No Vain Display

The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.

― Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation

Brothers of All

And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form. Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Scandalized

The incarnation is a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers… Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.

― Frederick Buechner, Faces of Jesus

The Mind-Boggling Fact

The virgin birth has never been a major stumbling block in my struggle with Christianity; it’s far less mind-boggling than the Power of all Creation stooping so low as to become one of us.

— Madeleine L’Engle, A Stone for a Pillow

The Central Miracle

The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion—an invasion which intends complete conquest and “occupation.” The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of them in isolation from it is futile.

—C.S. Lewis, Miracles

The Power of Imitation

Never underestimate the power of learning how to think right - The Missing Strand in Much of Our Discipleship by Trevin Wax:

If you are a disciple-maker, you should want people to think like you.

I realize that statement may come across as counter-cultural in our day. In our society, we praise non-conformity and consider expressing one’s own unique essence to be the purpose of life.

To say you want people to think like you is to cramp their style and squelch their originality. It is “indoctrination” in the negative sense of the word, a way of rubber-stamping your identity onto someone else instead of letting their uniqueness shine through.

But here, I’m afraid the non-conformist impulse in our culture clouds our vision so that we are unable to see a very important aspect of disciple-making.

Followers of Jesus are to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, demonstrate the mind of Christ, and discern, with biblical wisdom and guided by the Spirit, what it means to live faithfully in the 21st century. It follows, then, that our responsibility to those we disciple includes an element of getting them to reason a certain way.

3 Strands of Disciple-Making

1. Informing – What We Believe

Part of disciple-making is helping people understand what they believe. It includes the inculcation of information, the teaching of biblical facts and Christian doctrines.

2. Instructing – What We Do

Another part of disciple-making is helping people adopt the practices that make up the Christian life. We walk alongside others, modeling for them what it looks like to live the way of Christ.

3. Imitating – How We Reason

But there’s a third part of disciple-making that is necessary, something a full-orbed vision of “imitation” gives us. This strand refers to helping people reason like Christians who have been formed by “what we believe” and “what we do.” The imitation of reasoning is especially needed on issues where clear instructions are not present in Scripture.

The Missing Strand

If you only focus on the first two elements (informing and instructing), then you wind up with people who are not fully equipped to respond to the conundrums they encounter in life.

What does your disciple do when he or she confronts an issue that isn’t resolved by the checklist of doctrines to believe, or the common practices of the Christian life?
Here is where your disciple needs biblical wisdom. The information of Bible doctrine and the instructions of Christian practice aren’t enough. Discernment is required. The believer must apply the wisdom of Scripture to a new situation and discern the way forward.

When the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians to imitate him, he was not telling them to join him on his missionary journeys. The context for his command comes within a section of the letter in which he was applying biblical wisdom to a new situation. Apparently, one of Paul’s goals was to help his disciples reason the way he did.

When Paul called others to imitate his Christian walk, he was saying more than simply “Take the same steps I do.” Paul wanted the people to follow the same reasoning process that led him to such actions. In this context, “Follow me as I follow Christ” means more than “do what I do.” It also means “think like I think, so you can reason with me to the same outcome of wise and faithful living.”

The Need for Biblical Reasoning

So, back to the statement I kicked off this article with: Disciple-makers should want their disciples to think the way they do. It’s not enough to hope that they will believe the same things, or behave the same way; we want to see them reason forward as Christians.
Inculcating Christian doctrine and imitating Christian behavior only takes you so far. If that is all you strive for in discipleship, you may wind up with mindless mimicry instead of thoughtful imitation.

Discipleship includes helping people learn the “mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5). The mind of Christ helps us to respond to new circumstances with the humility and wisdom of the Savior who indwells us by His Spirit.

Imitation in the Christian life includes the cultivation of wisdom from within a biblical framework, wisdom that leads to the right decisions when the circumstances are difficult. Passing on the capability of wise reflection is an important aspect of discipleship. Ignoring this responsibility is disastrous for the future of the church.

The Possibility of Fundamental Change

You Are Not Enslaved To Your Past by John Piper

Christianity means change is possible. Deep, fundamental change. It is possible to become tender-hearted when once you were callous and insensitive. It is possible to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger. It is possible to become a loving person no matter what your background has been.

The Bible assumes that God is the decisive factor in making us what we should be. With wonderful bluntness the Bible says, “Put away malice and be tenderhearted.” It does not say, “If you can . . . ” Or: “If your parents were tender-hearted to you . . . ” Or: “If you weren’t terribly wronged or abused . . . ” It says, “Be tender-hearted.”

This is wonderfully freeing. It frees us from the terrible fatalism that says change is impossible. It frees us from mechanistic views that make our backgrounds our destinies.

If I were in prison and Jesus walked into my cell and said, “Leave this place tonight,” I might be stunned, but if I trusted his goodness and power, I would feel a rush of hope that freedom is possible. If he commands it, he can accomplish it.

If it is night and the storm is raging and the waves are breaking high over the pier, and the Lord comes to me and says, “Set sail tomorrow morning,” there is a burst of hope in the dark. He is God. He knows what he is doing. His commands are not throw-away words.

His commands always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe. For example: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other [that’s the command], just as God in Christ also has forgiven you [that’s the life-changing truth]. Therefore be imitators of God [command], as beloved children [life-changing truth]; and walk in love [command], just as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma [life-changing truth]” (Ephesians 4:32–5:2).

There is life-changing power in the truths of this text. Ponder them with me as you pray for that power to change you.

1. God adopted us as his children.

We have a new Father and a new family. This breaks the fatalistic forces of our “family of origin.” “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, he who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9).

I once heard a young man quote Hebrews 12:10–11 with tears of deep conviction and great joy because they assured him that he was not doomed to think of God in terms of his abusive earthly father: “They [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

They did this . . . but he does that. This is a life-changing truth. We can know it, believe it, and be changed by it, no matter what kind of earthly fathers we have. God reveals himself in his word to revolutionize our thinking about his fatherhood. We are not cursed to think in the old categories if our upbringing was defective.

2. God loves us as his children.

We are “loved children.” The command to imitate the love of God does not hang in the air; it comes with power: “Be imitators of God as loved children.” “Love!” is the command and “being loved” is the power.

3. God has forgiven us in Christ.

Be tender-hearted and forgiving just as God in Christ forgave you. What God did for us becomes the power to change. He forgave us. That opens a relationship of love and a future of hope. And does not tender-heartedness flow from a heart overwhelmed with being loved undeservedly and being secured eternally? The command to be tender-hearted has more to do with what God has done for you than what your mother or father did to you. You are not enslaved to your past.

4. Christ loved you and gave himself up for you.

“Walk in love just as Christ loved you.” The command to walk in love comes with life-changing truth that we are loved. At the moment when there is a chance to love, and some voice says, “You are not a loving person,” you can say, “Christ’s love for me makes me a new kind of person. His command to love is just as surely possible for me as his promise of love is true for me.”

My plea is that you resist fatalism with all your might. No, with all God’s might. Change is possible. Pursue it until you are perfected at the coming of Christ.

The Test of Disappointment

For those undergoing disappointment (in other words EVERYBODY) Please check out When God Leaves You Waiting: How God Uses Disappointment to Test Us by Joshua Roberie at Relevant:

Have you ever noticed how you have to set an appointment whenever you want to see a doctor, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the doctor is going to keep it? You may be on time, but left in the waiting room wondering if it is the doctor that has the scheduled mixed up.

In those situations, the waiting room can be more painful than the actual time spent with the doctor.

I have had similar feelings in my relationship with God. I know it may sound like a lack of faith to say so, but to be honest, there have been times when I felt like I was on time, but God missed His appointment with me.

Maybe you can relate.

During the season that I stopped working in full-time ministry, I seemed to have a number of “missed appointments” with God. The first was when we found out that my wife’s dad had cancer just as we were making that transition. Shortly after that, my father-in-law went to heaven.

As painful as all of this was, we know God used this season to transform our hearts, character and understanding of His faithfulness.

The second “where were you God?” moment was when our house wouldn’t sell. We ended up leasing our home and moving out on the day of our fifth anniversary. We wouldn’t have a place of our own for another two years. In fact, over three years later, we still don’t have a house.

So many “missed appointments” became disappointments during this time of our lives. The thing is, as painful as all of this was, we know God used this season to transform our hearts, character and understanding of His faithfulness.

This doesn’t mean God causes or initiates the problems in our lives. He is not looking to bring loss and suffering in order to teach us to appreciate His blessing. It’s just that He is so good and merciful, that even our darkest moments can highlight His love and faithfulness when our hope is placed in Him.

Have you ever felt like you were in God’s waiting room for an appointment that He missed in your life? Maybe you thought things would go one way, but they ended up going another. You may have thought, “If God would have done His part, then things would be different.”

Having these types of thoughts and emotions can leave you frustrated, doubtful and even feeling guilty. But God is not afraid of these types of feelings or questions. If He were, why would He include so many similar examples in the Bible?

Our part is to not figure out His path for us, but to trust Him while we’re on it.

Mary and Martha thought Jesus had missed His appointment with Lazarus. Jesus’ friend, and their brother, had died. If only Jesus had been there, none of this would have happened. He had healed and helped others. He certainly could have done the same for a close friend.

Once He finally arrived, it seemed too late. Only it wasn’t. A few days later, after their “missed appointment,” Jesus rolled the stone of their frustration, doubt and grief away.
Then out came Lazarus, and God received the glory for raising the dead.

Sometimes what God does in the waiting room of our lives is more important for our future than what we hoped He would have done in one of our “missed appointments.” Our part is to not figure out His path for us, but to trust Him while we’re on it.

The waiting room where God performs heart surgery is normally not a physical place, but a lingering season that follows a disappointment. These situations often leave us with only a few tough options. We can focus on regret, run away from our problems by ignoring them, or we can look forward to the resurrection that is going to take place in our lives.

We will never have the opportunity to cross the bridge of hope without a valley of doubt underneath. Faith is not ignoring the valley or refusing to cross; it is trusting the bridge God has placed before us.

Humble Theology

There can be no such thing as a truly Christian thinker who is not humble. I loved this piece from The Gospel Coalition - Theology Is For the Humble by Brandon Smith

Christians need theology like we need to breathe. And like breathing, it’s so integral to who we are that we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We can’t avoid theology, nor should we. Without theology, our faith is a corpse.

Not every Christian is a professional theologian teaching in the classroom or from the pulpit. But every Christian does theology. Theology, simply put, is attempting to explain and tie together truths mined from Scripture. Any time we make statements about truths from Scripture (Jesus is the Messiah; God is sovereign; humanity is sinful; salvation is by faith alone; etc.) we do theology.

According to the Bible, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). In order to be saved—to truly live—theology must be involved. It’s unavoidable.

In the oldie-but-goodie Doing Theology in Today’s World, J. I. Packer writes an essay on the importance of doing theology with humility, quoting Martin Luther at length. Here’s just a snippet of Luther’s points:

"Firstly, you should know that the Holy Scriptures constitute a book that turns the wisdom of all other books into foolishness. Secondly, take care that you do not grow weary or think that you have done enough when you have read, heard, and spoken [the Bible’s words] once or twice, and that you then have complete understanding. Thirdly, [learn] not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is, wisdom beyond all wisdom.
Working at a Bible college for three years and spending seven years (so far) as a student in biblical and theological training, it’s always said that doing theology is a humble person’s task. Pride puffs up, leaving the theologian with nothing but Spirit-less fodder for intramural debates. Humility, on the other hand, allows for God-exaltation to happen in one’s life and work."

As a person grows in knowledge of Scripture, pride creeps into our hearts like a quiet mouse in a dark kitchen looking for a feast. We want to be right and to show others we’re right, and so we begin to forget that none of this is about us. We forget that the only reason we can even attempt theology is because God graciously revealed himself to us. And if we don’t turn on the light of the gospel and remind ourselves of God’s glory and beauty, pride will set up shop in our hearts for an extended stay. Theology will become about us.

Learning God-Talk

Theology literally means words about God. God-talk. So doing theology is no small thing! We’re attempting to describe the character, acts, and will of an infinite, perfect being with our own finite, imperfect language. So in order to even attempt doing theology humbly, let me encourage you to consider three things.

1. There is no such thing as a presupposition-free theology.

We all bring contextual baggage to the text, interpreting through particular lenses and with predetermined biases. We do all we can to be objective, but we must understand that we don’t read the Bible in a vacuum. This means we need to be aware of and honest about our blind spots.

2. There is no such thing as a perfect theology.

Nobody, nowhere has it all figured out. The reason there are seemingly endless theological systems and nuances is because nobody’s theology is inerrant. The mantra “always reforming” should be actually true for us. This means we should always be willing to be wrong and to learn from others, since we’ll never “arrive.”

3. There is no such thing as a “personal” theology.

Theology is not kept to ourselves and shouldn’t be kept to ourselves. First of all, our words and actions reflect our theology. Good theology creates good ethics. You can’t hide bad theology. Second, if theology is about God, then it should be shared. As ministers of reconciliation, messengers of good news, we shouldn’t hide our theology under a bowl. Rather, our theology should convict and drive us toward a lived-out faith. This means we need to be careful what we believe and how we speak as we imperfectly point toward the perfect One.

Sharing the Gift

Every Christian should care about theology. Doing theology is seeking to know and love God better, and using that knowledge to know and love others better. When we tell someone, “You are a sinner, but Christ loves you and died for you,” we should do so humbly. Christ has been gracious to involve us in his mission, not only exhorting us to “go” but promising he “will be with us always, until the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19–20).
We didn’t invent theology—we don’t own it. We don’t deserve theology—we receive it as a gift. We don’t hoard theology—we share it.

Man's Maker Made Man

AUGUSTINE ON THE INCARNATION

Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.

– Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)