to share every major attribute of God that theologians describe. Enough of these are also ascribed clearly to the Spirit for us to say He must hold all the unique attributes of God also. There are also more articles on the trinity elsewhere on my blog.

Today, after sharing the two articles, I will share a long quote from what may possibly be the best article on the Trinity in the world. It is cited as by "Desiring God Staff" tho I am sure Piper was involved in it somehow. I encourage you to go read it all—I think it will be incredibly helpful.

Article V

We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and self-existent. We further affirm that God possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.

We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way limited in terms of knowledge or power or any other perfection or attribute, or that God has in any way limited his own perfections.

Article VI

We affirm that the doctrine of the Trinity is a Christian essential, bearing witness to the ontological reality of the one true God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of the same substance and perfections.

We deny the claim that the Trinity is not an essential doctrine, or that the Trinity can be understood in merely economic or functional categories.

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD IS A TRINITY?

The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons; (2) each Person is fully God; (3) there is only one God.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3-4). Are these just three different ways of looking at God, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that God plays?

The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. Likewise, after the Son returned to the Father (John 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be distinct from the Father and the Son.

In the baptism of Jesus, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10-11). In John 1:1 it is affirmed that Jesus is God and, at the same time, that He was "with God"—thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from God the Father (cf. also 1:18). And in John 16:13-15 we see that although there is a close unity between them all, the Holy Spirit is also distinct from the Father and the Son.

The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God.

The personhood of each member of the Trinity means that each Person has a distinct center of consciousness. Thus, they relate to each other personally—the Father regards Himself as "I," while He regards the Son and Holy Spirit as "You." Likewise the Son regards Himself as "I," but the Father and the Holy Spirit as "You."

Often it is objected that "If Jesus is God, then he must have prayed to Himself while He was on earth." But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to Himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing dialog between the Father and the Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 5:19; 11:41-42; 17:1ff) which furnishes the best evidence that they are distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.

Sometimes the Personhood of the Father and Son is appreciated, but the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is neglected. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a "force" than a Person. But the Holy Spirit is not an it, but a He (see John 14:26; 16:7-15; Acts 8:16). The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). These are all qualities of personhood. In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of the Son and the Father. They are three real persons, not three roles God plays.

Another serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.

While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities.

Each Person is fully God. If God is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is "one-third" of God? Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts?

The Trinity does not divide God into three parts. The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one hundred percent God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God. For example, it says of Christ that "in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). We should not think of God as like a "pie" cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully God and thus not God at all. Rather, "the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God." The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into "parts."

Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. The Father is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. And likewise with the Holy Spirit. Thus, as Wayne Grudem writes, "When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Father alone, the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone."

There is only one God. If each Person of the Trinity is distinct and yet fully God, then should we conclude that there is more than one God? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: "There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:21-22; see also 44:6-8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4-5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60).

Having seen that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, that they are each fully God, and that there is nonetheless only one God, we must conclude that all three Persons are the same God. In other words, there is one God who exists as three distinct Persons.

If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not. Therefore each of the Persons into whose name we are to be baptized must be deity. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if they share one essence . . . .

How is God one? He is one in essence. How is God three? He is three in Person. Essence and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person). Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same way that He is one.

So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one God instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one God because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. Essence means the same thing as "being." Thus, since God is only one essence, He is only one being-not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied God's unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God).

What we have seen so far provides a good basic understanding of the Trinity. But it is possible to go deeper. If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Trinity.

ESSENCE AND PERSON
Essence. What does essence mean? As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. God's essence is His being. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the "stuff" that you "consist of." Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about God. "God is spirit" (John 4:24). Further, we clearly should not think of God as "consisting of" anything other than divinity. The "substance" of God is God, not a bunch of "ingredients" that taken together yield deity.

Person. In regards to the Trinity, we use the term "Person" differently than we generally use it in everyday life. Therefore it is often difficult to have a concrete definition of Person as we use it in regards to the Trinity. What we do not mean by Person is an "independent individual" in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another.

What we do mean by Person is something that regards himself as "I" and others as "You." So the Father, for example, is a different Person from the Son because He regards the Son as a "You," even though He regards Himself as "I." Thus, in regards to the Trinity, we can say that "Person" means a distinct subject which regards Himself as an "I" and the other two as a "You." These distinct subjects are not a division within the being of God, but "a form of personal existence other than a difference in being."

How do they relate? The relationship between essence and Person, then, is as follows. Within God's one, undivided being is an "unfolding" into three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence within the divine being, but are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being. The late theologian, Herman Bavinck, has stated something very helpful at this point: "The persons are modes of existence within the being; accordingly, the Persons differ among themselves as the one mode of existence differs from the other, and-using a common illustration-as the open palm differs from a closed fist."

Because each of these "forms of existence" are relational (and thus are Persons), they are each a distinct center of consciousness, with each center of consciousness regarding Himself as "I" and the others as "You." Nonetheless, these three Persons all "consist of" the same "stuff" (that is, the same "what," or essence). As theologian and apologist, Norman Geisler, has explained it: "While essence is what you are, person is who you are. So God is one 'what' but three 'whos'."

The divine essence is thus not something that exists "above" or "separate from" the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. Neither should we think of the Persons as being defined by attributes added on to the being of God. Wayne Grudem explains: "But if each person is fully God and has all of God's being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to the being of God . . . Rather, each person of the Trinity has all of the attributes of God, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others. On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of God...the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of `being' but a difference of `relationships.' This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human `person' is a different being as well. Somehow God's being is so much greater than ours that within His one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons." READ MORE . . .
© Desiring God. Website: http://www.desiringgod.org/

Over on Pyromaniacs, the last three posts and their extensive comments sections have all been prompted by the differing reactions to the Piper piece on Hearing the Voice of God. This article by John Piper is certainly a piece that is well worth listening to, as well as reading. The following are the three resulting Pyro posts.

• Ecstasy
  
• Emotions? Sure. We got 'em . . .
  
• Voices in Our Heads

I have commented extensively over there on each of these posts, so I won’t repeat myself here. I thought it might be helpful, however, to share my comment on today’s post:

So, there we have it. I have a new label I can wear with pride—I am a "thrill seeker"! If by seeking thrills you mean seeking the thrill that comes from knowing God, then you have me right.

Perhaps we have hit on the nub of this issue. I am not against moments of contemplation and a raft of other emotions, but you are dead right—I do believe God wants us to rejoice in Him.

Piper adapts the old Puritan catechism to say we exist to "Glorify God by enjoying Him." I don’t think it would be so wrong to change that again to "being thrilled with Him."

As far as the gifts are concerned, you are right that, when used in public, they are for the benefit of the whole congregation. But to me, part of being built up is surely to receive the joy God intended for us. Also, tongues has a function for the individual to fortify them, and again part of that I would argue is to bring joy.

". . . [on] the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church." (1 Corinthians 4:3-4)

I think the above definitely implies inducing joy as part of the benefit of the gifts.

Certainly the Bible has many examples of ecstatic experiences of God—such as Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, Saul in the Old Testament, and many more.

Some more general verses for you about why joy (i.e. being thrilled) is so central:

• Jesus himself is described as follows: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." (Psalm 45:7)

We are commanded many times to rejoice in God. See, for example:

• "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." (Philippians 4:4)
  

• "Rejoice always." (1 Thessalonians 6:16)
  

• "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
  

• "...do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)
  

• "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy . . ." (Galatians 5:22)

I like the way Lloyd-Jones puts it:

"If you stop in your sins, if you stop in the dust and the ashes and in the sackcloth, I say, you are not scriptural. You must go on from that and look to Him, and apply again the truth to yourself. You must be certain that you end in a condition of thanksgiving and praise, with a realisation that your sins are covered and blotted out, and that you are renewed, and that you are able to go forward.”

The following is a full set of notes, including background information and quotes I used whilst preparing my sermon entitled, "The Reviving Power of God's Word," which was preached at Jubilee Church on the 11th of March 2006. This sermon was the third part of a series on Revival. The earlier messages, "Revival" and "Reviving Prayer" are also available.

Much of this material was never designed to form part of the sermon — instead it is, if you like, part of the "iceberg" that lies beneath the surface supporting what I actually said. You can download the audio (you may need to right click and save the file onto your PC) or listen right here using the following embedded player:

INTRODUCTION
There is a series of adverts on TV that arrests me every time I see them. You see someone crying, hugging a loved one. Your heart goes out to them, even before you begin to hear the words of the commentary. But then the commentary starts, and if you are a big softie like me, you feel like you are about to cry — even if you have seen it before. The person says "when I was diagnosed with cancer . . ." For the first few seconds you hear about the terrible impact those words had on the individual. You can picture them in the doctor's room. Then, the voice says, "Today I was told I have my life back." You suddenly realize that the person is crying for joy, not anguish, and in their tears a smile appears. You see the impact that a single sentence from a doctor can have.

We sometimes talk about “MERE words,” and yet SOME words mean everything — they can literally bring life and death. Words are powerful. They can steal away hope, and they can give it back again.

Words affect us all the time. I remember when I asked Andrée to marry me. I had shocked her by turning up earlier than she expected with a bunch of roses and a ring that I had designed. As I was kneeling there for what seemed like an eternity, first she laughed, then she cried, then she said, "No . . ." Fortunately, she meant this in disbelief rather than as a rejection! I just wanted to hear one word. That was all, one word. And if that word had been “no” and not “yes” I would have been a very different man!

If our words can feel like they take away life and give it back again, is it any wonder that God’s Words can do the same? It's no wonder that Ravi Zacharias made the astute observation: "In the beginning was the Word, not video."

I love the following quote: ". . . in OT times the word was regarded as being alive, and so was portrayed as being sent out of the heart (mind/brain/mouth) of a living person, to leap to the goal at which it was directed. Then, when it arrived, it did the work of the speaker who had sent it forth, for it conveyed the power of the speaker to change the heart or the mind of the hearer of the word." [1]

We as Christians are a people who value words, although we live in a world that values image. Last week,at our joint celebration,we heard about how the image of God is actually described as the Word of God. It is hard to think of a stronger way that God could express Hs high view of “words” than that. The Bible — so-called "mere words" written down on a page — is what God has left us by which to know Him. The Bible is not God — we don’t worship it. But, as we read it, as we listen to it, the God of the Bible leaps off the page at us. These words shape us. They can save us. They teach us how to live, but more than that, they give us life.

Today we are going to look at God’s reviving Word. In revivals, a hunger for God's Word returns. Sermons often become longer — sometimes lasting all day! (As an example of this, see Nehemiah 8 and 9). People cannot hear enough of God's Word. Amazing things happen to people as they hear and read God’s Word during revivals. I could tell you story after story — but I won’t.

If we have learnt anything as we have been studying how God revives us, it is this — what is true of the multitude in a revival can be true of you and I, even outside of a revival. I am convinced that God wants us as a people to become more and more aware of just how God's Word can revive us and help us become the people of faith we are convinced He wants us to be.

What does the Bible say about words, and God's Word in particular? Those of you who have been with us for awhile may remember that during the series we preached on Proverbs there was a message on Proverbs 18:21 which says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

It is no wonder that the Apostles declared, "We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6:4)

If there is one place in the Bible that honours God’s Word more than anywhere else, it is Psalm 119. It is the longest chapter in the Bible and it comes just two psalms after the shortest chapter in the Bible — Psalm 117 — which just so happens to be the middle chapter of the Bible. You will find it somewhere in the middle of your Bible.

BACKGROUND ON PSALM 119

• “of David” — a man who loved God “after God's own heart.”

• He loved God's law because it was God's Word. He loved God's Word because it showed him his God.

• For him, the Word of God was almost exclusively the law, and presumably Judges, Ruth, and maybe Job.

• If he can love these bits of the Bible that are only beginning to reveal God, we should love it all, since progressive revelation means that more comes later.

• An acrostic poem — “It consists of twenty-two strophes of eight lines each. Each strophe has the same Hebrew letter at the beginning of every one of its eight lines, going in succession, by strophes, from alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as the first letter of each line in the first strophe, to taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as the first letter of each line in the last strophe.” [2]

• Eight different Hebrew words are used to speak of the Law . . . The following Hebrew words are used: (1) torah (see "law" and comments, 1.2); (2) ‘eduth (see “testimony” and comments, 19.7c); (3) mishpat (see “judgment,” 7.6); (4) mitswah, always in the plural, except in verses 96, 98 (see “commandment,” 19.8c); (5) choq, always in the plural (see “decree” and comments, 2.7; “statutes,” 18.22); (6) piqudim, a plural form (see “precepts,” 19.8a); (7) dabar; (8) ’imrah (see “promises,” 12.6; 18.30). Torah is always singular and means the whole law of God, the Mosaic Law; dabar and ’imrah mean “word, saying,” and sometimes have the specific meaning of “promise.” The other words refer to rules or commands or instructions . . . All of these eight words are synonyms; they all refer to God’s Law as contained in the Mosaic legislation recorded in the first five books of the Scriptures. The Law is not seen as having a human origin, but always a divine origin; Yahweh is the author of the Torah. It should be noticed that in every one of the 176 verses in this psalm, God is either addressed or referred to.” [3]

• The Psalm in some way reminds me of the Proverbs, because it does not flow well — it is almost a collection of random words or sayings about God’s Word.

• WESLEY — “. . . the word of God is here called by the names of law, statutes, precepts or commandments, judgments, ordinances, righteousness, testimonies, way and word. By which variety, he designed to express the nature and perfection of God's word. It is called his word, as revealed by him to us; his way, as prescribed by him for us to walk in; his law, as binding us to obedience; his statutes, as declaring his authority of giving us laws; his precepts as directing our duty; his ordinances, as ordained by him; his righteousness, as exactly agreeable to God's righteous nature and will; his judgments, as proceeding from the great judge of the world, and being his judicial sentence to which all men must submit; and his testimonies, as it contains the witness of God's will, and of man's duty.” [4]

• SPURGEON – “I have been bewildered in the expanse of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm . . . Its dimensions and its depth alike overcame me. It spread itself out before me like a vast, rolling prairie, to which I could see no bound, and this alone created a feeling of dismay. Its expanse was unbroken by a bluff or headland, and hence it threatened a monotonous task, although the fear has not been realized. This marvellous poem seemed to me a great sea of holy teaching, moving, in its many verses, wave upon wave; altogether without an island of special and remarkable statement to break it up. I confess I hesitated to launch upon it. Other psalms have been mere lakes, but this is the main ocean. It is a continent of sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance, a mighty stretch of harvest fields. I have now crossed the great plain for myself, but not without persevering, and, I will add, pleasurable, toil. Several great authors have traversed this region and left their tracks behind them, and so far the journey has been all the easier for me; but yet to me and to my helpers it has been no mean feat of patient authorship and research. This great Psalm is a book in itself: instead of being one among many psalms, it is worthy to be set forth by itself as a poem of surpassing excellence. Those who have never studied it may pronounce it commonplace, and complain of its repetitions; but to the thoughtful student it is like the great deep, full, so as never to be measured; and varied, so as never to weary the eye. Its depth is as great as its length; it is mystery, not set forth as mystery, but concealed beneath the simplest statements; may I say that it is experience allowed to prattle, to preach, to praise, and to pray like a child prophet in his own father's house? [5]

• EULOGIUM — “This Psalm is a prolonged meditation upon the excellence of the word of God, upon its effects, and the strength and happiness which it gives to a man in every position. These reflections are interspersed with petitions, in which the Psalmist, deeply feeling his natural infirmity, implores the help of God for assistance to walk in the way mapped out for him in the divine oracles. In order to be able to understand and to enjoy this remarkable Psalm, and that we may not be repelled by its length and by its repetitions, we must have had, in some measure at least, the same experiences as its author, and, like him, have learned to love and practise the sacred word. Moreover, this Psalm is in some sort a touchstone for the spiritual life of those who read it. [6]

• BARCLAY says of this word “Law”: “We must be clear, however, what the word law means in the original Hebrew. We have met it in earlier psalms where we found that it is the word Torah. We found that this word does not mean “law” in the classical Roman sense of lex which has formed the basis of our western legal system. Torah actually means “teaching”, so that it means teaching that has come out of the mouth of the Living God. When the disciple hears the words of his master’s teaching, he receives through it a revelation of what is in the mind of his teacher, and so here, of what is in the mind of God. Torah then means both teaching and revelation, in fact, both these at once—from God!” [7]

ON THE LAW
Although Psalm 119 is really about God’s Word in its widest sense, perhaps partly because so much of the Bible that David would have read would have been the law of Moses, he speaks many times about God’s law. David loves God’s law. This is a very different attitude to what we tend to have. So I cannot avoid giving a very brief introduction here to our view of the law. This is not a sermon about that — one day perhaps we will address this more fully — I did address some of this more in my talks on Galatians last year. But just to help us as we approach this psalm, let's look at how we should view the law.

1. Our Attitude Toward the Law

   • We tend to rebel whenever we hear rules — e.g. “Don’t walk on the grass.” Law teaches us what sin is, and unless empowered by the Spirit, actually provokes us to sin more whilst making us feel condemned.

   • According to Paul, the law exists to lead us to Christ — to make us feel helpless so that we will seek Him for the free gift of salvation which is not dependent on what we have done, but what Christ has done.

   • Those who are Christians tend to say, “We are not under law, but under grace.”

   • Sadly many go one step further and do not want to read the law, nor do they value it as part of God’s Word for us today.

2. Jesus' Attitude Toward the Law

• Is very different to the over-simplified view many of us have today. Listen to what He said:

• "Scripture cannot be broken." (John 10:35)

• "For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18)
3. The Solution

• God does want us to live righteously, and so the law does have a role for us.

• We are to see the law as revealing God's character and making us fall in love with Him — actually much like David does in this psalm.

• As we fall in love with Jesus, our hearts change and we WANT to keep His commandments.

• Paul calls this the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5)

• Tim Keller puts it this way: "Religion is — I obey so I can be accepted. The gospel is — I am accepted so I can obey."

So, with that bit of introduction over, let’s get into our text — Psalm 119. I think that, on the basis of that introduction, for our purposes in our studies we can replace the word "law" for the word “word” whenever we want to. The psalmist speaks about the law and word interchangeably because that was all he knew of God's Word at that point. If the law was all David knew and he could say all these things about it, how much more should we be able to say the same things of the whole counsel of God, including the law that David knew? So let's turn to Psalm 119.

You will be pleased to know that I am not going to read the whole psalm today, but I would encourage you, in your own time, to read it over several times.

We are going to pick out a number of verses from this psalm today which speak of the effects of God’s reviving word. What exactly does God's Word do for us when we read and listen to it?

1. THE WORD OF GOD BRINGS REVELATION

   "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." (Psalm 119:18)

   The psalmist prays to God — and you will notice how much of this psalm is a prayer, if you like a prayer about God's Word — he asks God to reveal Himself to him in His Word. He says something similar in verse 105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

   The last time I spoke, I mentioned that the Bible is clear that we are blind and cannot even see God without His help. We need God to shine into our hearts. Like the writer of that great hymn, "Amazing Grace," the Christian is aware that “I once was blind, but now I see.”

   "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

   We don’t see the face of Jesus today — how do we see Him? It's in the Scriptures — that is the place for us to meet God! As we read and pray over the Words of this book, let the God of the Bible leap off the page at us!

   Notice that the revelation is about Jesus — Jesus makes this astonishing claim Himself.

   • "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." (John 5:39)

   Through the Scriptures, we are meant to hear God’s voice. Jesus says this — "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27) He means both spiritual guidance and the Bible — we hear His voice in the Bible. As we read the law, even then we see Jesus. He is revealed. The whole book is about Him.

   This experience of looking to Jesus, of revelation, is not a once-for-all experience. I am sure we can all think of moments when either listening to a sermon or reading from the Bible, it is like a light gets switched on in our heads – “I see it now”
   

   But as we begin to see Jesus there is something else that happens. Remember that God is a reviving God, as we have been saying. So is it any wonder that as we read God's Word, it revives us? Let's see what our next verse has to say.

   QUOTES

   • Chicago Statement — “God who is himself truth and speaks only truth has inspired Holy Scripture (HS) in order thereby to reveal himself...”

   • “Insight into the meaning of God’s law depends not only on prolonged study and meditation; it depends also on God’s guidance. So the psalmist prays, Open my eyes; only in this way can he discover the wonderful truths, or teachings, in the Law. It is God who will enable him to appreciate and understand the Law.” [8]

   • “The word of God is central to the life of God’s people. Our God is a God who speaks and it is the possession of that verbal revelation which marks his people off from all others on earth”. [9]

   • Wesley — “Enlighten my mind by the light of thy Holy Spirit, and dispel all ignorance and error.” [10]

   • Boston:
     1. “That there can be no sufficient knowledge of the duty which we owe to God without the scriptures. Though the light of nature does in some measure show our duty to God, yet it is too dim to take up the will of God sufficiently in order to salvation.
     

     2. That there can be no right obedience yielded to God without them. Men that walk in the dark must needs stumble; and the works that are wrought in the dark will never abide the light; for there is no working rightly by guess in this matter. All proper obedience to God must be learned from the scriptures.

     3. That there is no point of duty that we are called to, but what the scripture teaches, Isaiah. 8:20; men must neither make duties to themselves, or others, but what God has made duty. The law of God is exceeding broad, and reaches the whole conversation of man, outward and inward, Psalms 19; and man is bound to conform himself to it alone as the rule of his duty.” [11]

   • Boston — “The scriptures teach but externally. It is the Spirit that teaches internally. The scriptures externally reveal what we are to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man; but the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the scriptures.”[12]

   • William Cowper — “If it be asked, seeing David was a regenerate man, and so illumined already, how is it that he prays for the opening of his eyes? The answer is easy: that our regeneration is wrought by degrees. The beginnings of light in his mind made him long for more; for no man can account of sense, but he who hath it. The light which he had caused him to see his own darkness; and therefore, feeling his wants, he sought to have them supplied by the Lord.” [13]

   • Spurgeon — “The light which they beg is not anything besides the word. When God is said to enlighten us, it is not that we should expect new revelations, but that we may see the wonders in his word, or get a clear sight of what is already revealed.” [14]

   • "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

2. GOD'S WORD REVIVES US

   Verse 25 — "My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!"

   As we recognize our desperate state before a holy God, as we get to the end of ourselves, God in His grace comes to us by His Word and says “LIVE!” Again this is definitely referring to what happens when we become Christians — but it is also an ongoing experience of the Christian who immerses himself in the Word of God with prayer. There are a few other places in the Bible where this is also stated:

   • "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." (Psalm 19:7).

   • "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3)

   • "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

   We who are privileged to have a complete Bible in front of us should, like David, be always able to find a verse that will sustain us and give us that feeling of a life renewed when we are feeling low. If you are low in energy and life this morning, what do I have to offer you? I can give you a pat on the shoulder and some well-meaning words of support, or I can give you a lifeline from this Book. I know which I prefer!

   This life-giving force of the Bible is also described in a slightly different way in verse 28.

   QUOTES
   "Now we reach the key-word of the whole long psalm. It is the word live. Our biological life is a gift from God. We do not create it ourselves. The Torah, however, uses this word quite differently from Plato and the Greeks. For the Torah, God is the Living God. This Living God offers his children his life, and that is not mere biological life. "It is life in the Spirit, to which physical death has nothing to say." [15]

   Spurgeon — "When there was so little Scripture written, yet David could find out a word for his support. Alas! in our troubles and afflictions, no promise comes to mind. As in outward things, many that have less live better than those that have abundance; so here, now Scripture is so large, we are less diligent, and therefore, though we have so many promises, we are apt to faint, we have not a word to bear us up." [16]

3. GOD'S WORD STRENGTHENS US

   Verse 28 — "My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word."

   God’s Word really is robust and strong enough for us to lean on it when we are feeling weak and depressed. I knew someone who suffered from depression who quite literally used to take God's Word as though it were medicine three times a day. Over time she was strengthened and eventually did not require medication any more. Now, of course, depression can sometimes be biological, and that is not to say that antidepressants do not sometimes have their place. But, there is no doubt that God's Word, if you let it shape you over years, will go a long way towards strengthening you and lifting you up.

   As I was preparing, I felt God drop into my heart that there were some here who have struggled with depression and feel that there is nothing you can do. You feel a failure. Well, I want to tell you that even great men of God like Elijah, and in modern history Spurgeon, suffered from depression, so you are not alone. But God would say to you today, there is something that you can do in addition to taking medication, if that is needed. You can feast yourself on God's reviving and strengthening Word. It may take years — don’t expect a quick fix — but consistent exposure to God's Word will help you — come and talk to us afterwards if this is you, and we would love to give you some ideas about which verses would be especially helpful for you to add to your daily medication list.

   There is another thought that came to me as I was studying these few words. For God's Word to strengthen us reliably it has to be trustworthy and reliable — imagine, if you will, someone who says, "I will cover you" to Jack Bauer and then doesn’t — some today who believe the Bible has errors in it — we addressed this in our Bible study — but I want you to know this is God's Word. If God doesn’t lie, then neither can His Word!

   • "The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever." (Psalm 119:160)

   • "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

   It is important that we fill our minds with God's truth and not lies. That we focus on righteousness and not sin. That we — as Paul puts it — fill our minds with what is pure. In fact, as we read the Word, it begins to do something to us so that our appetites and desires change. The Word changes us, as we shall see in verse 37.

   QUOTES
   Berkouwer —"There can be no doubt that for a long time during church history certainty of faith was specifically linked to the trustworthiness of Holy Scripture as the Word of God ... From its earliest days the church held that Scripture is not an imperfect, humanly untrustworthy book of various religious experiences, but one with a peculiar mystery" [17]

4. GOD'S WORD CHANGES US

   Verse 37 — "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways."

   It is interesting that it is mentioned here that God changes our eyes from looking on and valuing things we shouldn’t, and that it is “according to his ways” or words. But, we cannot ask God to do something like this for us and then do nothing about it ourselves! Job puts it this way: "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?" (Job 31:1)
   
   Paul says: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8).

   This amazing change that happens on the inside of us — from desiring to look at sinful things and then commit sin, to desiring to do good — is called repentance in the New Testament. But it comes from the Word of God – it is God's message that has the power to change us from sinners to saints.

   • "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." (Romans 1:16)

   Repentance is a gift from God — you may remember that verse in Elijah’s prayer that said it is God that turns us around. There are many others who say the same thing. And yet one of the paradoxes is that God also commands us to repent and “choose life.” The book of Acts, for example, is clear in its instructions to anyone listening who is not a Christian — you are COMMANDED to repent. Our problem is that we are commanded to do the impossible. This is why becoming a Christian is about coming to the end of yourself and asking God to help you. For those of us who are Christians, as we seek the face of God in prayer and in His word, there is a glorious promise for us.

   • "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 3:18)

   Seeking the face of God is a familiar theme in the Scriptures. We become what we eat. We become what we gaze on. Are you feasting on Jesus? As we think about seeing God's very face, as we learn more about God's holy character in the Bible, there is something else that should happen to us. Something that perhaps we don’t like to talk about so much, but it is something that is very much a hallmark of every revival I have read about. Let's see what this is by reading verse 38:

   QUOTE
   Wolfgang Musculus — Notice that he does not say, I will turn away mine eyes; but, "Turn away mine eyes." This shows that it is not possible for us sufficiently to keep our by our own caution and diligence; but there must be divine keeping." [18]

5. GOD'S WORD PRODUCES A HEALTHY FEAR OF GOD
   Verse 38 — "Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared."

   We like the first half of this verse. We want God to fulfill His promises to us. There is great joy in seeing God's promises fulfilled — in seeing God act. But it also has what may seem to us to be a surprising result. Like Peter, who fell at Jesus' feet and said, "Away from me for I am a sinful man," the activity of God reintroduces us to the very biblical concept of the fear of God.

   • " … this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word …" (Isaiah 66:1)

   The thing that marks out historical revivals more than almost anything else is an outbreak of the fear of God. Even in my own experience of a mini-revival, there was something of a sense of the holiness of God which I have rarely experienced before or since.
   
   We see this in the Bible — last time I preached, I mentioned the case of Ananias and Sapphira. We pray “God, send us the experience of the book of Acts," but do we include that experience? Not surprisingly, when they died it is said that great fear fell on the Church. There is a seriousness of God that is felt at those times. C.J. Mahaney once preached a whole series on everyone God killed in the Bible. Not surprisingly, perhaps it led to more salvation than they had seen up until that point, as well as Christians putting their lives straight.
   
   There is much joy in revivals experienced by the newly-saved and the long-time Christian, but there is also many tears experienced by those coming under conviction of sin who have not yet received salvation.
   
   Isaiah 6 is a good illustration of this. Isaiah comes face-to-face with God and says, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
   
   God is still the same God today and is definitely not to be messed with!
   
   God touches Isaiah’s lips to take away his guilt — only God can deal with guilt — and commissions him. Sadly for Isaiah, incidentally, he is commissioned into a period of time that was precisely the opposite of a generalized revival. He gets personally revived and is sent out to tell others who, he has been warned, will not listen. He must have really struggled with that. Somehow, though, even for Isaiah, God intended him to be full of hope.
   
   We see in verse 49 that hope is one of the outcomes of allowing God’s Word to come to us and joining it with our faith.

   QUOTES
   “The fear of God is distinct from the terror of him that is also a biblical motif (see FEAR). Encompassing and building on attitudes of awe and reverence, it is the proper and elemental response of a person to God. This religious fear of God is a major biblical image for the believer’s faith. In fact, there are well over a hundred references to the fear of God in the positive sense of faith and obedience. To "fear" God or be "God-fearing" is a stock biblical image for being a follower of God, sometimes in implied contrast to those who do not fear him. The very frequency of the references signals that the fear of God is central to biblical faith, and the relative absence of this ancient way of thinking in our culture should give us pause. It is important to note, however, that the preponderance of references occur in the OT, perhaps implying that a permanent change (though not an abrogation) occurred with the incarnation of Christ, who calls his disciples friends rather than servants (John 15:15).
   
   What images should we associate with this mysterious "fear of God?" The actions most frequently associated with fear of God are serving God (Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20; 1 Samuel 12:24) and obedience to his commandments (Deuteronomy 31:13; 1 Samuel 12:14). The fear of God is linked to wisdom (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10, 15:33) and is part of the covenant between God and his people (Psalm 25:14, 103:17–18). To fear God is to be in awe and reverence of him (Ps 33:8; Malachi 2:5 RSV) and to trust him (Psalm 40:3, 115:11). Fearing God means hating and avoiding evil (Proverbs 8:13, 16:6). It is not too much to say that fearing God is virtually synonymous with having saving faith in him. Deuteronomy 10:12–13 is an apt summary of what is encompassed in the fear of God: "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees" (NIV).

   The fear of God is a fundamental quality of those who have an experiential knowledge of who he is.” [19]

6. GOD'S WORD GIVES US HOPE

   Verse 49 — "Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope."

   • See also verse 74 — "Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word."

   • And verse 81 — "My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word."

   • So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17)

   Hope is infectious . . . as is despair. We should surround ourselves with those who will instill hope into us! But our hope must come from the Scriptures and not a false whipped-up hope.
   
   I can speak personally about how this works. As I was a bit tired out before Christmas, I asked Tope for a break from preaching for awhile. This was a good thing as everyone needs a break from time to time. But I lifted my foot off the accelerator a bit regarding my study of God's Word, and was also not praying as much — obviously when you are preparing to preach you study more and pray more. But what I found was that as my break from the hard work of preaching lengthened, my level of hope was slowly being reduced. I found myself feeling even quite fearful. I remember even having the thought come into my mind, "Perhaps I've forgotten how to preach." But there were also a couple of personal situations where I was beginning to allow fear to have a foothold.
   
   So, how did I deal with this? Well, two things seem to have lifted me. The first was that I received prayer on Saturday morning. The second was that as I went back to a more rigorous Bible study program and begun to pray more, I found that hope began to return and fear subsided.
   
   It is God's Word, soaked in prayer, that gives us hope, that lifts us, that gives us life!
   
   God wants us increasingly to be almost aggressive in how much we place our hope in His Word. Many prayers in the Bible remind God of His promises and almost “sue” him to act. I believe God responds to that kind of prayer — prayer that is mixed with God's own Word.
   
   So far we have seen that God's Word brings revelation, it revives us, it strengthens us, it changes us, as the great hymn says "it teaches our heart to fear," but it also relieves that fear. Is it any wonder that this Word is so precious to the psalmist? What else is there that can do all this to us when we are troubled? What else can comfort us in all our troubles as we see in verse 50?

   QUOTES
   Spurgeon — "The argument is that God, having given grace to hope in the promise, would surely never disappoint that hope. He cannot have caused us to hope without cause. If we hope upon his word we have a sure basis: our gracious Lord would never mock us by exciting false hopes. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, hence the petition for immediate remembrance of the cheering word." [20]

   

   Richard Sibbes — "When we hear any promise in the word of God, let us turn it into a prayer. God's promises are his bonds. Sue him on his bond. He loves that we should wrestle with him by his promises. Why, Lord, thou hast made this and that promise, thou canst not deny thyself, thou canst not deny thine own truth; thou canst not cease to be God, and thou canst as well cease to be God, as deny thy promise, that is thyself. 'Lord, remember thy word' 'I put thee in mind of thy promise, whereon thou hast caused me to hope.' If I be deceived, thou hast deceived me. Thou hast made these promises, and caused me to trust in thee, and 'thou never fullest those that trust in thee, therefore keep thy word to me.'" [21]

7. GOD'S WORD COMFORTS US

   Verse 50 — "This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life."

   What a wonderful verse that is! God comforts us when we are struggling because of His promises. When Mark Dever was trying to summarise the entire message of the Bible, he just said this — the Old Testament is "promises made" and the New Testament is "promises kept," although, of course, we have plenty of promises kept in the Old Testament and made in the New Testament! We should get a hold of God's promises and let them comfort us, revive us, strengthen us, and give us hope.
   
   God's Word really is a comfort — not the latest gadget, nor the bottle, but His faithful Word. The more we see Him being faithful to His Word, the more we will find our faith rising within us. There are now only two more things that I want to address that the Word of God does for us. The first is, in a sense, a summary of all we have said so far. What does God’s Word do? It gives us grace. Verse 58.

   QUOTES
   Spurgeon — "The worldly man clutches his money bag and says, "this is my comfort"; the spendthrift points to his gaiety, and shouts, "this is my comfort"; the drunkard lifts his glass, and sings, "this is my comfort"; but the man whose hope comes from God feels the giving power of the Word of the Lord, and he testifies, "this is my comfort." Paul said, "I know whom I have believed." Comfort is desirable at all times; but comfort in affliction is like a lamp in a dark place. Some are unable to find comfort at such times; but it is not so with believers, their Savior has said to them, "I will not leave you comfortless." [22]

   “What the Word has already done is to faith a pledge of what it shall yet do.” [23]

8. GOD'S WORD GIVES GRACE TO US

   Verse 58 — "I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise."

   GRACE is what we need to save us — so it is no wonder that Paul said to Timothy that the Scriptures are "… able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15)
   
   It is interesting to see the way that Paul links wisdom and salvation there, for the last thing that I want us to address today from Psalm 119 is, in fact, wisdom. Or as the psalmist says, "good judgment" or discernment (verse 66).

9. GOD'S WORD GIVES US WISDOM

   Verse 66 — "Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments."

   Is it any wonder that the Jubilee membership course says the following:

   The BIBLE is the WORD OF GOD
   • The sole basis of our belief is the BIBLE. We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God and that it was given through men chosen by God.

   • We believe that the Bible, all sixty-six books, contain God's revelation to man, and that the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant.

   • We therefore take all our teaching and insight for living from the Bible."

     — Jubilee Church Membership Course

   "We don’t stand above the Bible, we stand under it."

   — Tope Koleoso

---

Next time I speak to you, God willing, I intend to speak about how practically we stand under the Bible. I will leave you today with one verse that summarises what our response to all this should be:

• "They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." (Acts 17:11)

Let's receive this reviving Word with all eagerness, and in every way, allow ourselves to be moulded by this wonderful Book God has given us. It’s the only Book that can give life, can save us, can show us how to live. It really is God’s reviving Word. AMEN.
________________

END NOTES
OT=Old Testament
[1] George Angus Fulton Knight, Psalms: Volume 2 (The Daily Study Bible Series, Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2001, c1982), p.223.
[2] Robert G. Bratcher and William David Reyburn, A Translator's Handbook on the Book of Psalms (Helps for Translators,New York: United Bible Societies, 1991), p.996.
[3] Ibid.
[4] John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes One the Bible, Ps 119.
[5] C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:1.
[6] Cited in C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:1.
[7] George Angus Fulton Knight, Psalms: Volume 2 (The Daily Study Bible Series,Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2001, c1982), p.215.
[8] Robert G. Bratcher and William David Reyburn, A Translator's Handbook on the Book of Psalms (Helps for Translators, New York: United Bible Societies, 1991), p.1002.
[9] D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (Revised edition of: The New Bible Commentary, 3rd ed. / edited by D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer. 1970; 4th ed.; Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Illinois, USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), Ps 118:24.
[10] John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes On the Bible, Ps 119:18.
[11] Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston Sermons (Joseph Kreifels).
[12] Ibid.
[13] Cited in C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:18.
[14] C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:18.
[15] George Angus Fulton Knight, Psalms: Volume 2 (The Daily Study Bible Series, Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2001, c1982), p.226.
[16] C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David (Joseph Kreifels), Ps 119:25.
[17] G. C. Berkouwer, Holy Scripture (Translation of De Heilige Schrift; ed. Jack Bartlett Rogers; Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Co., 1975), p.11.
[18] Cited in C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:37.
OT=Old Testament
RSV=Revised Standard Version
NIV=New International Version
[19] Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Electronic edition; Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2000, c1998), p.277.
[20] C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:49.
[21] Cited in C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Ps 119:49.
[22] C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, (Joseph Kreifels), Ps 119:50
[23] Robert Jamieson et al., A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (On spine: Critical and Explanatory Commentary; Oak Harbor, Washington: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), Ps 119:50.

Over on the Pulpit blog, Nathan Busenitz — who has graciously commented over here — has asked us charismatics to add any further killer arguments to his list of the top 10 charismatic objections to cessationism. I am not sure if he will have time in his seminar itself to address those that I offer below as additions to his very helpful list, but I suspect, given his gracious demeanor, I may find myself debating this issue with him further in the future. If I have worked his comment system right, these may also be appearing over on the Pulpit blog.

1. The argument from church history that men like Huss prophesied, men like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones spoke of being guided by the Spirit, and dramatic healings are recorded associated with some of the reformers — including the resurrection of the dead.

2. The argument that since Peter in Acts 2 stated that the “last days” prophecy of Joel was being fulfilled, and that this promise was for future generations and all Christians— to then argue that the gifts have ceased is to argue that we are living in days AFTER the last days! (Now where does THAT fit in anyone's eschatology?)

3. The claim that the goal of our salvation appears to be receiving the Spirit, who is a guarantee of our inheritance. If there is no conscious experience of the Spirit to be had today, how can He give us assurance? (cf Ephesians 1:13-14, Galatians 3:14, Philippians 3:8-11)

4. That Jesus promises us an experience of the Spirit that would be better for us than if He Himself were to remain on earth — which of us have plumbed the depths of an experience of God to that extent that we could say we would prefer our experience to meeting Jesus in the flesh? (John 14, 16:7)

5. The claim that biblical prophecy was not always 100 per cent accurate, nor automatically enscripturated (1 Corinthians 13:9; 2 Samuel 7; Acts 21:9; Acts 21:4,10-11, 32-33; Acts 27:10; Acts 27:22; 1 Samuel 10:5, 10, 11, 12, 19:20, 24, 28:6, 15; 1 Kings 18:4, 13, 19, 20; 1 Kings 20:35, 41, 22:6, 10; 2 Kings 2:3, 17:23, 24:2; 2 Chronicles 18:9, 20:20, 24:19; Ezra 5:1; Jeremiah 7:25; Hosea 12:10; Matthew 2:23)

I just had my third e-mail in as many days about Pierced For Our Transgressions — a forthcoming book on penal substitution. Regular readers will know that I have frequently posted on the atonement in the past. This book is aimed at addressing the debate over Steve Chalke's allegation of "cosmic child abuse."

You may remember that before Christmas Wayne Grudem, in my blog interview, first added his voice to that of John Piper's in accusing Chalke of blasphemy, then modified his statement to really quite a similar position to mine back in 2004 when I said Chalke was "close" to blasphemy.

If the website is anything to go on, this new book should be good. The following quote from an article, focused in part on the historic pedigree of penal substitution, published on the site gives a great foretaste:

"Some claim that penal substitution makes God guilty of injustice, inflicting punishment on an innocent man. Such a doctrine, they say, plainly contradicts the Scriptural teaching that guilty people, and only guilty people, should be punished: ‘Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent — the LORD detests them both’ (Proverbs 17:15).

Some who believe in penal substitution have replied by pointing out that Christ suffered willingly, or by noting that God gave himself in Christ to suffer in our place. But while these things are gloriously true, neither actually answers the objection. If guilty sinners are acquitted and an innocent third party is punished, then irrespective of his willingness an injustice has been committed, and it is unthinkable that God would do such a thing.

How are we to respond? The flaw in the argument is the unstated premise that Christ is unrelated to the believer, an unconnected third party. This is not true, for believers are in union with Christ — he is in us, and we are in him, indwelt by his Spirit (e.g. John 17:21; Romans 6:5; 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 1:27; Philippians 1:1). It is for this reason that the imputation of our guilt to Christ and his righteousness to us, his punishment and our acquittal, are just in the sight of God. The apostle Paul captures both sides of the exchange in a single verse: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). "

Just before Christmas, someone I know asked me what I was going to do on my blog to “follow” my interview with Wayne Grudem. In that moment I knew exactly how I was going to follow it — with silence. Sometimes the best way to try and follow something is quite simply not to! To be honest, I felt like I needed a break anyway. The good news for me (I think!) is that not one of my readers wrote to me asking me to write something on my blog. Either that means you haven’t missed me — perhaps because you have been busy yourself — or that you simply took me at my word that I was taking a “prolonged break.” Or perhaps more likely, it shows the place of a blog in the average reader’s day — it's a piece of light entertainment that we can live with or without — read in a snatched moment in-between everything else we do that is much more important. So my little “sabbatical” hasn’t cost you guys anything — there is always another blog to read — and in any case, if for some strange reason someone was desperate for a dose of “Warnie,” then this blog has been around long enough that simply looking in the archives would uncover something you hadn’t read yet.

So putting ourselves to one side for awhile to reflect is no bad thing — indeed it has biblical precedent, as does the thought that God tends to do things in “waves” or “seasons.” I really felt it was right for me to just stop blogging for a few weeks. It also coincided with a needed pause in my preaching commitments, and although I have still been working my day job, it has felt almost like a holiday. I thought that it might be a nice idea to start the blog this year with a personal post reflecting on a period of my life when it was God who put me on the substitute bench, and for a period that lasted several years and not just a few weeks.

It has been over a year since I posted part 4 of a series I have entitled “My Story” (and before that I wrote part 1, part 2, and part 3.) At this rate it will take me a long time to arrive at the present day in this tale, as back then, in my telling of the story, I had only reached the age of 18. But here goes with the next part . . . .

At 18, I had a lot of the over-confidence of youth, but that was tinged with the realization that I had a lot to learn. As I left the safety of my parental home and launched out to London to study medicine, God had a plan to teach me one of the most important lessons of my life — one which this recent relatively quiet spell over Christmas and the New Year reminded me that I still do not fully live in the good of.

My youthful enthusiasm for God was, at least in part, because in a church environment I felt I could hold my own socially much better than I could out in the world. It's funny, because like many outwardly confident gregarious people, I was far from confident on the inside. Although all my evangelistic activities at school made me feel like public enemy number one, I would console myself that surely God was pleased with me despite the views of my school colleagues. In church, I had a different role and I took a lot of solace from feeling that people there valued my contribution. As I already described, I had been given leadership and preaching experience and received a lot of encouragement. I was convinced that some sort of ministry awaited me having had a sense of “call” since early childhood. I foolishly persuaded myself that if life at school was hard, at least my work for God’s Church showed that I had something to offer. God was about to go to work to begin to destroy the pride that I didn’t even realize I had.

God has a way of taking a dream and killing it — stone dead. Sure, He will often resurrect it years later, but you don’t tend to think much about that at the time — all you can see is (to paraphrase Monty Python) your dream is “stone dead, demised, passed on, no more, has ceased to be, a stiff, bereft of life, snuffed out, up the creek and kicked the bucket, extinct in its entirety, an ex-dream.” This is what happened to me over the course of a few years, and much as you might think that it couldn’t have been of God, as I look back, I am more and more convinced it was, in fact, just that. I remember well that one time during those years, when someone suggested that I might preach, the thought that went through my mind was simply “no way!”

I am glad of two things — both of which suggest that perhaps the dream wasn’t totally dead. Firstly, although in a different kind of church, I kept my links going with newfrontiers by attending the Bible Weeks, and also through a friendship with a pastor — a dear man named Henry Tyler (who was my mentor for many years and who comes back into the story later on). Secondly, I did not lose my relationship with God, nor my love of reading theology and the biographies of preachers of the past. But I'm rushing ahead of myself — I haven’t told you how my dream came to die.

When I arrived at university I was suddenly a small fish in the big pond of London. The successful CU didn’t seem to need me to exercise the gifts of which I'd sadly become proud, nor did the charismatic church I attended in the morning or the evangelical Anglican church I attended in the evening. Suddenly I was not “doing things” for God anymore — no preaching, no leadership, not even leading Bible studies. This carried on for several years, and I didn’t press for things to happen, but instead slowly, and initially reluctantly, began to refocus my relationship with God from “doing” things to “being” His child.

Terry Virgo describes receiving a prophetic word early-on in his Christian walk that told him he was called primarily to be a worshipper of Jesus, and that anything else was a bonus. That was the lesson God was trying to engrave in me in those “fallow” years as a medical student. I only wish that I could honestly say that my teenage years were the last time I busied myself with too much activity and not enough falling in love with Jesus. The truth is, sadly, that like so many of us, there have been many times in my life where I have been so caught up with what I was doing for God that I forgot that the most important thing He wants from me is for me to simply be His son and worship Him. In fact, these last few weeks have left me wondering whether just maybe the busyness of 2006 was exactly one of those times.

How foolish we are to believe that we can give anything to God with our hard work. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 4:7 - “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” God has given us everything we have, and even our serving Him is just another expression of our dependence on Him. He is the one who gives us every breath that we take as a gift of grace, not our right. How often do we get cross because our so-called “rights” are violated, or because we didn’t get what we wanted, or because our hard work wasn’t appreciated, or even because our “ministry” isn’t recognized by others. The true servant of God is immune to such thoughts for he realizes that even the strength he uses to serve is given him by God, and that it is God who decides what paths He wants us all to take.

I wish I could learn this once and for all, but I guess we are put on earth to struggle with this issue all our lives — there is something within us that longs for self-sufficiency, self-fulfillment, and self-worth. God instead wants us to be God-dependent, God-fulfilled, and worthy only because of what Jesus has done for us.

In this new year, I want to refocus my life once more on Jesus and knowing Him better. Everything else will flow out from that. There is a sense of dissatisfaction within me once more with filling my life with activity and not leaving enough time to reflect and grow as a worshipper of Jesus. I am brought back to the passage I preached on in November.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:7-16)

Anyway, these so-called quiet years were a time of pruning. There were, however, a couple of things going on in addition to my education. Firstly, God had arranged for a family to mentor me during those years in understanding other cultures, which would prove very helpful later on. But secondly, my reading was slowly turning me into someone who thought he understood theology, and as the years went on, sadly I became more and more focused on having theological arguments with other Christians. I am ashamed to say that it got to the point where pretty much every time I met someone, I would sniff out the areas of theology I disagreed with them on and engage them in debate. I became someone who wasn’t always very pleasant to be around. Fortunately, God had a plan to help me to learn better social skills, and also to revive my dream of serving Him in some way. But you will have to wait for the next post in this long-running series to hear about that . . . .

At Jubilee we have been doing a series of talks this autumn, each one lasting about an hour, during which we attempt to instruct the hearer to a greater extent than is possible in our Sunday morning sermons. One of the ones I did - which was on the subject of "What is God Like?" - has just been made available online at the Jubilee Audio Sermons site. You can visit there to download the sermon or listen to it here:



These talks have been inspired by the following verse:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

I do want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Wayne Grudem, whose Systematic Theology was used as a major resource for this talk. When preparing to speak as a Christian, I believe that it is important to lean on the wisdom found in the work of others, and I certainly did that here.

I definitely did make this my own, however, so don't blame Dr. Grudem for any errors! I will now share the full notes here. You can also download the PowerPoint file. As with all my material on this blog, you are welcome to use it in any way that does not involve making a profit, and you should, of course, attribute it if you copy the entire article.


THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD - WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

Do NOT expect to understand everything about God - He is infinite; we are finite and cannot understand Him fully. Almost all language used about God is a metaphor, and therefore it has the whisper “God is, but is not the same” as the concept used to describe Him.

This is not a mere intellectual exercise, but has two goals:

1. To know, worship, and follow God more.

2. For our beliefs about God to be clearly grounded in the Bible.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Arguments for God’s Existence

• Intelligent design of the universe (teleological).
• God as the ultimate cause - that which came first (cosmological).
• The greatest being we can conceive (ontological).
• The presence of a universal basic set of ethics (moral argument).
• The spiritual nature of mankind – the mind/body problem.
• The God-shaped hole in all cultures.
• Christianity does people good (pragmatic argument).
• But . . . we cannot use our reason to prove God’s existence, for that would make our reason above God.

The Bible Assumes God Exists and People Know

• “In the beginning, God created ...” (Genesis 1:1)
• “…his invisible attributes...have been clearly perceived...” (Romans 1:18-22)
• “The fool says in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)
• God is unknowable and invisible, but chooses to reveal Himself.
• “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways…” (Romans 11:33-34)
• “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

God Has Both Transcendence and Immanence

• Christians often emphasise one or the other.
• Jesus – the revelation of God.
• “…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 1:1-4)
• “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18)
• “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” (John 12:41)
• “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him … Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:7-10)

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)
• “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
• “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9-11)
• “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6)

The Trinity Reflects a Chain of Authority

• “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26)
• “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3)
• “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)
• “God has put all things in subjection under his feet...when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

We Believe in One God in Three Persons

• “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
  “...baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
• “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Matthew 4:10)
  “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5)
• Jesus accepts worship: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
• “Let all God's angels worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6)
• Jesus shares seventeen attributes unique to God - “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)

1. God is an Independent Community - Because of His Self-Sufficiency and Trinity, He Doesn’t Need Us!

• “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24-25)
• He didn’t make the world because he was lonely.
• “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
• Jesus: “Father . . . you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

2. God is the Creator of Everything.

• God: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
• Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
• The Spirit: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)

God created diversity

• “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24)
• “...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:10)

3. God is Eternal – He Always Existed

• God: “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)
  “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8)
• Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
• “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13)
• “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5)
• Spirit: "...through the eternal Spirit..." (Heb 9:14)

4. God is Omniscient – He Knows Everything

• God: “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20)
• “No creature is hidden from his sight...” (Hebrews 4:13)
• “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)
• Jesus: “...needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:24-25)
• “Now we know that you know all things.” (John 16:30)
• Spirit: “For the Spirit searches everything...” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11)
• Psalm 139:1-6

God knows the future

• God: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose . . . I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.’” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
• Jesus: “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am.” (John 13:9)
• "God knows everything that ever was, everything that now is, and everything that is to be; all that is actual and all that is possible. Therefore God knows in advance all the free acts of all free creatures." (John Edgren)
• “Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow.” (C. S. Lewis)
• Openess Theology denies this.

5. God is Not Bound by Time

• God: “. . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)
• “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)
• “I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14) or I am what I am, or I will be what I will be – God’s name Yahweh.
• Jesus: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him.” (John 8:58-59)
• Wayne Grudem: “God views the whole span of history as vividly as He would if it were a brief event that had just happened. But He also views a brief event as if it were going on forever. God sees and knows all events – past, present, and future – with equal vividness. Though He has no succession of moments, He still sees the progression of events at different points in time.”

6. God is Unchangeable

• God: “For I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
• Jesus: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
• God both does and doesn’t have regrets!
• “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me.” (1 Samuel 15:11)
• "The Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (1 Samuel 15:29)
• But God does truly relate to us.
• “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.” (Jeremiah 18:7-10)
• John Piper: “So the repentance over Saul means not that he did not know what Saul would be like, but that he disapproves of what Saul has become and that he feels sorrow at this evil in his anointed king, and that he looks back on his making him king with the same sorrow that he experienced at that moment when he made him king, foreknowing all the sorrow that would come. For God to say, "I feel sorrow that I made Saul king," is not the same as saying, "I would not make him king if I had it to do over, knowing what I know now." God is able to feel sorrow for an act that He does in view of foreknown evil and pain, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons.”

7. God is Wise

• God: “. . . the only wise God.” (Romans 16:27, see Psalm 147:5)
• Jesus: “Christ...the wisdom of God.” (1 Cointhians 1:24)
• Holy Spirit: “. . . the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and under-standing, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2)

8. God is Truth

• God: “God is not man, that he should lie...” (Numbers 23:19)
• “God, who never lies.” (Titus 1:2)
• Jesus “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6)

9. God is Omnipresent – He is Everywhere

• God: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence...” (Psalm 139:7-10)
• "Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)
• Jesus: “ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20)
• But, it is not wrong to speak of God “coming.”
• “...we will come to him and make our home.” (John 14:21)
• “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send...” (John 15:26)

10. God is Omnipotent – He is All-Powerful

• “... Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)
• “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)
• Jesus: “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41)

11. God is Uncontainable

• God: “…heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you...” (1 Kings 8:27)
• Jesus: “...he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light...” (Matthew 17:2-6) (Building a tent to contain him was foolish!)

12. “God is Light.” (1 John 1:5)

• Jesus - “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

13. “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24)

• Jesus “And the Word became flesh...” (John 1:14)

14. “God is Holy.” (Psalm 99:9)

• Jesus “I know who you are the Holy One of God.” (Luke 4:34)

15. God is Righteous and Just

• God: “No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)
• “. . . your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
• Jesus: “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 Corinthians 5:21)

16. God is Jealous and Full of Wrath Against Sin

• God: “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful…” (Nahum 1:2)
• Jesus: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:17)

17. God is Sovereign - His Will Always Comes to Pass

• God: “. . . according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (Ephesians 1:11)
• “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
• “… it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)
• “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:3)
• Jesus: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18)

But he is not responsible for sin.

• “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one...” (James 1:13-14)

WHO IS JESUS?

Jesus Shares All the Attributes of God

• He was eternally one of the three persons in the Trinity. He is frequently described with the word “lord” which is used 6,814 times in the Septuagent for Jehovah/Yahweh. Jesus is also fully man and a real man’s man.
• “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him . . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1) “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2:15)

Jesus Was Truly a Man

• He was born of a normal human mother.
• He “grew and became strong” (Luke 2:40) and “increased in wisdom and in stature
  and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
• He was hungry.” (Matthew 4:2) and he said, “I thirst.” (John 19:28)
• He got “wearied” from a journey (John 4:6) and he slept. (Luke 8:23)
• He was not a “Clark Kent” figure only pretending to be vulnerable.
• There were things that Jesus, the man, did not know. "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)

Jesus Felt All Our Emotions

• He “marvelled.” (Matthew 8:10)
• “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” (Psalm 45:6-7)
• “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
• “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26:38)
• John Piper: “Jesus was fully human and fully God – he was not God with a human veneer – like a costume. He was a real flesh and blood man, a carpenter's son.”
• Mark Driscoll: “It's hard to worship someone you can beat up.”
• Wayne Grudem: “An infinite God came to live in a finite world. In Jesus, God and man became one person . . . For Jesus Christ was and always will be, fully God and fully man in one person.”

Jesus Remains a Man Forever

• “…a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have...” (Luke 24:38-43)
• “This Jesus…will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

How Can Jesus be Both Man and God?

• Error 1 - A human body, but not a human mind or spirit – Mickey Mouse suit.
• Error 2 – Two persons in one body – circus “horse” suit.
• Error 3 – One new nature – neither God nor man! -Drop of ink in water.
• The Solution: Two natures, but one person (see Power Point for graphical images of these - thanks to Wayne Grudem for the illustrations!)

Some Things are True of Only One of Jesus' Natures

• Jesus’ human nature ascended to heaven and is no longer in the world - John 16:28 “I am leaving the world.”
• But . . . his divine nature is everywhere present. -Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always.”
• Jesus felt weak and tired. (Matthew 4:2; 8:24; Mark 15:21; John 4:6), but in His divine nature He was omnipotent. (Matthew 8:26-27; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).
• Jesus was 30 years old and existed from eternity!
• A false objection: “Omniscience and ignorance, omnipotence and impotence cannot coexist. The former swamps the latter.” (A.N.S. Lane)

The Two Natures and Jesus’ Death

• “. . . it is not correct to say that Jesus’ divine nature died, or could die, if “die” means a cessation of activity, a cessation of consciousness, or a diminution of power. Nevertheless, by virtue of union with Jesus’ human nature, his divine nature somehow tasted something of what it was like to go through death. The person of Christ experienced death. Moreover, it seems difficult to understand how Jesus’ human nature alone could have borne the wrath of God against the sins of millions of people. It seems that Jesus’ divine nature had somehow to participate in the bearing of wrath against sin that was due to us (although Scripture nowhere explicitly affirms this). Therefore, even though Jesus’ divine nature did not actually die, Jesus went through the experience of death as a whole person, and both human and divine natures somehow shared in that experience.” (Wayne Grudem)

A BIBLICAL SUMMARY – KEY VERSES

• “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty . . .” (Exodus 34:6-7)
  
• "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose . . .I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
  
• “...who, though he was in the form of God ...” (Philippians 2:6-11)

WHAT WE SHOULD SAY ABOUT GOD

• Together for The Gospel 2006
  -We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and self-existent. We further affirm that God possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.
  -We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way limited in terms of knowledge or power or any other perfection or attribute, or that God has in any way limited his own perfections

• What does Jubilee Believe About God?
  -“Life in Jubilee Church can be summarised as: loving God, loving each other, and loving the world.” (Membership Course)
• Jubilee is a member of the Evangelical Alliance and holds to its Statement of Faith:
  “We Believe in . . .
  -The one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  -The love, grace, and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming, and judging the world.”

This God Chooses to Take Delight in Us!

• God: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
• Jesus: “. . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

He Wants Us to Delight in Him!

• “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4).
• “Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4).
• “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14:1)

CONCLUSIONS

• If we believe in a good, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-wise, all-loving God who is in control of every detail of the universe and works it all out for our good, how can we not worship Him and trust Him with our future?
• When we know God better, we become more like Him.
• “And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
• “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” (Psalm 27:4)
• “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25)
  

Well, I made it - at least as far as Toronto. I had an eager sense of anticipation as I got off the plane. As I met my now dear friend, Andrew Fountain, it was amazing to me to realize how true it is that being a Christian makes you part of one big family of God. For those of us like Andrew and I, who are also part of newfrontiers, that sense of family is strengthened still further. When we meet, we realize that we all share the same spiritual DNA!

In what seemed like a blur, we were seated in a Keg Steakhouse with two other great blogging buddies - Tim Challies and Paul Martin. There is lots that I could say about the dinner we had together. The first thing is that, in fact, the whole thing was an internet date. Only Paul and Andrew had known each other first in real life - all the other relationships had been formed online. It was a real advertisement for internet "dating" - at least as far as friendships go.

We all shared so much - a love for the Lord, a basically reformed Baptist position (albeit with Andrew and I having a bit of a bonus add-on in the form of a charismatic theology!) and were all part of relatively young churches, none of which had a building they owned between them. Paul and Tim's church is practically a house church!

The other nice thing was the way in which Tim managed to dispel all those myths about him being quiet, reserved, and never smiling. I have photographic evidence that he smiles, and I can assure you that he spoke at least as much as any of the rest of us.

We avoided the whole "Stop saying that I read it on your blog!" by pretending that none of us actually reads the other one's blog at all!

Tim and Andrew broke off into technobabble at one point. In fact, for a moment I thought that they were both speaking in tongues as they discussed the intricacies of the databases that can power websites.

I then chipped in with a few comments about how to be a friend of Google - in particular my bugbear that we should all try and remember (I often forget this myself!) that when we link to other webpages we should try and use appropriate keywords. So, for example, if I wanted to link to Tim's most recent post (and I do!) I should write something like this:

Tim Challies has updated and republished his post ironically enough on the updating and publishing of old Christian hymns.

Rather than what we all (including me!) tend to do, which is this:

Tim Challies has updated and republished his post ironically enough on the updating and publishing of old Christian hymns.

Google already knows that Tim's site includes information about himself - the first example signals to Google that it might want to consider that page as a resource on Christian hymns, too. I have checked and right now Tim's site is nowhere to be found on a search for the phrase "Christian hymns" - it may be that my link alone will change all that once Google indexes this post. What is certain is that if just a few good blogs were to link to him like that, his page would definitely end up appearing in the top ten for such a search.

I want even more people to find Tim's site than already do - don't you?

Anyway, back to our dinner. I banned any theological debates as I felt that it would be unfair to me having just got off a transatlantic flight, but that didn't stop us from a few gentle digs at the areas about which we do disagree. More than that, though, we had a lot of fun and laughter. For example, the waiter took a photo of all of us (which I will share at the end of this post and whilst doing so told us to "look like we like each other and sit closer together" - to which the inevitable "not like we like each other too much!" and "not TOO close!" were the instant retorts and at the time seemed as hilarious as they were predictable with a bunch of us guys eating dinner together.

I had a great time, and I was left with a sense that as great as online friendships can be, it is no substitute for meeting face-to-face and seeing the whites of each other's eyes, the smile as a slightly cheeky point is made, and feeling the warmth of the friendship and respect mutually held.

We discussed how perceptions can be distorted online. Certainly Tim and Paul were a whole lot funnier than I imagined them to be (at least until our crazy email exchange over arranging this dinner!) I also gave the specific example of Phil Johnson, who I also met a while back. I am sure Phil won't mind me sharing that here. In person, and in his audio messages, his genuine warmth, respect for those with whom he disagrees, and general nice-guy nature is abundantly apparent. Sometimes online, our personalities don't always come across as we want them to, and we can surprise ourselves by the way we are perceived.

Every now and then Phil will say something that, if said face-to-face, the twinkle in his eye would have given the appropriate context to it. I hate to admit it, but there is then a peculiar fascination in watching the wave of indignant reaction that sometimes hits certain corners of the blogosphere after Phil writes something which at the time I guess he had no idea would offend anyone. The wave of anguish is then almost inevitably followed by a genuinely puzzled Phil trying to figure which part of his comment caused the reaction The trouble is that the whole thing is not as funny as all that, as every blogger knows he could be next - and indeed has probably been there himself - I know I have been, and probably will be in the future.

I am not sure that there is any reliable way we can guard against being taken the wrong way from time to time as we write. So for every time in the future some unguarded un-nuanced comment I make here on my blog will offend someone, I apologise up front! I am afraid a few "smileys" definitely cannot take the place of all the non-verbal communication we miss when we read the written word.

What happened last night over a dinner near the Toronto airport was a precious thing - it involved a strengthening of trust. If a relationship is like a bridge, then our bridges were reinforced last night. For me, once a connection has been made face-to-face, it makes electronic communication much more enjoyable and, I guess, even safer in a funny kind of way.

Tim, Andrew, and Paul . . . thanks for a great evening. Thanks for being brothers fighting together on the same side. I commit to never seeing any of you as the enemy as we go about this blogging business and possibly even interact and disagree publicly. You guys have my permission to critique me privately or online.

I pray now that, together with many other bloggers, we will always find ourselves in this online world to be "standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel" which was "once for all delivered to the saints." (Philippians 1:27, Jude 1:3)

UPDATE
Tim Challies and Paul Martin have both posted about our dinner. I just want to point out, that if my memory is correct, it was the Holy Spirit and not cessationism as such that I brought up, but it was only in passing and I could be wrong!

I preached today on Philippians 3:7-16. The audio is available on Jubilee's site or to listen to right here:

This whole passage is an exhortation - an encouragement that builds to the following verse in Philippians 4:1: "Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." Today I want to also encourage us - yes, to produce an emotional effect on our hearts.

Jonathan Edwards once said something - which is, I hope, going to be true of today's message:

"The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by the impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered."

1. LOSE EVERYTHING TO GAIN THAT WHICH IS THE MOST VALUABLE

What are you going to give up when you become a Christian? Your girlfriend? Going to the pub? - Everything . . . your whole life.

Not "Are you telling me I will have to give up my girlfriend?" but rather "Are you telling me I will gain Christ?"

God has a way of asking everything of us; then when He has given us Himself we say, "It was no sacrifice" and THEN God gives us so much more in return - Like Job - God gives; God takes away - like Abraham with his son.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? (Matthew 16:24-25)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-34)

• Two weeks ago two people had their anxieties healed and found they could sleep as a result.
  
• One week ago God healed someone's stiff shoulder - what will He do today?
  
• He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose. ~ Jim Elliot.

2. WHAT CHRIST OFFERS - A RIGHTEOUSNESS INFUSION

As important as this is, note that it is not the goal, but rather a means to an end . . . the end is point 3.


3. THE JOURNEY OF KNOWING JESUS

This is striking. God is offering us a relationship. There is a parallel passage to this one which gives us a clue about how we can know Christ. Galatians 3:11-14: "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith.' But the law is not of faith, rather 'The one who does them shall live by them.' Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith."

Thus this relationship is available through God's Spirit, who we can receive, as well as through the Book - the Book is what we test all experiences by.

WE ARE TO EXPERIENCE God by his Holy Spirit . . .

GOD IS KNOWABLE - He wants to be known and reveals Himself to every open heart. God wants to show His glory. John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . ."

In 1 John 1, John elaborates this and says, [that] "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life."

Jesus says, "I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you."

Does our experience of the Spirit mean that it is truly better for us if He is not here?

The Spirit is sent to empower us, to illuminate Scripture to us, to witness to us that we are believers, but all of that is subsumed in this - that we might KNOW GOD.

The relationship is a journey, and thus the challenge is not to feel we have arrived - since even Paul could say he had not!

He wanted us to long for more, but live up to what we have attained . . . .

Don't say, "Well, I am a Christian," or "Well, I received the Spirit already." We need to have a hunger for more - as Spurgeon said:

. . . Does any man know what the Spirit of God can make of him? I believe the greatest, ablest, most faithful, most holy man of God might have been greater, and abler, and more faithful, and more holy, if he had put himself more completely at the Spirit's disposal. Wherever God has done great things by a man, he has had power to do more had the man been fit for it. We are straitened in ourselves, not in God. O brothers, the church is weak to-day because the Holy Spirit is not upon her members as we could desire him to be. You and I are tottering along like feeble babes, whereas, had we more of the Spirit, we might walk without fainting, run without weariness, and even mount up with wings as eagles. Oh, for more of the anointing of the Holy Ghost whom Christ is prepared to give immeasurably unto us if we will but receive him!

We should be looking for our experiences of God to reflect His awesomeness, holiness, and otherness from us - He is separate from us and there should be a fear about it, yet He is immanent, loving, near to us, full of joy, forgiving and -

A big difference exists between Christians and other religious people. The Christian: God is near not far away, we have a God who has stepped into history to help us rather than merely leaving us rules to obey - He comes to us. Has He come to you?

Has He come to you ever?

Has He come to you lately?

What do you rely on that you know for sure?

Health? No, you might lose that.

Job - the same.

Relationships - the same.

God is sure and will be reliable.

Let's come to Him again!


SONG: All Once Held Dear

Well, it's happening again. I'm traveling with my work once more, and this time I'm going to be traveling to America via Toronto. The way things have worked out, I'll be able to meet up with some great blogger friends - all of whom I feel like I've known for years already! Believe it or not, it's taken us more than 60 emails so far to organise this meeting - most of which were peppered with humour and deliberate sporting references intended to leave me out! I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun meeting face-to-face with this band of fellow nutters - sorry, bloggers! Tim Challies, Paul Martin, Andrew Fountain, and me in the same restaurant - the other diners better watch out!

Whenever the time comes around for me to travel and I mention to those who know me that I'm once again going abroad, there are at least three different reactions I observe. The first, which is more prominent immediately after a terrorist incident, is one of concern for my safety. It's interesting how irrational our fears can often be; for example, the risk doesn't change just because yesterday the head of MI5 announced that there are some 1600 people involved in some 200 terrorist organisations in the UK that MI5 believes want to plan other attacks. Statistically, I'm still safer flying than any other form of transport, so such worries really don't concern me that greatly when I plan a trip. I do pray more these days, however, before a trip.

The second response that I get is - "Wow! What a jet-setter!" The truth is, as any frequent business traveler will tell you, the glamour of seeing the world can soon fade. At times we can zip in and out of a city and not see anything at all. Sometimes it's possible to squeeze a few hours out of a schedule to spend time outside of a hotel room or restaurant. It can mean setting an alarm earlier and walking around the city center (if the hotel is based there), or sometimes flights can be organised to give a few extra hours on either end of the trip. That kind of carving out of "me-time" is worthwhile, in my opinion, as it is a major way to avoid the cynical disinterest that is the constant temptation of every business traveler. If, on at least some trips, the sights and sounds can be absorbed rather than spending the time merely rushing around, something of the wonder and appreciation of the privilege it really is to actually be paid to visit other countries instead of having to take a holiday and pay for your own flights, will return.

The third response - perhaps by some who know what excessive travel can be like - is one of pity. Thoughtful comments are made about the difficulties involved in leaving a family behind, and of the hassle that travel can be. But, in a funny way, I think most of us go through a bit of a U-shaped curve when it comes to our attitudes towards flying - I know I have. At the beginning you love it, then the hassles come and you start to hate it. Then, if you are smart, when things go wrong and you end up spending your first unwanted night in a foreign country - or worse still, having to sleep in an airport - you start to remember how much easier we have it today than our anscestors did in their day. All kinds of rationalising thoughts come into your mind. I remind myself how amazing it is that we can do these trips in a day when in the past they would have taken weeks. Traveling becomes something to which you resign yourself, and you do it because you have to. So when someone said to me that they were shocked I was preaching just before getting on a transatlantic flight this Sunday, my response was twofold:

1. I'm glad I'm not preaching after getting off the flight.
   
   
2. To me, flying is just another form of commuting anyway!

I take a book to read, or things that I need to work on for my job. I program myself to think "Well, if I wasn't sitting here in this airport or on this plane, I would probably just be sitting somewhere else anyway, so what difference does it make?" You can get a lot of reading done - no emails, no phone calls, usually no conversation. And at times, for a bookaholic like me, it's almost a dream come true! I am really beginning to ENJOY flying! I suppose that makes me sound mad.

In summary, life is what you make of it - you can either think, "O rats, we are circling Heathrow again, waiting for a landing slot, and my taxi driver is going to be annoyed at me like it's my fault when I'm delayed", or you can say to yourself, "Cool, I get a bit longer to read this book without any interruptions", or "Hey, isn't this a great opportunity? I get to sit next to someone who actually wants to talk!"

I think a lot of this new attitude of mine to traveling is simply a common sense way of coping with it. But, I'm sure that a good proportion of it is God helping me to learn to be content with the situations life sends my way. I need to learn this lesson in every area of my life, not just in traveling. All this makes me think of Paul's words:

"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13)

C.J. Mahaney is well-known as the acceptable face of charismaticism. Until recently, C.J. was pastor of Covenant Life Church. After handing over this responsiblity to Josh Harris, some were led to ask the question I tried to answer in a previous post, "What is C.J. Mahaney?" If you've heard about Together For The Gospel, but have not heard this man preach, here is your chance. I have interviewed C.J.Mahaney previously, and recommend two of his books — Humility and Living The Cross-Centered Life — as books that, in my opinion, every Christian should read.

This collection of sermons and other audio by C.J. Mahaney is posted here with thanks to Paul Schafer. If you are aware of any other sermons by C.J., I would encourage you to add comments which link to them in the comments section. Links can be added in the comments section by adding the following code:

<a href="http://www.website.com/sermon.mp3">title of sermon</a>

You may need to right click on these links and save them to your hard drive to be able to listen to them. Many audio programmes will allow you to burn them onto a CD.

There are also a number of talks by C.J. that are available to purchase through Sovereign Grace Ministries.

---

9 MARKS MINISTRIES (Not a sermon)

• The Local Church with C.J. Mahaney
  
  AL MOHLER RADIO PROGRAM (Not sermons)
  
• Together for the Gospel: A Panel Discussion on the Local Church
  
• Together For The Gospel II
  
• March Madness, The Big Dance, and the Meaning of Sport
  
• Excellence, Virtue, and Sports in America: The Floyd Landis Controversy
  
  BETHLEHEM BAPTIST CHURCH (John Piper’s church)
  
• Encourage — May 7, 2006
  
• Guard — May 14, 2006
  
• The Happiest Place on Earth — May 21, 2006
  
  BIBLE CHURCH OF LITTLE ROCK
• Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God MP3
• Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God (Part 2) MP3
• Message to Men MP3
• Humility: True Greatness MP3
• The Cross-Centered Life MP3
• The Soul of Modesty MP3
  
  CAPITAL HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH (Mark Dever’s church)
  
• The Happiest Place on Earth
  
• When Life Doesn't Make Sense
  
• The Transforming Effect of Divine Perspective
  
  CORNERSTONE CHURCH OF KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
  
• Who Is Really At Work? — Philippians 2:12-13 — July 23, 2006
  
  COUNCIL OF BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD
  
• Sexual Intimacy in Marriage
  
• What to Do When a Wife Won't Follow?
  
  COVENANT LIFE CHURCH (CJ’s home church, now led by Josh Harris)
  
• Lost and Found, Part 4: The Prostitute
  
• Sovereign Grace — Ephesians 1:3-14
  
• Acts: Unstoppable, Part 4
  
• Acts 5-6:7
  
• Together, Part IV: Encourage — Ephesians 4:29
  
• Together, Part V: Guard — Hebrews 3:12-13
  
• Before the Election: The Cross and the Culture War, Part 4 — Psalm 33
  
• What a Mother Can't Do Without — Hebrews 11:6
  
• True Greatness — Mark 10:32-45
  
  CROSSWAY CHURCH — ATHENS, GEORGIA
  
• Cross-Centered Life
  
  CROSSWAY CHURCH — ATTLEBORO
  
• Cravings and Conflict
  
  GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH — ASHBURN, VIRGINIA
  
• Concerning Spiritual Gifts — August 13, 2006
  
• A Call To Prayer — June 4, 2006
  
• Do Not Love the World
  
• Guard
  
  METRO LIFE CHURCH
  
• Who Is Really At Work? — Philippians 2:12-13
  
  PROVIDENCE CHURCH OF PITTSBURGH
  
• "The Cup"
  
  SOVEREIGN GRACE CHURCH OF FAIRFAX
  
• Easter Sunday — April 16, 2006
  
• Evidences of Grace — 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
  
  STONELEIGH BIBLE WEEK (newfrontiers)
  
• Enjoying Grace and Detecting Legalism
  
  ONLINE VIDEO
  
• Sex and the Supremacy of Christ Website
  
• Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know
  
• Speaker Interviews #1

Well, finally I have managed to find time to begin to respond to Dan Phillips reply to my smattering of charismatic questions for cessationists. In his last post, Dan states so well the main drive behind my commitment to all of this, and it is with this that I intend to start. My second post will begin to address some of the specific arguments Dan raises.

"First, I'm struck by how fair and even-handed Adrian clearly strives to be, and I think he succeeds. It'd be a harsh read to hear him as blaming us "have-nots," or meaning to talk down to us. Adrian believes there's a wonderful experience out there for all of us, one that all of us should be seeking. He clearly and sincerely feels that we not only rob and impoverish ourselves by not seeking it, but we weaken our ministry, and the impact we might have for Christ. This should concern us all."

He is exactly right. That is precisely what I believe. I am eager to point out that I am not the only person to think this way. Why? It is not that I want to wheel out heavy-hitters to support my position, but rather out of recognition that they have a much better grasp of the Scriptures than I do. I am eager to learn from others, so I will quote from a few of them here as we go through this post. To begin with, let's hear from Tim Challies' notes of a Bob Kauflin session.

"Too often we approach God like the subject of a biography. We read about Him, but do not expect to actually encounter Him. We pray, but don't think He'll talk back. We read His Word, but see it as lifeless facts and information, not a living Word. But the Bible is not the biography of a dead God! Jesus Christ is alive! God's presence and power is not only in Scripture, for He can be personally encountered. Our worship is not only to or for God, but is where we encounter and experience God. The One who allows us to encounter God is God Himself in the Holy Spirit."

For me, what I am most eager to contend for in all of this is an authentic, experiential, and relational Christianity.

But, coming back to Dan, it seems, at least in part, that while some might accuse him of wanting to rob us of our experiential relationship with God, Dan does recognize the dangers that modern western people uniquely face in our sophisticated society:

"It is, beyond argument, all too possible for us to preach and live a hollow, cerebral, naturalistic Christianity."

I have not only seen such a Christianity practiced elsewhere, I am constantly aware of the pull towards it in my own life. The desperate need of the hour is a vibrant, living Christianity which worships a God who is not dead, but acts today!

Dan would probably agree with all of this up to this point. Where he parts company is over my call for us to eagerly seek for experiences of God. He repeats a frequent misunderstanding that cessationists often have of charismatics when he removes the last two words of that sentence and claims we are merely seeking emotional experiences. For most of the charismatics I know at least, it is NOT mere emotion that we seek; rather we seek an appropriate emotional response to the presence of God, and we seek His activity in our lives and churches to be manifestly present.

There is all the difference in the world between trying to work up an emotional frenzy (which, of course, we have all seen) and using legitimate God-given means of putting ourselves in an appropriate place where God can meet us.

God has given us bodies, and it is important for us to at times adopt an open posture that signals to God we are ready and willing to receive a touch from His Spirit. One of the key ways in which we do this, both biblically and in my experience, is by using our hands. Dan criticizes the approach of 'reaching out your hands' seen in meetings. Yet, let's just take a quick look at what the book of Psalms teaches us about the use of the hands and appropriate passionate longing for God:

• "Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!" (Ps 47:1)

• "So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands." (Ps 63:4)

• "In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying" (Ps 77:2

• "Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you" (Ps 88:9)

• "Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!" (Ps 134:2)

• "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." (Ps 143:6)

The New Testament is clear in its expectation that we will have an experience of the Spirit - ". . . hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

Of course, we must seek God, not mere emotional highs - after all, illicit drugs will give you a "high," but they won't help your spiritual walk! It is, however, quite correct that we are to seek God in the Bible.

But, the Bible is clear about our need to draw near to God in worship, and puts the onus on us to "be filled" with the Spirit (Ephesians 5). This is not something that happens automatically every time we study the Bible. We must approach the Bible prayerfully, with an open heart, and cry out to the God of the Bible to make Himself plain to us as we read. I seek my experience of God within the context of His revealed Word to us - not outside it.

I long that my reading and prayer life will lead me to love God more - and yes, love IS a feeling, whatever else it is! It is love that we need, not mere intellectual knowledge, for "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Who else holds a similar view, and how do they express it? John Piper puts it this way:

"When the eyes of our hearts are opened to the greatness of God's love, the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Seek this. Seek this in its fullness with all your might."

Piper back in 1984 argued forcefully for an experiential reality of receiving the Holy Spirit and said,

"We could talk for hours about what that experience is. In fact, most of my messages are just that - descriptions of the experience of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer."

So, to Piper, all his talk about seeing and savouring God and delighting in Him really boils down to this - an experience of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. There is much more in Piper's writings about these issues, and I have collected some quotes together on my blog on this and other matters.

Piper's position is remarkably similar to his hero, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from whom, if you follow the link, I have also provided a set of quotes. There is so much material from the Doctor that I could quote here that I will leave you to go and read most of it, except to say the following:

Piper rightly describes the Doctor as follows:

"From the beginning to the end, the life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a cry for depth in two areas - depth in Biblical doctrine and depth in vital spiritual experience. Light and heat. Logic and fire. Word and Spirit. Again and again he would be fighting on two fronts: on the one hand against dead, formal, institutional intellectualism, and on the other hand against superficial, glib, entertainment-oriented, man-centered emotionalism."

Lloyd-Jones said some striking things about cessationism:

"What is being taught in Christendom today is this; that since we have got the New Testament canon, since we have got the Word now, we do not need these direct interventions, we do not need God to speak to us directly, as He spoke to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and these patriarchs. We have got the Word now! Is this superior to the direct speech of God? I think we are mad! There is no other word for this. We are mad. We are meant to be in a superior position to every Old Testament saint because of what has happened in our blessed Lord and Saviour! But this teaching would have us believe that we do not need this direct contact with God now, and that all that has come to an end since the formation of the New Testament canon . . . remember that the great point of the whole teaching of the Bible, of all you can deduce from it, is to tell you that God is a God who acts. And our only hope this afternoon is that this is still true. He has not finished acting. He is going on . . . There is only one hope. That is that He is still the living and the acting God. Christ is at His right hand, and He is seated and waiting until His enemies should be made His footstool . . . ."

I have been defending the faith - and people have praised me for doing it. Rubbish! What a miserable failure it has all been! From now on I am determined to do one thing only, and that is to give God no rest nor peace until He does prove Himself and show Himself. I have expended so much energy in reasoning with the people about this faith. We have got to do that, it is part of preaching. But if we stop at that, it will avail us nothing. But what I now am concerned about and I am concentrating on is this: asking God to show Himself, to do something, to give this touch, this manifestation of power. Nothing else will even make people listen to us . . . . Nothing is going to call the attention of the masses of the people to the truth of this faith save a great phenomenon, such as the phenomenon of the day of Pentecost, the phenomenon of any one of the great revivals, the phenomenon of a single changed life. This is something that always arrests attention, maybe curiosity - what does it matter? The people come and listen . . . .

We must not be content until we have had some manifestation of the activity of God. We must concentrate on this. This is my plea, that we concentrate on this, because it is the great message of the Bible. Let us put it like this: Do we really believe that God can still act? That is the question; that is the ultimate challenge. Or have we, for theological or some other reasons, excluded the very possibility? Here is the crucial matter. Do we individually and personally really believe that God still acts, can act, and will act - in individuals, in groups of individuals, in churches, localities, perhaps even in countries? Do we believe that He is as capable of doing that today as He was in ancient times - the Old Testament, the New Testament times, the book of Acts, Protestant Reformation, Puritans, Methodist Awakening, 1859, 1904-5? Do we really believe that He can still do it? You see, it is ultimately what you believe about God. If He is the great Jehovah - I am that I am, I am that I shall be, unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable, the everlasting and eternal God - well, He can still do it."

Spurgeon puts it better than anybody else I have read:

". . . Does any man know what the Spirit of God can make of him? I believe the greatest, ablest, most faithful, most holy man of God might have been greater, and abler, and more faithful, and more holy, if he had put himself more completely at the Spirit's disposal. Wherever God has done great things by a man He has had power to do more had the man been fit for it. We are straitened in ourselves, not in God. O brothers, the church is weak today because the Holy Spirit is not upon her members as we could desire Him to be. You and I are tottering along like feeble babes, whereas, had we more of the Spirit, we might walk without fainting, run without weariness, and even mount up with wings as eagles. Oh, for more of the anointing of the Holy Ghost whom Christ is prepared to give immeasurably unto us if we will but receive Him!"

So my appeal to the cessationist is - don't give up studying the Bible; rather also seek to know the God of the Bible. My appeal to the charismatic is - remember the God you worship gave you the Bible so that, as Dan puts it so well, you can "carefully and diligently put your feelings and experiences to the test of the bright white light of the Word".

But, unlike Dan, I do believe that we should seek those experiences of God and take every appropriate step to actively pursue them. The Bible says the Spirit is 'received,' and my sense of that is it is not a passive event, but rather a laying hold of by faith.

There is no real conflict between Word and Spirit. We need both. Somehow I think that the charismatics and cessationists have a lot to usefully learn from each other.

Can we all agree that the two errors of lifeless intellectualism and brainless emotionalism are to be avoided, and that instead there is a way for us to seek to know God and not only learn about Him?

Such knowledge is, of course, only perfected when we see Him face to face, but in the meantime, here on earth, I do believe we can expect moments when heaven seems almost to break in and we respond with joy and wonder at the manifest presence of our coming king.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)

If you are wondering what a serious theologian like Wayne Grudem is doing preaching at a charismatic conference, then you have yet to meet a group like newfrontiers. There are charismatics who are as committed to the preaching of God's Word as the average cessationist. Indeed, many of us would argue that we take the whole of the Bible seriously as our guide to doctrine and practice - including the books of Acts and 1 Corinthians! In fact, there has already been a lot of biblical teaching at the conference, as regular readers of this blog will realise.

One bit of good news is that it was announced during one of the notices that the audio of this conference will be available for download from their website www.newfrontiers.xtn.org some time after the conference ends. So let your anticipation grow as you wait for that time!

On a personal front, the afternoon's rest back in the hotel really helped my nerve pain. I even had time to read a newspaper, and I will be linking to a couple of interesting articles in tomorrow's links. I have also discovered that there is a "nursing parents" room where the audio and video of the meeting are piped into the room. I am sitting in this air-conditioned room in a cushioned chair, which is allowing me to slouch a little, and has the effect of reducing the nerve irritation significantly. Another benefit of being in this room is that I can hear the band and singers more clearly on the audio feed - the others in this room are not singing nearly as loudly as the sound of 4000 charismatics singing with all their might! Of course, another factor that may help me is that I am also not going to be tempted to even sway a little as I did this morning since I won't be surrounded by people doing the charismatic hop!

Once again during the worship there were several prophecies shared. Even in the notices, the prophetic came to the fore as Nigel Ring reminded people of a prophecy given ten years ago that we would be a movement that would be a blessing to millions of people and that millions of pounds of money would flow through us to bless the nations.

One of the articles that will be included in tomorrow's "links" speaks of how money given to aid agencies can be swallowed by administrative costs and be put to projects that don't meet the real needs felt locally. One of the strengths of our family of churches is that we have real relationships stretching across all the continents of the world. This means that when financial needs arise, we can give money directly into the hands of churches led by local indigenous leaders in many of the poorest nations of the world, confident that our friends will spend the money wisely.

The worldwide extent of the newfrontiers family and the breaking down of barriers to church planting came across so clearly in the video that was shown tonight. With all the talk on mission, after the video finished Terry quoted Piper, who said, "Mission exists because Worship doesn't." Terry encouraged people to buy Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology (one of the books I encourage every Christian to read) which he told us now has 100,000 copies in place. Terry also recommended the new short paperback summary of this which has recently been published.

Wayne Grudem introduced his talk by saying that Terry had asked him to speak on the person of Christ and how Jesus can be both God and man. He aimed to give us, if you like, a lecture on christology.

The Humanity of Christ - He was Fully Human

He was born of a human mother with no human father.

He had human weaknesses and limitations - He increased in physical strength as He grew as a human being. He learnt how to read, and increased in His knowledge. Palestinians were trilingual - Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew. He became tired (John 4:26). He understands it when we are weary. He thirsted on the cross. He shared all our human experiences - "He was hungry" (Matthew 4:2). He wasn't a ghost; even after the resurrection He had flesh and bones and ate food. He took that physical body with Him into heaven.

He had a human mind - He would have been given bigger responsibilities as He grew as a child. He never sinned, but was tempted by more and more difficult situations as He grew. He faced peer pressure as a teenager. Perhaps He was ostracised when He didn't sin. He grew in His ability to resist temptation - He learnt obedience through what He suffered. Mark 13:22 - with respect to His human nature, He did not know the time of His return.

He had human emotions and was deeply troubled at times (John 13:21, Matthew 26:38). There was a weight of sorrow that felt almost like it would take His life as He considered what was coming as He would bear the full wrath of God. He wept. Hebrews 5:7 - He had loud cries and tears!

He felt the needs of the world.

He seems to have experienced the death of a parent, and then had to support the family - so He knew what it was to be the head of a household, although He had no wife. He would have experienced financial and sexual temptations - for the Word says He was tempted in EVERY way we are.

He knew the pressure of having people asking Him to do more than He could - the crowds pressing around Him.

He knew physical frailty - presumably He had illnesses of various kinds as He grew up. He is not unable to sympathise with our weaknesses. He understands what I am facing today, what you are facing today.

Jesus was seen by the people near to Him to be just a man. People would say, "We have known Him for thirty years" (Matthew 13:55). The people were astounded that He was able to do what He did as they had no hint as He grew up that He was also God! Even His own brothers, who would have shared the same bedroom with Him, didn't realise that He was God and came to accuse Him of being mad!

Mary knew because she had been told by the angel who announced His birth that her son was also the Son of God.

He was without sin (Luke 4:14, John 8:29). "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." - Don't you wish you could say that? (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5)

He was truly tempted (Hebrews 5:8, Hebrews 2:18, Hebrews 4:15). There is a divine nature and a human nature, so He resisted in the strength of His human nature alone by trusting in God as we should.

Could he have sinned? His divine nature meant that He could not have sinned, but His human nature meant that the temptations were real. Grudem used the illustration of a swimmer who went across the Channel with a divine rescue boat, so could not have drowned, but in fact He didn't use the rescue boat and faced them with His human nature - the swim is none the less a real one!

Temptation is hardest for those who resist to the end - rather than for those who give in! Jesus' humanity is incredibly important to us - to represent us, to be our substitute sacrifice, to be our example, to be a sympathetic high priest, to be the mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5).

He will always be a man in heaven! (Matthew 26:29, Acts 1:11, Acts 7:56, Revelation 1:13). He will be a man like US!


The Deity of Christ - Jesus was Fully God

Direct scriptural claims - the word theos was used (John 1, John 20:28), and John wrote, "This is why I wrote this book." Romans 9:5, Titus 2, Hebrews 1:8, and 2 Peter 1. 7 are verses that use the word God of Him.

The word "lord" in the New Testament is also a claim to deity. It is the common word used in the Old Testament to refer to God. 6,814 times in the Greek translation it is used to refer to God. Over 200 times Jesus is called the Lord - e.g. Luke 2:11: He is the Messiah and the Lord. Prepare the way of the Lord means God is coming. "One lord, Jesus Christ."

Other strong claims to deity. "I am the bread of life." "I am the resurrection and the life." "I am the light of the world." No creature could claim that. John 8: "Before Abraham was I AM" - and they wanted to stone Him. It is exactly a word-for-word quotation from the Greek translation of the OT. He was claiming to be the same as the One who identified Himself to Moses. He eternally exists - not "I WAS," but rather "I ETERNALLY EXIST." "I am the way, the truth, and the life," "the alpha and omega." Hebrews 1 is the key chapter for His deity. God created the world through the Son. He is the exact imprint or representation of God! If the Father is omnipresent, so is the Son, and in every other respect. He continually upholds the universe. This boy growing up in a small house is continually upholding the universe by His word and power!

He knew the heart of everyone around Him - which suggests He was omniscient - "You know all things."

He is omnipresent - "When two or three gather, I am there." "I am with you always."

He is all-powerful - He said He would raise Himself from the dead (John 2:19).

The fullness of God dwelt in the man Jesus - Emanuel, God with us (Colossians 1:19, Colossians 2:9).

How do these two fit together?

This doesn't make sense! Many sceptics claim it is incomprehensible, incoherent, and a myth. Our response is, "Of course, we cannot understand." To deny the idea that Jesus is God in the flesh we have to deny that the Bible is trustworthy.

Don't let your lack of ability to understand cause you to reject the biblical truth. Jesus had to be divine to be the mediator and the substitute. We lose our salvation without the divinity of God. We need His deity to have Him reveal God to us and say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." There is only one way to God - through Jesus.

People have tried to explain how this could fit together. There are three inadequate views of which we need to be aware that are heretical, and which can also recur today if we don't warn against them.

1. Apollinarism. Jesus had a human body only, but His mind and spirit were divine. But our minds, spirits, and emotions also need saving. He could not have been tempted in every way, and would have been a hollow man like Mickey Mouse at Disney. It wasn't a real mouse, it was just a costume! Inside the mouse was some non-mouse stuff! Jesus was not just a shell.

2. Nestorianism. Christ was really two distinct persons in one body - like a circus horse where one man is the hind legs and one the front! They are not one horse! The gospels do not portray Jesus arguing with Himself like Gollum in Lord of the Rings! He always speaks of "I."

3. Monophysitism. Human and divine nature mingled together a bit like an ink drop in a glass of water. A third substance different from ink or water is formed - can't use it to drink or write with! So He was more than human but less than divine. BUT, He is no longer God and no longer man - you lose on both counts! He is no longer human, but superhuman, and He is no longer God, but sub-God.

The idea of a kenosis in Philippians 2 - Jesus emptying Himself can also make Christ less than fully divine on earth. But Philippians 2 does not mean that Jesus gave up His divine attributes. Don't give in to the heresy that came from this idea. He gave up His privileges of being in heaven, but NOT His divine attibutes.

The Chalcedon Creed has been accepted for centuries by all wings of the church. This is summarised as being two natures in one person. There are two overlapping natures - the divine and the human, neither of which are changed, but which overlap and function together as one person. Jesus wasn't always man - He was always God. The human nature was a full man who did not previously exist, but was joined in one person to God forever. How could God join Himself for all eternity to a human nature like our own? Jesus was the eternal omnipresent, omnipotent God who could also walk around and talk! People could touch God. We can talk to Him, too. God is fully man and fully God.

Grudem led the whole congregation in reading the Chalcedon creed:

Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul and a body.

He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted. Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.

We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten -- in two natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories, without con- trasting them according to area or function.

The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person" and in one reality. They are not divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers has handed down to us.

Practical Application of This

One nature of Jesus does some things that the other nature does not do. His human nature is no longer in the world, but His divine nature is still in the world - hence He could say, "I am leaving," but also "I will always be with you." Jesus could get tired humanly whilst remaining all-powerful. Matthew 8:24 - whilst He slept, He was also carrying the universe. He was tired. Wake up! Save us! He is stretching, opening His eyes, and says "peace be still". Jesus' human nature died, but His divine nature did not die for He was able to raise Himself from the dead. He was active in the resurrection.

How can Jesus learn things but be omniscient - He had two wills and two centres of consciousness - He could learn the human alphabet, but know all things. Yet He remains one person! J. I. Packer - perhaps Jesus had something like our experience of calling something to mind - we know something, but have to think about it to remember it. So, although He could only know at any one moment what the human brain could contain, He could call to mind any fact that is known in the universe.

Anything that either nature does, the person of Jesus does. Therefore, "before Abraham was I AM" even though it was His divine nature, or "I am leaving the world," even though the divine nature was not leaving, or how it is possible to say that the world crucified the Lord of Glory even though the divine nature did not actually die!

Dare I myself also add here that perhaps this may go some way to explain why Jesus could speak on the cross of being forsaken by his Father, and yet somehow the unity of the Trinity was not broken?

He will be God and man FOREVER. This is the most astounding miracle in the universe. EVERY KNEE WILL BOW TO THE CARPENTER OF NAZARETH! Who would you rather have as Lord and Savior?

Well, time flies. I can't believe it is now two weeks since I launched my challenge to blog through the T4G statement and I STILL haven�t posted my own first post! I get the feeling that this is all going to take awhile. Still, I do think the document is worthy of an extended examination � so it�s not too late for you to hop aboard. It is not as though I have forgotten T4G, however, as a quick look at my Together for the Gospel Round-up Post (which contains links to all my posts about the conference) will show!

It was also a delight to welcome to my blog last Monday, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who although he is dead, continues to speak. Last week it was as though he was joining us on this journey through the T4G statement as he explained why it is vital for us to consider doctrine � he could have been commenting on this introduction!

So, on to the statement. Let's begin with a look at the introduction.

We are brothers in Christ united in one great cause � to stand together for the Gospel. We are convinced that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been misrepresented, misunderstood, and marginalized in many churches and among many who claim the name of Christ. Compromise of the Gospel has led to the preaching of false gospels, the seduction of many minds and movements, and the weakening of the church�s Gospel witness.

As in previous moments of theological and spiritual crisis in the church, we believe that the answer to this confusion and compromise lies in a comprehensive recovery and reaffirmation of the Gospel � and in Christians banding together in Gospel churches that display God�s glory in this fallen world.

We are also brothers united in deep concern for the church and the Gospel. This concern is specifically addressed to certain trends within the church today.
We are concerned about the tendency of so many churches to substitute technique for truth, therapy for theology, and management for ministry.

We are also concerned that God�s glorious purpose for Christ�s church is often eclipsed in concern by so many other issues, programs, technologies, and priorities. Furthermore, confusion over crucial questions concerning the authority of the Bible, the meaning of the Gospel, and the nature of truth itself have gravely weakened the church in terms of its witness, its work, and its identity.

We stand together for the Gospel � and for a full and gladdening recovery of the Gospel in the church. We are convinced that such a recovery will be evident in the form of faithful Gospel churches, each bearing faithful witness to the glory of God and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

These first few paragraphs made me think of the following verses from Philippians 1:27-28:

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.

I think it is worth highlighting what this statement is NOT as far as I can tell:

• It is not a complete systematic theology or a statement of faith addressing every important issue to which the Bible speaks.




• It is not sufficient for a statement of faith or a doctrinal foundation for a church.




• It is not intended to identify people as Christians, and not dependent on whether they can sign the document.




• It is not (at least currently!) the foundation for a new organisation to complement or take the place of the modern denominations.




• It is not a creed which must be accepted by all Christians.




• It does not seek in itself to support each statement with Scripture.

So, what is this statement? As far as I can tell, this aims to be a joint declaration by the four friends who formed Together for the Gospel of some points about which they currently feel strongly.

The absence of certain points from the statement � e.g. church government, the role of the Holy Spirit, baptism � no doubt reflects areas about which these four guys still disagree rather than a statement that these things "don�t matter." Clearly in a local church congregation there are all kinds of additional things about which agreement needs to be reached that this collection of articles does not address.

If we see this as something like a letter to the modern church from these four guys, then we are most likely going to approach it correctly. The very fact that this �band of brothers� recognise the need to write something like this shows that previous statements of faith have not been sufficient to �protect� the doctrine of the wider church. In all honesty, I have a certain amount of concern about the use of statements of faith in any context other than as a helpful summary of what we believe. Some people put too much confidence in them as a guardian of doctrinal purity.

What we find is that with the classical statements of faith or creeds, those who wish to lead the church in a different direction theologically are not usually stopped by a statement of faith. Of course, some will sign a document and then deliberately undermine the vows that they took, but others don�t do that � instead they interpret around the issues they find difficult in the statement of faith. We have seen this in the UK where certain prominent �evangelicals� claim that the EA�s statement of faith does not exclude them despite the fact that they disagree with substitutionary atonement!

We have already seen across the internet that the document we are examining is capable of being misinterpreted. Let�s be careful that we do not invest too much faith in any such document. It is significant that God never left us with a complete doctrinal statement of faith in the Bible. What keeps the Gospel safe? I would argue two things predominantly - firstly an appropriate humble attitude to the Bible itself, and secondly, the presence within the church of men like Mahaney, Dever, Mohler, and Duncan (and many others today) who preserve the apostolic foundation of doctrine through their teaching and direction of their own churches and those in relationship with them. Thus, for me, churches are built on people more than they are on pieces of paper.

So, with all these caveats, let�s take this statement as a helpful tool whereby we can discuss some of the issues raised within it. I do believe it is crafted in such a way that it brings to the fore many of the issues facing the wider church right now. It is, however, in our discussion of these articles, and more than that, in our preaching of some of these issues, that the church will be preserved rather than merely the existence of such a piece of paper.

The introduction of the statement speaks of standing for the Gospel. This is clearly a biblical concept, for the Bible is clear that there are those who will arise and pervert the true standard of treatment. I do have two slight areas of concern about this concept, however.

• Standing for the Gospel must never take the place of proclaiming it.

It strikes me that some who read this introduction may become downcast at the state of the church and anxious that it is on the back foot. I am convinced (as I am sure are the T4G guys) that we need to go on the offensive as churches. Rather than worrying about what is happening in the church, our responsibility is to preach this Gospel and see many saved and coming to a clear understanding of the truth. As helpful as a statement like this is, I am convinced that its authors would agree that it is vital that it does not lead us to fix our eyes exclusively on the �fight� within the church rather than on taking the Gospel to the lost.

• Where are we called to stand for the Gospel?

I guess because of their position of influence as a group of men in areas of significant leadership in the American evangelical church these men feel the burden of the state of drift of the whole church. I'm just not quite sure that such a concern is as valid for someone like me in my role in supporting the leadership of my local church.

It is right for us to stand for the Gospel. I am, at least personally anyway, not so concerned about even attempting to fight for it either in the wider church or in the cultural context. I think it is important for us to recognise that at least as far as the wider context is concerned the battle is already lost. What do I mean? Well, we cannot expect that every group of people who call themselves a church will believe the Gospel any more than we can expect the average unbeliever on the street to believe. Many groups which hold the name �church� have long since deserted any real understanding of the Christian message. Can such institutions be saved?

For me, at least, I feel the focus of my standing for the Gospel should be in my own local church. I am totally committed to supporting the elders in their role in making sure that anti-Gospel tendencies do not arise within our congregation. I am also keen that we continue as a local church to be a part of a family of churches that is true to the Gospel. Beyond that, I try not to worry myself too much about what is going on in the rest of the wider church. I am sure that it is right for the T4G guys to fight some of these battles; I'm just cautious that we little local guys should not get too concerned with these big movements in the church as a whole.

I am not convinced we can stop the tide that has led to the current state of affairs where the �Gospel of Jesus Christ has been misrepresented, misunderstood, and marginalized in many churches and among many who claim the name of Christ. Compromise of the Gospel has led to the preaching of false gospels, the seduction of many minds and movements, and the weakening of the church�s Gospel witness.�

Maybe because (with the exception of Mahaney) each of these guys are part of denominations where battles over the Gospel rage furiously, they raise this as a massive issue for them. I tend to support the views of both Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones - where there is rejection of the Gospel that has gripped an entire movement, it is time for God-honouring Christians to leave that movement. I am convinced that many of our denominations are already past saving. Like Lloyd-Jones, I do not advocate merely forming a new denomination modeled on the old institutions, however � something else is called for.

What then is the answer to the problems we face today? I agree with the writers of the T4G statement that �We are convinced that such a recovery will be evident in the form of faithful Gospel churches, each bearing faithful witness to the glory of God and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ�. There is no "Plan B". It is in the local church that the hope for the lost exists. I believe that rather than formal denominations, informal associations of churches that gather around gifted individuals like a Mahaney, or for that matter, a Driscoll, are the way forward. I rely on the Spirit and the Word to summon forth leaders who can stand for the Gospel and craft out Gospel-faithful families of churches. I, for one, would rather throw my life into helping in one such local church and its circle of relationships with other churches and allow the storms of theological warfare to rage around us whilst locally we know the peace that comes from simply standing on God�s Word.

This post has grown too long already. There isn�t time for me to address here the areas of controversy that Dave Warnock has raised, but I am confident that most of these areas will arise again as we work our way through the statement, article by article. I certainly appreciate him for providing a clear statement of his concerns about the statement � one of the delights of blogging is that we get to interact with real people who disagree with us rather than straw men of our own making. I suspect that what some disparagingly call the �Warnock Wars� will continue for some time to come since David, like me, seems determined to at least disagree with grace.

It is not too late for you to join us in our journey through these statements. Even this introduction has massive potential for controversy as Dave Warnock has shown us in five posts on the T4G introduction. Remember a link to this post and some discussion on your blog about it could win you a free copy of John Piper�s God is the Gospel.

In quite possibly his best post ever entitled, Women in Church and the Power Paradigm, David Wayne contends that Christianity does have a kind of hierarchical view of the role relationships between men and women in the church/home, but that this view does not imply that women are oppressed in Christianity.

I just had to share some quotes with you:

So, for Keller, this means we need to spell it all out into three ways of living - the irreligious way, the religious way, and the Gospel way. The Bible presents the Gospel as the antidote to irreligion and religion.

I think this paradigm can help us in understanding the issue of the relationship between men and women.

The irreligious view on Christianity's oppression of women would be that it does indeed oppress women and women need to be liberated so that they can at least share power in the church with men.

A religionist view would be that the Bible spells out a hierarchy of male and female, that God has ordained men to be leaders in the church, and that those who disagree simply need to submit to the Word of God and deal with it . . .

In saying that there is a third way, a Gospel way, I don't want to suggest that there is some kind of Hegelian synthesis to be had. But I do think the Gospel can speak to people on both sides of the divide.

First of all, the Gospel challenges the power paradigm which may underlie the whole thing. In many ways, the dispute here is over the distribution of power, with one side demanding equal distribution of power and one side demanding a hierarchical view of power.

Yet, the Gospel challenges the notion that God moves through the exercise of (human) power. God's greatest move, in securing our redemption, involved an emptying of power, a humiliation, an act of obedience, a submssion to oppression - see Philippians 2. The cross displayed God's glory through Jesus' sacrifice . . .

It is true that leadership implies calling the shots, but I bring all of this up to point out that leaders are only worthy to "call the shots" if they understand their position is one of service and sacrifice. Indeed, this is what Philippians 2 is all about as it shows us Jesus as model. We lead like Christ led when we see others as better than ourselves and consider their needs to be more important than our own.

So, a Gospel orientation would lead us to see the Church as a place where women are called to submit to male leaders who are called to be their servants (as well as everyone else's servants).

This won't answer all the objections of the irreligious, but it could at least help bust up their cultural ideas of leadership as power leading to oppression mindset.

Similarly, the Gospel orientation would speak to religious folks who have an authority fixation and who don't understand the sacrificial character of leadership.

Scotty Smith says that pastors are to be the leaders in weakness, humility and repentance. All male leaders could then examine their own hearts and repent where they have been motivated more by a desire to give direction than to render service.

(tags: complementarianism feminism jollyblogger)

In this week's MLJ Monday post, Dr. Lloyd-Jones addresses some final questions regarding the sealing. Next week, in our concluding post on this subject, I will share from the pages of Iain Murray's biography, one of the Doctor's own experiences - an experience of which he never spoke publically, and only seldom in private, but which I feel will be a great encouragement to you as a reader of this blog.
Today, the Doctor begins his final exposition of Ephesians 1:13 in this way:
"All who have ever written about the experience of the sealing of the Spirit are agreed in saying that it is very difficult to describe it in words. There is something about it which baffles description . . . There is almost a secret about it. But any man who has ever known it, even to the slightest and the faintest extent, will agree that there is nothing which he has ever known that is in any way comparable to it . . . In love, even human love, there is always an element which cannot be put into words. It is much more so with this, because it is an experience of God's love, and in turn of our love going out to Him! We love Him because He first loved us, and there is something almost inexpressible about the experience. Yet it is the most real thing that can ever happen to us."
The Doctor now attempts to answer the following questions which may still remain in the minds of his readers:
1. Did all the first Christians have this experience?
2. Is this experience meant for every Christian?
3. Are we to seek this sealing?
Because more than half o