...The love of human beings is fundamentally reactive: the lover sees something intrinsically lovely in the beloved which draws out his love towards her; her loveliness precedes and indeed causes the love of the lover. That is how the theologian of glory thinks of God's love: I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other men....
The God of the cross, however, is far different. He delights in setting his love on the unlovely and thereby making them lovely. That is the logic of 1 Corinthians 1: the church, built in the midst of a port town, undoubtedly contained a high proportion of those who would have been regarded as the scum of the earth - the poor, the weak, former prostitutes, the sexually profligate; yet God chose these, the things that are not, to shame the things that are. The logic of the cross itself is manifested in the fact that God's love is no respecter of persons as society respects persons; God delights rather in loving those that are most despised.
Again, this is a word both of grace and of judgment on the contemporary church. Of grace, because it reminds us of God's promise that He - He and not we - will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against her. Only a God of the cross and of creative love can make and keep such a promise. Surely there is nothing greater that can give us confidence than the thought that it is ultimately God who gives the increase.
At the heart of this new theology was the notion that God reveals himself under his opposite; or, to express this another way, God achieves his intended purposes by doing the exact opposite of that which humans might expect. The supreme example of this is the cross itself: God triumphs over sin and evil by allowing sin and evil to triumph (apparently) over him. His real strength is demonstrated through apparent weakness. This was the way a theologian of the cross thought about God.
The opposite to this was the theologian of glory. In simple terms, the theologian of glory assumed that there was basic continuity between the way the world is and the way God is: if strength is demonstrated through raw power on earth, then God's strength must be the same, only extended to infinity. To such a theologian, the cross is simply foolishness, a piece of nonsense.
Now, some will respond: But the theology of the cross has not been forgotten; it is often talked about and discussed and even preached. But here's the rub: in the Heidelberg Disputation Luther actually refers not to a theology of the cross but to theologians of the cross, underscoring the idea that he is not talking about some abstract theological technique or process but rather a personal, existential, real way that real flesh-and-blood theologians thought about, and related to, God. A person's theology, whether true or false, good or bad, is inseparable from the individual's personal faith.
It was October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg. Outraged by the church's practice of selling indulgences as a means of forgiveness, Luther wrote the theses in protest. He argued that forgiveness was a gift of God freely given, and the church was wrong to profit from such sales.Did I mention that it is FREE?!!!
Word of Luther's challenge to the church quickly spread through Europe and his Ninety-Five Theses are considered to be the genesis of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that forever changed the church. October 31 is observed by many as Reformation Day, in recognition of Luther's work.
In honor of Martin Luther, we are pleased to offer Martin Luther: In His Own Words as a FREE audiobook download through October 31. This title is a compilation of many of Luther's most important writings, including the Ninety-Five Theses and six other works.
In my opinion, Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope, by Trevin Wax, represents the best kind of thinking and presentation that evangelicalism has to offer the broader church today at a level that pastors and serious laypeople can appreciate and find useful.
It is written in simple, clear language, yet represents solid, informed thinking.
It is well-organized into a presentation that is readily understandable, logical, sensible, and easy to teach.
It communicates a clear perspective and strong convictions, yet does so in a gracious and winsome manner.
I really want to read this book1It interacts well, not only with the New Reformed doctrinal positions that the author clearly sympathizes with, but also with many ideas and trends in other contemporary evangelical movements.
It remains tightly focused on problems inherent in today’s evangelicalism. It does not deal with other questions that might be asked regarding corruptions of the Gospel in the broader Christian family, but this allows Wax keep his diagnostic and prescriptive energies pinpointed on his target audience without trying to do too much.
The "but also" is an and, not an or.
The gospel is a word, a message, an item of news about something that happened. It comes in word. It comes as more than word, but certainly not less.
The gospel comes in word and takes hold of some in power, by the grace of God through the power of the Spirit.
The Church historically has fallen for equal and opposite errors in regard to the gospel and its power.
Some know the gospel is word but don’t think it’s power, so we try hard to manipulate people to make decisions. Thus additional verses of "Just As I Am," emotional pleas for raised hands, impulse-tugging scare tactics. We believe someone's decision for Christ hinges on our effectiveness in the invitation.
Some know the gospel is power and so become stingy with the gospel as word, so they abdicate responsibility to share the word. They figure since election is true, God will take care of saving people apart from mission.
Both overreactions are wrong; both ignore Scripture and even disobey it. The gospel comes in word and power. Let’s be faithful in our role and trust God to be faithful in his.
Where would you say the place for gifts like tongues, healing and prophecy is in the life of the church today?
I will tell you what I do, whether it is the right thing or not. I'm not going to die on this hill, but I will tell you what I do.
I think that these kind of gifts are most effectively and appropriately ministered in smaller groups rather than on Sunday morning. Sunday morning meaning the large gathered body of lots of people with lots of strangers and the need for some kind of movement in the service, rather than the whole thing being devoted to individual expressions.
So when I think of trying to do whatever elements of 1 Corinthians 12:13-14 are appropriate for today, I would want my people to know that I believe in those things and that I want them to flourish in those things.
I think that we should, spontaneously in relationships and especially in smaller groups, take the time to ask people, "Did you bring anything from the Lord tonight that you think we need to hear?" You could use whatever language you want. You could say, "Do you have a word of knowledge for us. Do you have a word of prophecy?" And If you are scared to use that kind of language you could say, "Has God impressed upon you in some way something that you think another person in this room, or all of us, need to hear from your walk with God?" And open yourself up to that.At the link aboe there is video of him saying this.
Someone might say something that just penetrates right through to the core of another person. Or maybe they will minister a healing, or whatever. So, that is my answer.
Now I know that there are groups today—reformed groups—that try to fold certain prophetic elements into Sunday morning. They have a little microphone at the front where people can come up, and they have an elder or two standing there. The words that people want to share are first tested by one of the elders who judge whether the Scripture they are going to read or the poem they are going to read or the word they are going to deliver is appropriate. And while there is music playing in the background, during the interlude in between songs, the person can give whatever they are going to give at the microphone in front. And where this is done I've seen it done with decency and order the way Paul would like. But we've never gone that route at Bethlehem.
Dustin Neeley wrote a great piece entitled Justification by Theology. In it he reminds us that Satan can deceive us by helping us fall more in love with our theological systems than with our Savior. For us Calvinists, here are some warning signs, the root cause of which is not new at all, it's pride.Thanks for the warning, Rick! As Dustin Neely said at the source post:
Why do we fall for it? Many reasons but
- If there is a disagreement, we defend Calvinism before we seek unity in the Gospel.
- When asked to describe our theology, we define ourselves as a Calvinist more quickly than as a Christian.
- And perhaps the worst of all...when our hearts are more captivated by the points of TULIP than with the person and work of Jesus.
the cure is the same:
- Repent of theological idolatry
- Believe the gospel is enough
- Be on guard in the future (1 Cor 8.1
and therefore engage the humility of Christ in Philippians 2)
While theology is a great thing, it is not an ultimate thing. It is a means to an end to know God and make him known. In what ways have you made it an ultimate thing? Confess them to God. Claim gospel promises. Ask God to help you not make a means an end.
I have been around long enough to know that there are seasons when the Holy Spirit is over attended to. And there also are seasons when he is under attended to.
If you are asking me about right now, I would say that he is probably under attended to somewhere. Maybe in young, reformed and restless circles—or whatever this movement is called. Especially as it concerns the fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit. Not his role in effectual calling, but his gifts. His necessity for powerful witness. 'Wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you... You will receive the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses.' So maybe we are underemphasizing the necessity and the power of the Holy Spirit for witnessing.
Also, I was just thinking the other day that we downplay the work of Holy Spirit in terms of his varied gifts. This is underemphasized too much in our reformed churches, and in typical evangelical churches.
Here is an illustration. If you've been praying for a person, or maybe even for yourself, to be delivered from a sin or sickness. And if that moral or physical issue hasn't yielded to your prayer for years, but you still struggle from the moral or physical ailment, there are a few things to consider......
....Here's what hit me the other day. If there are gifts of healing. If there are gifts of faith, gifts of miracles, gifts of discernment. That means some Christians are going to be granted answers to those prayers where others aren't. So maybe the reason I'm not getting the answer to my moral struggle or my physical struggle is because I haven't asked Jane to pray for me. And Jane has the gift of healing. Or Jane has the gift of discernment of spirits and can see something here that needs to be seen.
What does it mean to be a Protestant? These are five of the major teachings of the reformers by which they distinguished their beliefs from those of the Roman Catholic church of their day. I affirm all five of these beliefs because I think they reflect the Bible’s teaching:
1. Sola Scriptura – “The Bible alone.” Scripture alone speaks authoritatively, and it speaks to all believers, independently of church leaders and councils, human interpreters and so-called spokesmen for God.Good stuff to know.
2. Sola Gratia – “Grace alone.” It is only by the unmerited favor of God that Christ went to the cross and paid the price for man’s salvation. Man is by nature depraved—he has no virtue that commends him to God. Therefore God’s grace to him is truly undeserved and amazing, and God’s grace alone has the power to draw people to himself.
3. Sola Fide – “Faith alone.” Only total righteousness is acceptable to God, and that is found in Christ, not us. Man can only accept Christ’s work by placing his trust in him. Man is justified by faith alone in the finished work of Christ, not by any works of his own.
4. Sola Christus – “Christ alone.” Salvation is accomplished by Christ alone, and mediated by Christ alone—not by angels, saints, relics, sacraments, priests, teachers, churches, or anyone or anything else. Christ alone was the perfect Savior, and he alone is the perfect prophet, priest and king.
5. Soli Deo Gloria – “To God alone be glory.” God should be thanked, praised and given full credit for his sovereign grace and spiritual and physical provision. Theology should be God-centered, not man-centered. God should be put in his place and humans in theirs. Our efforts should not elevate and celebrate men but God. We should bring him glory in our work, in our homes and at play. He, not we, should be the center of all things.
Below is more great stuff on Luther and his radical message of grace from Timothy Dalrymple's series at Parchment and Pen. (The picture to the right is entitled "Lord Save Me" based on the Gospel story of Peter and Jesus walking on the water. As the quote below shows, we really do need Jesus to save us!)"Sin, as Luther came to understand it, is “radical,” and like a twisted root it perverts everything that flows from it. Sin is, at its heart, an attempt to establish our own righteousness before God. As Luther writes in his justification for this thesis, “To trust in works, which one ought to do in fear, is equivalent to giving oneself the honor and taking it from God, to whom fear is due in connection with every work. But this is completely wrong, namely to please oneself, to enjoy oneself in one’s works, and toadore oneself as an idol.”
The problem is not that we sin; it is that we are sinners, that we are corrupted through and through with selfishness and pride. Even when we do things that might be perceived by the world as ethical and right, we do them in sin, in a sinful bid to justify ourselves before God. The righteous can only act righteously by depending upon God and remaining constantly aware that their own actions do not make them righteous, but they are righteous solely through God’s grace in Christ.
Yet this will not be the end of the story. Although Luther came to a profound sense of sin, his sense of God’s grace, not coincidentally, was equally profound."
"So, my Reformed friends, let's not only read 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (that is, John Calvin, John MacArthur, and John Piper), let's go plant some more churches. My emerging church friends, let's take a pause from the theological rethink and head into the neighborhood and to tell someone about Jesus. My missional friends, let's speak of justice, but always tell others how God can be both 'just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.' My house church friends, let's have community, but let's be sure it is focused on redemption. My Baptist friends, let's focus more on convincing pagans than Presbyterians. And, my charismatic friends, let's focus less on getting existing believers to speak in tongues and more on using our tongue to tell others about Jesus.Well, I haven't read any of the "Johns'" but do fall somewhat in the Reformed tribe. I also fit in the charismatic camp, and grew up and was educated in the Baptist denomination. I've even been in a house church, and I've read some of the emerging books. And I think he is right- Our true call is to bring people to Jesus, not to just shuffle people around among our tribes.
Now, I know the preceding paragraph will tick some of you off--and, I am trying to be a bit edgy while making a point. But, let me suggest you be less offended at my words and more focused on Jesus' words: Go therefore and make disciples of nations.
If you are passionate about what you believe you will naturally want others to 'get it' as you have. For example, you would not be a very good charismatic if you did not want me to be baptized in the Spirit. However, I think it is unhelpful that so many Reformed, emerging, missional, denominational, Baptist, house church, charismatic, and every other kind of Christian spends more energy persuading other believers than they do reaching non-believers."
Funny what you can do with a little imagination.You’re saying that preaching doctrine leads to spiritual growth. Actually, I would say that preaching doctrine can lead to spiritual growth. But I think it’s a big mistake to assume that people will necessarily love and follow Jesus just because we preach sound doctrine. People’s hearts have to be touched. As I like to say, there’s a big difference between knowing that honey is sweet because you’ve read about honey in a book and experiencing the sweetness of honey by tasting it for yourself. The Devil has sound doctrine, and it hasn’t done him any good. We should help our congregations taste the sweetness of God. That’s when transformation happens.
Actually, I favor both knowing about the honey and tasting it! Truth and experience: What God has joined together, let not man put asunder!
A lot of stuff is being written (good and bad) about reformer John Calvin this year on the 500th anniversary of his birth. Some interesting tidbits in Ben Witherington's article at Christianity Today on John Calvin as Man of the Bible:"John Calvin was one of the truly great Christian exegetes and, indeed, systematic theologians of all time—never mind that I disagree with a great deal of what he has to say about God, his sovereignty, the nature of his grace, and election, predestination, and human freedom.This is a nice appreciation coming from a respected theologian who is not a Calvinist. Dr. Witherington is the Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary- a Wesleyan school - and a self proclaimed Arminian in his theology.
...he is to be respected for understanding that biblical theology can only be done on the basis of a detailed and comprehensive exegesis of all the relevant material. This is precisely what I have tried to do in my career. I needed to follow Calvin's lead and begin by researching and writing commentaries on the entire New Testament corpus. Exegesis is the basis for all good biblical theology, and the latter should not be attempted without first doing the former."
"I have fond memories of working carefully through Calvin's Institutes for the first time, and being especially surprised by and taken with his profound theology of the Holy Spirit. I remember reading in Gordon-Conwell's newspaper a rather interesting historical curio from a letter of Calvin about how one morning he woke up and found himself speaking in lingua barbaria. The article went on to speculate that Calvin may have spoken in tongues!"Okay, that's a new one on me. Who'd a thunk it!
"All in all, Calvin lived out Bengel's maxim: Apply the whole of the text (of the Bible) to yourself. And apply the whole of yourself to the text. It's a motto by which any Christian should be proud to live."Agreed: that's a good motto for any believer. Think I'll adopt it as mine.
- Old Calvinism was fundamental or liberal and separated from or syncretized with culture. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
- Old Calvinism fled from the cities. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
- Old Calvinism was cessationistic and fearful of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. New Calvinism is continuationist and joyful in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
- Old Calvinism was fearful and suspicious of other Christians and burned bridges. New Calvinism loves all Christians and builds bridges between them.
If we would understand the Gospels, we would be wise to understand that the good news they were reporting was the good news proclaimed not just about Jesus, but by Jesus. The good news is that the kingdom has come. This is the message of Jesus: the kingdom of God is here.I agree with everything he says. Everywhere I look I see this Kingdom of God Theological Framework seemingly taking over systems of thought where I would not have expected it. There is now a pretty widespread consensus about the inaugurated eschatology position regarding Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom.
On the other hand, the bad news is that the kingdom has come. The life, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ is to us who have been called, the very aroma of life. To those who are still outside the kingdom, it is the stench of death. It is the same kingdom either way, but for the seed of the woman (Christians) it is blessing, and for the seed of the serpent it is cursing. That this one kingdom can mean one thing for one group and the opposite for another can help explain how we have come to conflate some terms over time. That is, the difference between seeing the coming of the kingdom as an event of joy or of dread is found in one simple distinction -- do we trust in the finished work of Christ alone or not? The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent began in the same place, as enemies of the kingdom. We are all by nature children of wrath. But it is as we are gifted with repentance and believe that we move from darkness to light, that we are adopted into the very family of God. That's good news. Better still, the king who has adopted us, He is now king indeed. That's very good news.
Our gospel is a truncated shell of this great reality if the good news is merely that we don't have to go to hell. It gets only slightly better if it means that our souls go to heaven. The fullness of the gospel is found in the fullness of the kingdom. Jesus is about the business of remaking all things. He is, after all, the first-born of the new creation. He is remaking all the created order that groans under the burden of our sin. He is remaking all the political order, as all kings everywhere learn to kiss the Son, lest He be angry (Ps. 2). He is remaking the church, His bride, removing from us corporately every blot and blemish. And He is remaking every one of us, reshaping us pots into vessels of grace.
We are a part of this good news precisely because He came and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place. We are a part of this precisely because He suffered the wrath of the Father that is due to us for our sins. We are a part of this because He has given us each a new heart that responds to His calling with repentance and faith. We bring nothing to the table but our need. Jesus has done it all. We are His workmanship, judged innocent by His death, judged righteous by His life.
There is still more good news. We are not merely by the good news of His atonement made citizens of that kingdom we are called to seek. We are not merely judged righteous by His righteousness that we were called to seek. We are by the same Spirit made kings and queens with Him. We are not just subjects but rulers. We are seated even now with Him in the heavenly places. Our calling is to believe these promises. Our calling is to be of good cheer, for He has already overcome the world (John 16:33). We do not wait for His kingdom to come, for it is here. Instead, we strive to make it ever more visible, as we make all things subject to His glorious reign.
