We Wear the Mask, But We Don’t Have to

The days stretched on like a bad movie that would never end. I wore a cheerful mask as I meandered through my day. I was found myself floundering in the darkness of depression. Sometimes you look at someone and wonder what’s going on behind their eyes. “How are you doing?” friends would ask. “I’m good . . . ” I uttered robotically.

But if you looked close enough behind the mask, you could see I was unraveling. There’s always more happening underneath the mask.

GRASPING FOR WORDS

Some suffering is brought on by our sin and other times suffering happens without invitation. Our hardships are colorful and various. Instead of finding the words to explain our pain, it’s easy to mask our trials with the subtleties of “I’m good," “Things are fine," or if you’re talking to other Christians, “I’m blessed!" We put on the mask of cheer because this is expected of us.

Paul Laurence Dunbar communicates similar sentiments in his poem “We Wear the Mask:”

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, — This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.

I marvel that out of the labors of suffering, beauty such as this can be birthed. The Psalms remind us that corporate and individual suffering can’t be divorced from the human experience. They so eloquently reveal what’s happening underneath the mask. They do not hold back how bleak life in a Genesis 3 world can become. They show the intensity of our pain and the goodness of our God.

When the Worst Has Come

If you live long enough, there will be a point when your worst fears become reality. Your marriage goes from bad to worse when you find the divorce papers in your mailbox. Your oldest child proclaims, “There is no God!" despite your best efforts to train them in the way they should go. You find yourself struggling, again, with the same sin that has been a snare most of your life.

Perhaps, you receive the paralyzing news of the death of a parent or loved one. You feel the pulse of your own heart as the doctor mumbles, “There isn’t a heartbeat.” You sigh at the long road ahead as your people are marginalized, disenfranchised, or enslaved by fellow humans. The list goes on.

The people of Israel were no strangers to suffering. Yes, God chose them to display his glory to the nations, but this privilege did not exempt them from years of pain. In Psalm 129, the psalmist removes the mask, and we witness the metaphorical and literal scars which reside underneath.

In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist sings twice that, “since my youth they have often attacked me." As a people, their suffering was long and consistent. Throughout their history, they went in and out of enslavement to other nations. From the cries of Egypt (Ex. 3:7-8) to the lion’s den in Babylon (Dan. 6), the Israelites experienced consistent attacks. Across generations, some of their worst fears happened over and over again.

In verse 3 the psalmist paints a beautifully disturbing word picture describing physical pain as they sing how “plowmen plow over [their] back; they made their furrows long”. Plows are sharp tools used to break up the earth to plant seeds. Furrows are the long narrow trenches made in the ground by the plows. The mask is off, and here we find the home of the tears and desperation of the suffering.

ATTACKED BY SIN

Similarly, the final stanza of Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask,” removes the mask as he speaks of this long road of pain:

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To Thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh, the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask.

And this is the case for us. While we may not be enslaved, we still experience attacks. Our attacks may be our sin patterns, spiritual warfare, or an actual enemy who seeks to destroy our reputation by gossip. Enemies are seeking to kill us, bringing many of our fears to reality.

Suffering Together

Perhaps the most beautiful part of Psalm 129 is the call for all of Israel to say, “since my youth they have often attacked me." This Psalm speaks of the collective suffering of a group of people. It gives words to the corporate cries of the oppressed.

My ancestors penned many poems and songs like this when they were, and in some ways still are, oppressed by fellow humans. Littered throughout the beautiful words of negro spirituals and poems written by African-American men and women are the collective pronouns of “we," “our” and “us." African-American poet, Melvin B. Tolson, displays similar sentiments as Psalm 129 in regard to the collective nature of suffering in his poem, “Dark Symphony.” He writes:

Oh, how can we forget Our human rights denied? Oh, how can we forget Our manhood crucified? When Justice is profaned And plea with curse is met, When Freedom’s gates are barred, Oh, how can we forget?

Some may not feel this collective “we” in which these poems and some psalms speak, but we can learn from them. We learn of the nature of the church community—we were meant to suffer alongside one another.

As one body (1 Cor. 12:26) we not only worship with one another, but we feel deeply with one another. As Romans 12:15 says, we “Rejoice with those who rejoice, [and] weep with those who weep.” We draw near to our brothers and sisters in the faith, and we see what is underneath the mask. We don’t disregard it or explain their suffering away; we weep with them.

Through bearing burdens together, we become a tangible expression of the comfort of Christ to them. To even begin to do this, we must be close enough to our brothers and sisters in Christ to know what is going on in their lives and to see behind the mask.

God’s Righteous Character

In the suffering of his people, Tolson writes, “When Freedom’s gates are barred/ Oh, how can we forget?” As Psalm 129 reminds us, the goal of our suffering is not to forget it, erase it, or ignore it.

Psalm 129, and all the Psalms of Ascents, were written to celebrate seasonal feasts in Jerusalem. The Israelites sang these songs corporately and regularly. They sang about their oppression and the Lord’s deliverance. In singing, they forced themselves to remember. Faith helps us to see that God will work in the future—like he has done in the past—because of his consistently righteous character. As one quote renders it, “What God has done for his people formerly are, in effect, promises too. Faith may conclude that the Lord will work in like manner in the future. If he delivered others who rested in him, he will deliver me if I trust in him now. He is the same yesterday and forever.”

In Psalm 129:2, the Israelites sing that their enemies have not prevailed against them. If we were to read only verse 1-2, we might conclude that the Israelites were the reason their enemies didn’t overcome them. We may assume they delivered themselves from their enemies.

HOLD FAST TO THE PROMISE

As we read on, verse 4 reveals salvation didn’t come from the Israelites own strength and efforts but from the Lord’s righteous character. They could sing “the LORD is righteous” (Ps. 129:4) because they drew on years of history which proved the Lord’s faithfulness to them. He delivered others—and by faith—we can believe he will deliver us as well.

We, too, can hold fast to this same promise. For centuries God has kept his Word to his people. He stayed true to his unchanging and righteous character. The ultimate evidence of his deliverance is through the person and work and Jesus Christ who delivered us from the bondage of sin. And in a myriad of smaller ways, he will do the same for us.

Our deliverance may be different than we expect and slow coming. Perhaps instead of removing us from the struggle, he will mold and shape our character, integrity, and faith in it (Rom. 5:3-5; Jas. 1:3). If we find ourselves in the dark night of the soul—before the face of our Father and in the presence of his people—we can remove the mask. We can mourn and remember the faithfulness of our God. And we can recall, he loves to shine his light into the darkest places.

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SharDavia “Shar” Walker lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Paul. She serves on staff with Campus Outreach, an interdenominational college ministry, and enjoys sharing her faith and discipling college women to be Christian leaders. Shar is a writer and a speaker and is currently pursuing an M.A. in Christian Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Why Does God Permit So Much Evil?

God has all power and all knowledge and is second to none. No equals and no competitors. The fact that evil is rampant in his creation is no surprise to him. It’s there only by permission. Fromtime to time, evil may seem to be running wild, but in fact it’s always on a leash. And we should be grateful that we’ve never seen how bad it could become.

Exactly why God allows evil in his creation, he doesn’t bother to tell us, and he doesn’t need to. He is God. We can’t understand everything about God, but we have enough information to satisfy many of our basic questions. In many cases, God chooses to let us go through whatever evil or trouble we may be facing at the moment. He could have prevented it and allowed us an easy skate, rather than the tough slog some have to endure. He could end it entirely but probably won’t until he’s through using it for his purposes.

An Intruder in God's Good Creation

If we take a close look at both the Old and New Testaments, we notice something interesting about evil’s presence in the world. It is considered an intruder into God’s good creation but is allowed to prowl about for a time, and with a considerable degree of freedom. Yet it’s always within bounds.

Sometimes it may look as though it exceeds all limits, and whereas good often seems to run out of steam, evil seems never to tire. But just when we think God’s hands are tied, he yanks the chain and brings it to heel. He is ruler of all. Evil is evil and good is good, but whereas God never uses good for evil purposes, he often uses or blatantly exploits evil for good purposes. He does this by turning it upside down and inside out.

The stories of the patriarchs in Genesis are wonderful illustrations of evil being exploited for good. One of the clearest pictures comes to us in the account of Joseph. Young Joseph is mistreated, violently abused, tricked, kidnapped, enslaved, falsely accused, and imprisoned. Yet every time he is kicked and abused, he is mysteriously bumped up one more rung of the ladder. He moves from the deep hole in the beginning of the story to the position of the prime minister of Egypt at the end.

God used all the evil directed toward Joseph as raw material to construct not only his preservation from starvation and death but also the rescue of those who abused him as well as the salvation of the entire nation he served. As Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

This pattern presented early in the Bible became the blueprint for how God has chosen to deal with evil in his realm for the rest of history. He may permit a certain amount of wickedness to occur, but he always reserves the right to twist and use it for his own purposes. We see the same design in the New Testament.

What we see in Genesis continues throughout early church history, through the centuries of the martyrs, in the subsequent eras of the church, and up to the present day. This is God’s will for the remainder of time until he brings down the curtain and calls humanity to final judgment. After every tiny scrap of evil is dealt with in the complete justice and fairness of God, he intends to recreate a new heaven and new earth where evil is no longer even a possibility—where only goodness and righteousness will exist.

The manipulation of evil for good ends is one of the most exciting aspects of God’s program on earth. He uses the bad things around us in ways we couldn’t possibly expect. He brings good out of the bad not in spite of it but because of it.

The Grand Master

Let’s examine a very earthly and human analogy of this. For example, it’s common practice to exploit the intentions of others for our own ends in a variety of ways. Consider the game of chess. As the competition progresses, the better of the two players cleverly ascertains his opponent’s game plan. He has two options. He can block and frustrate the plan immediately, or he can so arrange his own strategy to account for it, to absorb it. In this way, while his opponent is cheerfully fulfilling his own scheme, he’s also unwittingly fulfilling that of the superior player.

Just when he thinks he’s about to proclaim victory, he’s suddenly checkmated. The game is over.

So it is with God. He’s the Grand Master of chess, who can at any moment impose his own plan over ours (or anyone else’s), so that no matter what, he can bring the game to his own decreed conclusion. We may deliberately live a life of rebellion and selfishness, discarding his will at every point, or we may live a life of Spirit-empowered obedience and self-sacrifice. Whichever course we take, he wins in the end. By scripting his own plot to overarch ours, he allows us to fulfill our plans but ultimately to bring about his will. In this way, evil is both exploited as well as judged, good is rewarded, and God is the victor.

Of course, this is not a perfect analogy, since there are no exact earthly parallels to how God’s nature and sovereignty are involved in human life. God is entirely unique and profoundly mysterious. He is revealed to us only in part. As I said, this revelation isn’t everything we want to know, but it’s enough to grasp the basics of what he wants us to know. The main point of comparison here is that the superior being uses the activities of the inferior for his own will.

Over the years, our family has discovered that some of the best things that ever happened to us came as a direct result of the worst things that ever happened to us. If we take the apostle Paul seriously “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), then we’ll eventually see how God still writes his superior, more sophisticated script over all others.

No matter what evils befall us, good (even excellence) may be brought out of them. This is one of God’s favorite things to do. This point is too important to pass over lightly.

And we need to remember, just as it is Satan’s purpose to take all that is good and turn it toward evil ends, so it is God’s purpose to take all that is evil in the lives of those who love him and turn it for good. The commandeering and exploitation of evil for good is one of the most powerful aspects of God’s strategies on earth. He skillfully manipulates the bad things around us in ways we couldn’t possibly expect or imagine.

A Truth We Need to be Fixed in Our Minds

We need to fix this truth in our minds. Between now and the final act of history’s play, God has determined to allow evil to roam about on a chain, not free to do anything and everything it wants, but to do much that we wouldn’t want. Evil will always be an intruder and an invader. As long as we dwell on this planet, we’ll always live in occupied territory. Evil will be relatively free (within God’s prescribed limits), but it will always be under the ongoing judgment of the Ruler of all things. Each and every day he will choose to exploit what evil determines to do and to turn it toward his good purposes.

Again, evil will continue to accuse, blame, abuse, misrepresent the truth, destroy, and pillage, but it will remain on a leash. It will never be totally free and will do no more than it’s allowed to do. God defeats it handily, takes it prisoner, and redirects it to bring the good he intends.

Why do I repeat myself? Simply to underscore this critical point: whether people choose to do evil or good in this life, God has decreed that he will write his will into the script of human history and bring it to its conclusion in exactly the way he has purposed.

We can oppose God’s will and do the most terrible things, or we can do everything in our power to try to please him. In either case, he’s able to enter into our own worldly troubles and sins and in some mysterious way bring out of them ultimate good—both his and ours. Without doubt, evil, and all those who love it and are given to it, will face judgment and destruction. But it is to God’s glory that we turn from it and live.

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Taken from Resenting God: Escape the Downward Spiral of Blame, (c) 2018, Abingdon Press.

Dr. John I. Snyder is author of Resenting God and Your 100 Day Prayer. As an ordained Presbyterian pastor, John has served congregations in the United States and planted churches in California and Switzerland. He is the advisor and lead author for theology and culture blog Theology Mix (www.theologymix.com), which hosts 80+ authors and podcasters and visitors from 175 countries. He received his Doctor of Theology degree magna cum laude in New Testament Studies from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He also has Master of Theology and Master of Divinity degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.

How to Cultivate Communal Comfort in Your Suffering

Suffering powerfully highlights what has always been true—we were not created for independent living. Suffering reminds us that God’s grace doesn’t work to propel our independence but to deepen our vertical and horizontal dependence. The strong, independent, self-made person is a delusion. Everyone needs help and assistance. To fight community, to quest for self-sufficiency, is not only a denial of your spiritual need; it’s a denial of your humanity. Suffering is a messenger telling us that to be human is to be dependent.

My friend TobyMac so wonderfully captured with these words: “What does it look like to admit your need and open the door to God’s warehouse of provision?” Consider these seven steps.

1. Don’t Suffer in Heroic Isolation

There’s nothing noble about bearing down and suffering alone. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster. Everyone has been designed by God for community. Healthy, godly living is deeply relational. Worshipfully submissive community with God and humble dependency on God’s people are vital to living well in the middle of the unplanned, the unwanted, and the unexpected.

The brothers and sisters around you have been placed in your life as instruments of grace, and as I’ve said before, they won’t be perfect instruments, they won’t always say and do the right things, but in the messiness of these relationships God delivers to us what only he can give.

In my own suffering I’ve had to fight with the temptation of self-imposed isolation. I know I need the presence and voices of others in my life who can say and do things for me that I could never do for myself, and I know that the relationship I have with these people is God’s gift of comfort, rescue, protection, and wisdom. Are you suffering in isolation?

2. Determine to Be Honest

The first step in seeking and celebrating the gift of the comfort of God’s people and experiencing how they can make the invisible grace of God visible in your life is to honestly communicate how you’re handling what you’re going through. Honest communication is not detailing the hardship you’re going through and letting all the people around you know how tough you have it. Complaining tends to drive people away and to attract you to other complainers, which is far from healthy and helpful. Rather, every sufferer needs to be humbly honest about the spiritual battle underneath the physical travail so that brothers and sisters around you can fight that spiritual battle with you.

And don’t worry about what people think of you. Remember, you don’t get your identity, peace, security, and rest of heart from them but from your Lord. No one in your life is capable of being your messiah; people are tools in the hands of your Messiah, Jesus. It would be impossible to fully communicate the depth of the comfort, strength, and counsel I have gotten at crucial moments of spiritual battle from the dear ones God has placed in my life. Are you humbly and honestly communicating to others about how you’re handling your hardship?

3. Let People Interrupt Your Private Conversation

You have incredible influence over you, because no one talks to you more than you do. The problem is that there are times when it’s very hard to say to ourselves what we need to hear. The travail of suffering is clearly one of those times. It’s hard then to give yourself the hope, comfort, confrontation, direction, wisdom, and God-awareness that every sufferer desperately needs.

So you need voices in your life besides your own. You need to invite wise and loving people to eavesdrop and interrupt your private conversation, providing in their words things you wouldn’t be able to say to yourself. And don’t take offense when they fail to agree with your assessments; you need these alternative voices. They’re not in your life to hurt your feelings but to give you what you won’t be able to give yourself, and that in itself is a sweet grace from the hand of God. Who have you invited to interrupt your private conversations?

4. Admit Your Weakness

Doing well in the middle of hardship is not about acting as if you’re strong. God’s reputation isn’t honored by our publicly faking what isn’t privately true. The grave danger to sufferers is not admission of weakness but delusions of strength. You see, if you tell yourself and others that you are strong, then you won’t seek and they won’t offer the enabling and strengthening grace that every sufferer needs. And remember, the most important form of weakness that we all face isn’t the physical weakness that accompanies so much of our suffering but the weakness of heart in the midst of it.

Determine to be honest about your weakness, and in so doing, invite others to be God’s tools of his empowering and transforming grace. When you suffer, you view weakness either as an enemy or as an opportunity to experience the new potential that is yours as God’s child. Is your habit to admit or deny weakness?

5. Confess Your Blindness

This side of eternity, since sin still lives inside us and blinds us, there are pockets of spiritual blindness in all of us. As you walk through your travail, there may be inaccuracies of belief, subtle but wrong desires, wrong attitudes, susceptibilities to temptation, wrong views of others, struggles with God, and evidences of hopelessness that you don’t see.

So in love, God has placed his children in your life to function as instruments of seeing. They offer to you insight that you wouldn’t have by yourself. Because they can see what you don’t, they can speak into issues in your life, and by so doing be not only instruments of seeing but also God’s agents of rescue and transformation.

It’s humbling but true of every sufferer that accuracy of personal insight is the result of community, because sin makes personal insight difficult. Since we all have areas where we fail to see what we need to see, we need to welcome those whom God has sent into our lives to correct and focus our vision. How open are you when those near you help you see things in yourself that you don’t see?

6. Seek Wise Counsel

It’s dangerous to make important life decisions in the midst of the tumultuous emotions and despondency of suffering. Often in the middle of hardship, it’s hard to see clearly, to think accurately, and to desire what’s best. The shock, grief, and dismay of suffering tend to rattle the heart and confuse the mind.

When you are suffering, you need to humbly invite wise and godly counselors into your life. I’m not talking here about professional help, although that’s good if necessary. I’m talking about identifying the wise and godly people already in your life who know you and your situation well, who can provide the clarity of advice, guidance, and direction that is very hard to provide for yourself.

Don’t be threatened by this; it’s something we all need, and wise sufferers welcome it and enjoy the harvest of good fruit that results. Have you invited wise and godly counselors into your life to help you decide what would be hard to decide on your own?

7. Remember That Your Suffering Doesn’t Belong to You

2 Corinthians 1:3–9 reminds us that our sufferings belong to the Lord. He will take hard and difficult things in your life and use them to produce good things in the lives of others. This is one of the unexpected miracles of his grace. When it seems that my life is anything but good, God picks it up and produces what’s very good in the life of another. Every sufferer needs to know that the comfort of community is a two-way street. Not only do you need the comfort of God’s people, but your suffering positions you to be a uniquely sympathetic and insightful tool of the same in the lives of others.

Your suffering has given you a toolbox of gospel skills that make you ready and equipped to answer God’s call to be an agent of his comfort in the lives of fellow sufferers. God calls you not to hoard your suffering but to offer it up to him to be used as needed in the lives of others. And there’s blessing in taking your eyes off yourself and placing them on others, because it really is more blessed to give than to receive. Have you hoarded your suffering, or seen it as a means for bringing to others the good things that you have received?

Yes, it’s true that the God of all comfort sends his ambassadors of comfort into your life. They’re sent to make God’s invisible presence, protection, strength, wisdom, love, and grace visible. So welcome his ambassadors. Be open to their insight and counsel. Confess your needs so that God’s helpers can minister to those needs. Live like you really do believe that your walk through hardship is a community project, and be ready for the good things God will do.

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Content taken from Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense by Paul David Tripp, ©2018. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, a nonprofit organization. He has been married for many years to Luella and they have four grown children. For more information and resources visit paultrippministries.org.

Help My Unbelief

Have you experienced it before? The ever-irksome foe named Doubt darkens your door of faith, casting a shadow over everything you have believed for much of your life. Paralyzed by the fear of what this might do to your relationship with God, and to top it off, your reputation with those who have always identified you as “Christian,” this existential crisis brings you to your knees.

You wonder, How did I get here? I didn’t want this to happen. I thought I knew what I believed.

You may not readily admit it, but you’ve probably been there. Maybe you were hurt by someone you loved within the Church and thought following Christ was supposed to look different. Maybe you read some works of Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens and their arguments became compelling to you. Or maybe it was your inability to shake a recurring sin or a lack of feeling the presence of God in your life.

Whatever the case may be, that hideous Doubt has a way about him. He sneaks into your soul to try and woo you away from the everlasting source of hope and strength.

Doubt can be a discouraging and debilitating opponent in the Christian life. We don’t like to talk about it because it feels humiliating. It’s something we’re not proud of. It feels dirty to doubt.

WHEN DOUBT CAME TO MY DOOR

I remember my crisis moment. I was sitting in a stadium seat at a conference, stunned at what John Piper was unpacking in Scripture right before my eyes. That NIV with my name etched on the cover had been in my possession for years, but I had never noticed in it the things this preacher was saying.

I thought I knew who God was, but was he really this? I had professed Christ as my Lord and Savior, but is this what I meant by that? I had to do some serious searching in the days and months that followed to determine how I answered those questions.

This came at a time when I was fresh into college, and as you might have guessed, surrounded by new obstacles to faith: a philosophy professor who assigned me William James to read, and laughed out loud at my theological answers to real-world problems. A speech professor who flunked my speech defending Creationism as a viable explanation of the universe and gave an A to the girl in the class who presented a speech on evolution. Stump preachers setting up on campus to yell at the LGBT students. Varying campus ministries who put “doing life together” at the top of their values but made little room for gospel transformation. A roommate who said he was a Christian but could not have been classified as a “follower of Jesus.” And now this Piper guy wrecking my understanding of righteousness, the glory of God, and the atonement.

I had to answer for myself the question, “Who is this Son of Man?” (Jn. 12:34).

I decided to remove all the outside opinions and instead seek answers in the Word of God. I was determined to be illumined by the Spirit or find it all a ruse. I had to start from square one. “And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight” (Acts 9:18).

THE SPIRITUAL GIANT WHO DOUBTED

There was another man who wrestled with Doubt, a man with a far more gifted mind and compassionate heart than my own. His name was Francis Schaeffer.

In his exploration into the life and thought of Schaeffer, William Edgar, a friend to Schaeffer himself, outlines the crisis moment of Schaeffer’s life. It was early 1951, and during a season of everyday walking and meditation, Francis said he had to rethink “the whole matter of Christianity.”

This was coming from a man who was well-versed in nearly every world religion, every philosophical system. He could tie anyone up in their own logical fallacies like he was tying his shoes. But he was also human like the rest of us.

I imagine Schaeffer going for a walk, crying out with me in my dorm room, and the father of the child in Mark 9, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” I find great comfort in the fact that Schaeffer doubted. If he had to work out his salvation with fear and trembling, what of me? It’s not something that is wrong with me but something that is wrong with us.

As sinful fallen humans we are often tempted to disbelieve the truths about God. We are prone to forget what we know to be true about the Gospel. I share a piece of my own story and of Schaeffer’s story to demonstrate that Doubt pays us all a visit at different times and in different degrees. Even a man as “qualified” and esteemed as Francis Schaeffer faced doubts. The important thing, though, is that he didn’t allow himself to stay in his doubt. He did what was necessary to seek answers and reach a conclusion.

The solution to a struggle with doubt is first to devote yourself to prayer. In the famous “help my unbelief” passage, Jesus seems to imply in Mark 9:29 that finding growth in faith is spearheaded by a commitment to prayer. If we truly believe that Christ is our intercessor and great high priest, and that the Spirit is working to illuminate the Word of God to us, then let's ask the Lord to reveal himself.

FIGHTING DOUBT WITH THE WORD

If you find yourself struggling with the lures of Doubt, remember these additional comforts.

Our doubt is not the fault of God, but the fault of sin. In Eden, God was present with humanity. His existence was undeniable. He was so near that it would have been impossible to doubt his presence. But since man was driven out from his presence due to sin (Gen. 3:24), we now see through a mirror dimly (1 Cor. 13:12). Sin, ultimately, is a rejection of (to borrow Schaeffer’s famous quip) “the God who is there” (see Rom. 1:19-20). Doubt happens not because God himself is doubtable, but because our minds need to be reminded of the light of the gospel.

Though we see in a mirror dimly now, there will come a day when we will see Christ face to face. Faith says, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Even a faith the size of a mustard seed can bring us hope in his coming (Mt. 17:20). Not only will our doubts be erased one day, but the doubts of all mankind will be as well. “Every knee will bow” is a wonderful refrain in Scripture (Isa. 45:23; Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10). All doubts will cease to exist one day.

Jesus never doubted, but he was tempted to. How did he respond to Satan in those moments? With memorized Scripture. There is something to this practice, especially in waging war against doubt. Remembering and rehearsing Scripture to yourself proves to be a strong weapon in the war against doubt.

When we call upon the Lord to help us in our unbelief, we should not expect “magic 8-ball confirmation.” In other words, it may not be as clear-cut and discernible an “act of God” as we may hope, but this should not drive us into despair. It should only drive us further into communion with God, time spent reading his Word, conversation with other believers, prayer, fasting, journaling, and more. This is the make-up of faith.

Don't let Doubt isolate you from others, and most of all, from God. Leap into this glorious opportunity to grow your faith on the sword of the Spirit and the truth of Christ. Allow God to mold and shape you like clay as you seek him more through your doubts. Search for the truth in the Scriptures. His Word always has purpose and never returns void, even on you.

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Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Northlake Church in Lago Vista, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently studying at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking a Master of Theological Studies degree. He is married to his wife, Hannah. You can follow Zach on Twitter @zachbarnhart or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.

Discontent: Comparing What Is to What Could Have Been

Sometimes I surprise myself with how surprised I am that things aren’t always what I want them to be. Not long ago, I realized I’d been griping a lot to my friends about how much it was costing me to heat my home in the winter months. I’m one of the only people in the history of the world to have central heat and air. It’s available to me at the push of a button anytime I get cold. But I don’t celebrate the fact that I can walk barefoot in subfreezing temperatures. I’m much more likely to complain about my bill doubling a couple of times a year.

It isn’t just a problem with my heat bill. My life is full of good things that aren’t perfect. That means it’s full of opportunities to prioritize the positive or the negative side of what I’m facing. I have three beautiful, healthy children who are sometimes unruly and always exhausting. I have a job I love that is often more difficult or time-consuming than I want it to be. I’m sure you have examples of your own you could add to my list.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

This tendency to notice what’s wrong more than what’s right is a symptom of a deeper problem. It’s a sign that, at least subconsciously, we’re surprised that the world doesn’t fit the pattern we’ve designed for it. It may be we’ve established a baseline expectation of comfort, convenience, or control that has no place in a world where the outer things are passing away.

In the modern West, our baseline expectation for what life should be is set higher than at any other time or place. But this new expectation has come with a high cost we may not notice as clearly as we should.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that our “culture of abundance” actually feeds our dissatisfaction with what we have.5 Every day we’re confronted with an overwhelming number of choices about how to structure our lives. But with all these options it’s tough not to imagine what could have been better if we’d made another choice—especially when we recognize the limitations of what we did choose for ourselves. We’re crippled and preoccupied by all the what-ifs.

Schwartz also highlights another unintended consequence of all this choice, one that’s even more to my point. Our vast array of choices feeds a sense that life ought to be fully customizable, seasoned perfectly to my tastes. My expectations about how satisfying my choices should be rise far beyond what’s truly possible. There’s no chance I’m not going to be let down.

Here’s how Schwartz put it in the TED Talk version of his argument:

Adding options to people’s lives can’t help but increase the expectations people have about how good those options will be. And what that’s going to produce is less satisfaction with results, even when they’re good results. . . . The reason that everything was better back when everything was worse is that when everything was worse, it was actually possible for people to have experiences that were a pleasant surprise. Nowadays, the world we live in—we affluent, industrialized citizens, with perfection the expectation— the best you can ever hope for is that stuff is as good as you expect it to be. You will never be pleasantly surprised because your expectations, my expectations, have gone through the roof.6

SETTING REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

I don’t doubt that contentment has always been a struggle no matter when you’ve lived or where. But in the modern West we do face some unique and easily ignored obstacles to joy in the good things our lives afford us. Schwartz argues that as our quality of life has improved in so many ways, our baseline expectation has settled somewhere in the neighborhood of perfection. Best-case scenario, we get what we believe is normal, even owed to us. More likely, we feel disappointed.

Schwartz’s antidote to this modern disease is interesting. “The secret to happiness,” he concludes, “is low expectations.” It makes sense, doesn’t it? Lower your standard for how enjoyable or satisfying life should be, and you’ll be more satisfied with what life is. I believe there is a lot of wisdom in what Schwartz is saying, both about what feeds our discontent and also what it will take to move forward. We need a new baseline expectation for life in the world as it is.

But how do we find our way to more realistic expectations? Here is where I would add one further argument: the path to realistic expectations about life moves through honesty about death. Our detachment from death has carved out the space for our expectations to run wild. The forgotten truth is that even if I could structure every part of my life today exactly the way I want, I can’t stop death from stealing everything I have. I may face a range of choices about life that previous generations couldn’t imagine. But I cannot choose to be immortal. This limitation casts a shadow over every area of my life.

Our perpetual discontent is a sign that, as Augustine put it, we “seek the happy life in the region of death.”8 I don’t stop experiencing the effects of mortality just because I refuse to acknowledge its grip. It’s just that I’ll be surprised by those effects again and again. I’ll continue to believe life is as fully customizable as our consumer society has promised me. I’ll continue to be surprised when it’s not. And at some point I won’t just be surprised by the uncontrollable brokenness of the world; I’ll be devastated. If I complain about the cost of my heating bill in winter, what will I do with job loss, or type 1 diabetes, or the cancer diagnosis of a child?

So long as our expectations for a tailor-made world go unchecked, we will eventually be blindsided by suffering. And when we are blindsided, we will be tempted to reject the goodness of God that is the only source of true comfort.

Here’s what I mean: if my baseline expectation of the world is comfort, convenience, and control—if this is what I assume I’m owed from life—then when I suffer, I will likely blame God. In my frustration or disappointment or pain I may see a sign of his displeasure. Or maybe a sign of his neglect. But one way or another I’ll see my suffering as abnormal, and therefore a sign of God’s absence from my life. I won’t recognize that, in fact, the brokenness I’m experiencing is not a sign of his absence but a primary reason for his presence in Christ.

REMEMBERING DEATH, FINDING LIFE

We sometimes judge the plausibility of God’s promises to us in light of what we’re experiencing now. We are tempted to believe that if God is allowing us to suffer as we are, we can’t trust him to deliver on his promise of redemption, resurrection, and an eternal life of joy with him. We can view his promises as an upgrade to an already-comfortable life, icing on the cake of the pleasant ease that is our baseline expectation. But this is not how his promises come to us in Scripture, and viewed like this his promises will never make sense. If his promises are no more to us than icing on the cake of good lives now, then those promises will always seem irrelevant and otherworldly when we suffer.

But when we recognize death’s hold on us and everything we love, we won’t be surprised that life isn’t what we want it to be. Frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction—these belong among the many faces of death, the pockets of darkness that make up death’s shadow. These experiences are normal, not surprising. Death-awareness resets my baseline expectation about life in the world.

This honesty about death then prepares me for what is truly surprising: that God the Son subjected himself to the limitations, brokenness, and death that are normal for us. That he would join me in my experience of the normal trials of life in the valley of the shadow of death. That he would do this precisely so that he can revolutionize what is normal.

The brokenness I experience—the frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction, pain—is not a sign of God’s absence. It is the reason for his presence in Christ. This is why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He came because he knows we’re thirsty for more than what we’ve tasted so far (John 4:13–14). He knows that every meal has left us hungry. He came to provide living water, bread of life, full and free satisfaction for all who eat and drink from him (John 6:26–35).

When our eyes are fixed on the weight of this glory, we can experience dissatisfaction or disappointment without discontent. We can embrace what God has given us without preoccupation by what he hasn’t given. There’s nothing we can’t enjoy fully no matter how limited. And there’s nothing we can’t do without, no matter how sweet.

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Content taken from Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope by Matthew McCullough, 2018. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Matthew McCullough (PhD, Vanderbilt University) serves as pastor of Trinity Church in Nashville, Tennessee, which he helped plant. He is the author of Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope and writes occasionally for 9Marks and the Gospel Coalition.

4 Ways to Foster Faithfulness in the Face of Futility

The mammoth ship started sinking into the bone-chilling North Atlantic waters. Distress rockets exploded into the sky. You could hear the pandemonium and sheer terror over the buckling, twisting steel. Amidst the chaos, eight musicians began playing a serene, unearthly melody; “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” as rumor has it. They kept playing when it was their turn to get into a lifeboat. They played faithfully until their untimely end, the sweet, soft sounds echoing off the unforgiving waters.

This April marked 106 years since the Titanic sank into the Atlantic, killing well over 1,000 passengers. Those musicians have mystified historians for the past century. What was going on in their minds? How could they keep playing in the face of certain death?

FAITHFULNESS IN THE FACE OF FUTILITY?

In the account of their last hours, we see a picture of faithfulness in the midst of seeming futility. So many times, we find ourselves in dim and seemingly hopeless situations. We might not aboard a ship sinking into frozen waters, but our hearts sink from the loss of a loved one, a battle with cancer, or feeling the weight of our bodies getting older and falling apart. We might not face certain death, but we have witnessed the death of our dreams; the death of what we thought our lives should look like.

Our day-to-day circumstances can feel like waves threatening to drown us in sorrow. The tempest tempts us to look away from our Savior and down into the swirling abyss. Too often we let circumstances take the rudder of our ship, steering us forward instead of into God’s promises.

We are so often faithless. But the good news is that God is faithful in the midst of our faithlessness (2 Tim. 2:13). God is committed to his people and his promises. But how can we be faithful to God in the midst of turmoil and trouble? How can we have an unwavering, unflinching trust in him? God’s Word gives us four ways.

1. ASK AND SEEK

First, the Bible tells us to ask and seek for faithfulness. The Greek word for faithfulness in the Bible literally means “being full of faith.” It means being reliable, steadfast, unwavering, not wishy-washy or fickle. God imparts this gift of faith through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and through the hearing of God’s Word. "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (RoM. 10:17).

If we are to be completely dependent on God to open our eyes of faith, our prayer should be, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). We should spend time daily reading and preaching the gospel to ourselves because God works in hearts through his Word by the power of his Spirit. God’s Word is our light when we find ourselves in dark, distant waters. His Spirit will be our bravery when everything is falling apart.

2. REMEMBER AND REMIND

The second way the Bible tells us to foster faithfulness is simply by remembering. When we reflect on what God has done in our lives, we can say, "The Lord’s loving-kindnesses indeed never cease; for his compassions never fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" (Lam. 3:22-23).

The tossing waves won’t be so threatening when we know our God is bigger than the oceans. Our circumstances will seem trivial in light of eternity. Let’s choose to remember how God has been faithful, and let those memories embolden us to keep playing a beautiful tune to the glory of God in the midst of trouble and travail.

Not only do we need to remind ourselves what God has done, but we need to remind others of his faithfulness. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:12-13).

Telling others what God has done in our lives protects them from the enemy’s lies and from doubting God’s promises. We need to hear stories of God’s faithfulness daily, and so do our brothers and sisters. Like the eight musicians who played their way into their icy graves, we need others to stand with us, playing the song of God’s faithfulness into the long, cold night.

3. SURRENDER AND ABIDE

Third, the Bible tells us we can foster faithfulness by surrendering and abiding. The fruit of faithfulness is not the fruit of our works, but the result of the Spirit’s work in us. If you are in Christ, you are like clay in the potter’s hands. He is the one molding and shaping you in his image. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

When we abide, or remain in unbroken relationship with God, seeking to know him, to be like him, and to surrender to his work in our lives, we will bear the fruit of faithfulness in due time. But we can only do this by God’s keeping power.

We can take comfort that God is steadfast in his commitment to sustaining us. The Lord “will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” (1 Cor. 1:8-9).

4. REPENT AND OBEY

When the Titanic hit the gargantuan iceberg that doomed the “unsinkable ship,” most of the passengers were asleep because it was midnight. We too fall asleep. We get comfortable and lose the urgency in following Jesus. We give our allegiance to the idols of comfort, control, approval, or power.

Let’s heed this stark warning Jesus gave to the church in Sardis: “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you” (Rev. 3:2-3).

Jesus’ words here are startling and might even seem harsh. But when he called his people to follow him, he told them to take up their cross—to die to themselves—daily. Let’s search our hearts and ask the Lord to show us the sins we cling to. If we find we have been faithless, let’s repent and turn back to following Christ with all our might in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can know God’s grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). We can be confident that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Whichever comes first, Christ’s return or our last breath, let us be found faithful, by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s power. Let’s be on our guard, daily repenting from sin.

FINDING CALM AMONG THE STORM

As the Titanic disappeared into the dark waters, there was a faithfulness amidst the chaos and dread. Eight musicians played a lively tune as they met their earthly deaths.

In this world, we will have trials and tribulation but let’s be found living faithfully to the glory of God. May our lives be a startlingly beautiful, hopeful harmony resounding in the ears of the world around us.

When the storms of life come, let’s play our song all the louder, clinging to God’s promises. Let’s live lives that burn brighter by the day instead of sinking into the night. Let’s press forward by God’s grace power until we hear those sweet words from our Lord: “Well done, good, and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).

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Delilah Pugsley is a wife, friend, sister, daughter and a Christ-follower serving in a church plant in Mid-Missouri. She writes on her blog https://www.graceinreallife.com, and you can reach her at delilahpugsley@gmail.com.

3 Tear-Wrought Lessons on Suffering

If you haven’t experienced pain or sorrow or loss, you’re either young or dead. We’re all faced at some point with the fallenness of our world and brokenness of our own hearts. A parent buries a child, a family is ripped apart by divorce, a spouse is shattered by a diagnosis. It seems we might break under the weight of such pain.

When the pain gets so heavy we don’t think we can bear it, we ask the inevitable question, “Is this worth it?”

Paul has a startling answer to that question in Romans 8:18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Is this some kind of Christian pep talk? No, Paul is not sharing a limp-wristed inducement, but tear-wrought lessons from his considerable suffering (see 2 Cor. 11:23-28). He shares three lessons we can all learn from as we face a world that’s not as it ought to be.

LESSON 1: SUFFERING HURTS

Paul first acknowledges suffering by calling it suffering. He doesn’t diminish the reality of sorrow and loss and sin. He calls it what it is—suffering. And sometimes considerable suffering, at that.

We often run from or ignore sorrow and disappointment. Or we try to somehow minimize it, numbing our pain. These coping methods won’t really help us cope at all, not in the long run, because we’re running to ourselves to fix our problems instead of running to God. But when we run to God and his Word with our pain, we discover a Father who acknowledges our pain and a Son who experienced it.

God knows our pain. He is not lounging in a La-Z-Boy in heaven while we’re struggling to keep our heads above water. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

When we lose a loved one, when we cry until we can’t cry anymore, when we suffer abuse at the hands of others, when we endure chronic pain, we can run to a Savior who in every way knows what we’re experiencing and sympathizes with us.

Suffering hurts. And Jesus knows it. Run to him and listen as he validates your pain and acknowledges your suffering.

LESSON 2: GLORY HEALS

Paul’s second lesson is that our suffering—considerable as it is—is hardly worth comparing to the weightiness of the glory that is to be. Elsewhere he says that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). Light affliction?! Is Paul invalidating his first lesson that our suffering is truly terrible? No. He’s saying that relative to eternal glory with Christ, our afflictions, no matter how unbearable, will seem momentary.

Paul says our glory will not only be eternal, but it will be weighty. This seems like a strange combination of words. We know suffering can be weighty, but glory?

Though it sounds foreign, when we think about the joys of a lifetime of marriage, of raising children from infancy to adulthood, or of deep and long-lasting friendships, the word weighty seems fitting. Or consider even a moment of happiness—when your new spouse says “I do,” or you hold your newborn or newly adopted child for the first time or enjoy a meaningful conversation with a close friend. Certainly words like fluffy, light, insignificant, or faint don’t describe these pleasures.

No, the joy we experience in such blessings is real, substantial, significant, and large. Real joy is weighty. And it is precisely the weightiness of such joys that make our grief so weighty. Yet it seems like the weight of pain always outweighs joy, doesn’t it? Can the weight of joy or glory really outweigh the heaviness of our trials, like Paul says?

If a glory this heavy seems impossible, consider this. The same God who provided the joy you’ve experienced with your spouse or parent or child or friendship is the same God who knows what eternal glory awaits you—and he says they can’t be compared! The glory that God has prepared for every one of his children is that heavy.

Eternal joy is greater than our suffering in length of time and in quality. Christian, catch God’s perspective. See that eternal joy is weightier than even our greatest sufferings here and now.

LESSON 3: FAITH HELPS

What is it that makes this eternal, heavenly glory so transcendently, seriously glorious? That it is centered on Christ (Col. 3:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 John 3:2). Admittedly, to the skeptic, this may sound more anticlimactic than floating around on clouds and playing harps. But for anyone who has seriously considered the character of Jesus Christ, and especially for those who have found in Christ the only perfection that will satisfy a truly good God, this resonates. The joy of a consummated relationship with Christ is weightier than any suffering on earth will ever be.

The joy of heaven is not just that there will be "no more death or pain or tears." The joy of heaven is that there is no more sin to keep us from living with and being like Jesus Christ completely and forever. Unhindered and uninterrupted fellowship with Jesus is the greatest joy heaven has to offer.

Suffering will exist, for now, no matter what your worldview. But if you don’t believe in God, then you will just be looking for another solution to the suffering, another way through the suffering.

The eternal glory Paul speaks of will also happen no matter what we think about God. One day this world and our suffering will come to an end, and one day believers in Christ will be enabled to live with him forever. No one can keep this from happening.

Faith in Jesus Christ is not only the means of salvation; it is also the means by which we enjoy salvation’s promises and assurances even now. Faith is the umbilical cord that connects our infant-like perspective on suffering to the nourishment available from a God who knows what it’s like to suffer as we do.

Recognizing the bigness of God, and of his grace through Jesus Christ, will feed our souls in the midst of this momentary suffering by granting us assurance of a glory infinitely weightier than even the most crushing pain.

IS YOUR SUFFERING WORTH IT?

Is your pain and suffering worth it? Is your crippling anxiety and grief worth it?

Yes. Your suffering is truly suffering. Your pain is truly heavy. But if you’re in Christ, you have a Savior who has experienced everything you have and more. He knows exactly how you feel and precisely what you need. He knows your suffocating at the hands of suffering, and he wants you to set your eyes on the eternal weight of glory he’s preparing for you.

May the weighty joy of the Christian faith be yours, now and for all eternity.

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Justin Huffman has pastored in the States for over 15 years, authored the “Daily Devotion” app (iTunes/Android) which now has over half a million downloads, and recently published a book with Day One: Grow: the Command to Ever-Expanding Joy. He has also written articles for For the Church, Servants of Grace, and Fathom Magazine. He blogs at justinhuffman.org.

Why the Resurrection is No April Fools' Prank

It was only a matter of time before they were caught. You can’t hide 5,000 people believing in Christ. Peter and John, sore from spending the night in jail, were shoved into the presence of the rulers and scribes. The members of the high-priestly family stood. The crowd hushed.

“By what power or by what name did you do this?”

The question hung in the air. Everyone expects them to say, “Jesus”—but would they do so in the face of beatings, and maybe even death?

Peter rises to his feet, surveying the scene. Then it happens again—the promised Spirit fills him for the task at hand. Unsure of what he’s about to say, he opens his mouth in faith and declares,

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

These words were offensive then—and they’re offensive now.

AN EXCLUSIVE CLAIM 

Do you find Peter’s claim of exclusive salvation through Jesus Christ alone offensive? How could he make such a bold claim?

Flavius Josephus (37-97 AD), a defected Jew turned court historian for Emperor Vespasian, is quoted in AD 324 by Eusebius, and speaks of “Jesus, a wise man” who was condemned to the cross and then “appeared to them alive again the third day.” Belief in this Jesus turned the Roman empire upside down in just a few years.

But it wasn’t merely belief in Jesus that propelled the movement; it was a belief in his life, death, and—most importantly—his resurrection from the dead that was the chief apologetic of the early church.

We see this exclusive claim of salvation in Christ over and again in the New Testament. In Acts 4:10, Peter made his claim for the exclusivity of Christ largely based on the resurrection of Christ: “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.” Similarly, Paul on Mars Hill contended that “[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

The apostles continually referenced the resurrection as their chief argument for the truth of Jesus’ claims.

A SIGNIFICANT CLAIM

Why is the resurrection of Christ so significant? Because Christianity stands or falls on the truth of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:14-17). The resurrection also reveals that  Christ has the power to raise us from the dead (John 11:25-26). Third, it confirms the validity of Christ’s teachings about his own deity.

Because a real man Jesus rose from the dead, he proved his own claim to divinity, sealed the salvation he promised to purchase, and now demands that we trust and submit to him.

Philosopher and broadcaster C.E.M. Joad was once asked who he would most want to interview if he could choose anyone from all of history. He chose Jesus and said that he wanted to ask him the most important question in the world: “Did you, or did you not, rise from the dead?”

The resurrection, more than any religious claim, is investigable and therefore verifiable because it is a historical—not a philosophical—claim. And if it is true, it has universal implications.

The resurrection is the foundation of Christianity: if Jesus were dead, the church of Jesus would be speechless, powerless, and pointless. Yet we find in history that a handful of devastated Apostles frenzied the first century with the message that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. They gave their lives for this message—a message, we must not forget, they would know to be true or not.

These men—the ones who heard the hammers crush nine-inch nails through Jesus’ bones, saw the spear pierce his lifeless flesh, and watched the corpse of Christ be removed from the cross—were convinced of the resurrection. They weren’t giving their lives for some dogma, but for the man they knew and loved named Jesus, who they saw, touched, and talked with after his horrible and humiliating death.

A SPECIFIC CLAIM

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is recorded in all four gospels—the same divine, multi-faceted, unified truth is presented from different, harmonious perspectives. A summation of these accounts is found in the ancient Christian creed (probably from about 37 A.D.) in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.

These gospel writers, as representatives of early Christianity, make clear their assertion: the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a predicted, bodily, historical event.

Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in the Old Testament, centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In the messianic Psalm 16, David speaks prophetically: “You will not abandon my soul … or let your holy one see corruption” (v. 10). In the New Testament, Jesus explained to his disciples before his death that he would rise from the dead: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matt. 16:21).

Jesus’ predictions were so well known that even his enemies were aware he planned to rise from the dead (see Matt. 27:63). Jesus’ resurrection was prophesied hundreds of years before his birth, and in the days immediately preceding his death.

Jesus’ resurrection was also a bodily resurrection. The New Testament makes it plain that Jesus literally and physically rose from the grave. Thomas was able to put his finger into Jesus’ nail-prints and feel the spear-wound in his side (John 20:27). Luke tells us that, when the resurrected Jesus appeared to his frightened disciples in a locked room, he invited them to handle his body, and then ate in front of them to assure them it was him and not just a spirit (24:36-43).

Christ’s resurrection was also historical. This was no April Fools' Day prank. As we’ve already seen, it is referenced by numerous Christian and non-Christian historical sources. Christianity is not based on a myth or fairytale.

AN INVESTIGABLE CLAIM

The evidence for the resurrection is plentiful. First, there is the empty tomb. If the tomb were full, no one would have believed the disciples’ testimony. The Jews would certainly have produced the body if they could have and silenced the apostles. However, they couldn’t, and subsequently, we see Christianity explode around the known world in (historically speaking) no time at all.

Second, the eyewitness testimony of the apostles (John 20:19-20; 1 Pet. 3:18-21; Matt. 28:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:3-8) verifies Jesus’ resurrection. Three of these four witnesses died for their testimony, and all of them suffered for it.

Third, the Sabbath was changed to Sunday by devout Jews. The only reason such a ground-shift in a centuries-long tradition would occur is if something tremendous and extraordinary—a sign from God—had taken place.

Finally, consider the remarkable growth of the church. The early church—against great opposition, persecution, and rejection—grew by leaps and bounds in the first century. This can only be explained by some incontrovertible evidence, especially as many of their converts (e.g. Saul of Tarsus, better known as the Apostle Paul) came from among their enemies.

Despite all of this, you may still be skeptical of—or indifferent to—the evidence for and implications of the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel writers, as am I, are sympathetic to the doubting or struggling investigator. In fact, the disciples themselves were slow to believe. But once they were convinced, they became irrepressibly inspired.

In the resurrected Christ, even the skeptic may find the confirmation he or she needs in order to turn to Jesus. Truly, there is salvation in no one else; his is the only name under heaven by which we must be saved.

The resurrected Jesus has the power to escape a sealed tomb and enter a locked room. If you are a skeptic, may he enter the locked room of your heart and bring you out of unbelief. And may you find yourself, like the Apostles and millions of others, irrepressibly inspired to tell others about the poor, wandering rabbi from Nazareth who came not to serve, but to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many—including you.

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Justin Huffman has pastored in the States for over 15 years, authored the “Daily Devotion” app (iTunes/Android) which now has over half a million downloads, and recently published a book with Day One: Grow: the Command to Ever-Expanding Joy. He has also written articles for For the Church, Servants of Grace, and Fathom Magazine. He blogs at justinhuffman.org.

The Surprising Antidote to Your Doubt

Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.

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If you ever wonder how to get a bad rap with posterity, you need look no further than Jonathan Edwards, one of modernity’s favorite Puritan whipping boys. An 18th Century pastor, theologian, and missionary, Edwards has gained a negative reputation as the foremost of hellfire-and-brimstone preachers and the paragon of everything our culture finds faulty with religion. If it’s considered anathema today—like a repressive puritanical morality, an overemphasis on sin, guilt, and judgment, or a sadistic glorification of divine violence—it’s probably been pinned on Jonathan Edwards at some point.

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD?

My first exposure to Edwards came in high school literature with the assigned reading of his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Tackling the sermon as a read-aloud, our teacher prodded the class to preach with zeal: “Read it with passion! With fury in your eyes and fire in your belly!” His appeal to dramatic flair was mostly lost on a languid group of hormonal juniors, none of whom were eager to stand out amongst their peers. But the bias against Edwards—and the old-fashioned, bigoted, puritanical religion he represented—was clear.

In recent years, a popular backlash against “angry God” Christianity has risen not only from secular quarters but also from within the walls of the church. Consider a recent title from Brian Zahnd entitled Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, one in a long line of attempts to correct what is believed to be a backward and destructive theology and replace it with a non-violent, singularly loving, atonement-free gospel.^[1]

For many of us, the appeal of a gratuitously loving God in the face of Edwards’ seemingly angry and bloodthirsty deity is irresistible. The angry, severe, cold god we grew up with has left us harboring neuroses too various to number. The god many of us have pictured from childhood was more like a domineering or demanding father than a gentle and loving friend. He reigned with an iron fist, rode on a heavenly cloud, and longed for a chance to exact vengeance on sinners and saints alike. This is a god whose stratospheric expectations left us cowering in fear, hopeless victims of his capricious anger and violent wrath.

But this portrayal of God is a gross caricature of Edwards and his theology. In contrast to this popular depiction, we might consider one of his seventy “Resolutions”:

“25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it."

We get a glimpse here of a young man—about 19 years old at the time of writing—enraptured by and devoted to God’s love. This might surprise anyone whose truncated impressions of Edwards have been informed by critics rather than a fair hearing of one of America’s greatest (and most warm-hearted) thinkers.

At root, Edwards had a comprehension of God’s love far richer and deeper than our modern understanding. The kind of love we expect and demand from God is lacking in anything negative, unattractive, or displeasurable. We desire a God who requires nothing of us, corrects nothing in us, and gives us everything we want. However, when we begin with ourselves and measure God by our own desires, we have a tendency to force him into a mold of our own making. We want a god that fits in our pocket—one we can take out when we want him, and put back when we’re through.

GOD’S WRATH MAKES HIS LOVE MORE BEAUTIFUL

But the God of Edwards—and, I would argue, of the Bible—doesn’t fit in our pocket. He neither exists nor acts primarily for our self-esteem. He acts for his own glory. And sin is, ultimately, an affront to that glory. The God with whom we have to deal is nothing like us. He is completely holy and requires absolute obedience. This is the God Edwards found in the Scriptures—the God who caused him to tremble and who is not to be trifled with.

It is only against the backdrop of the fierce wrath of God that divine love poured out on God’s enemies makes sense. Indeed, the central paradox of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is that “God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is.”^[2] This theme of God’s patient kindness and love—a kindness that leads to repentance (Rom 2:4)—motivates and animates the entire sermon with Gospel power.

C.S. Lewis elucidated the relationship between wrath and love along a similar vein:

“I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay.”

THE SURPRISING ANTIDOTE TO DOUBT

In my own life, I have often struggled to accept God’s love for me. I've questioned how he could possibly love me, given my unworthiness and constant failure. I assume God foregoes actual affection for me and settles for mere tolerance. I feel like I'll end up sitting at the kids’ table at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

All of this self-abnegation, of course, seems humble, but it's actually a false kind of humility undergirded by a pride that says: “God’s grace is not big enough for me. His love is not expansive enough to fully include me.” I think my sin—as heinous and wrath-deserving as it is—is more powerful than God’s justifying grace. But this kind of passive pride actually degrades the work of Christ and undermines a biblical understanding of grace.

And this is where Edwards’ twenty-fifth resolution helps me. When I doubt God’s love—a weakness the 19-year-old Edwards apparently shared with me—the place I am directed to look is to the wrath of God. Why? Because when I truly understand the wrath of God against his enemies, then I am able to truly understand my desperate place without God’s merciful intervention. It is only God’s unmerited favor and gracious pleasure—that is, his free and inscrutable love towards me—which is able to save.

And what does it save me from? According to the Scriptures, God’s love saves me from God’s wrath: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom 5:8-9).

HOW TO CONQUER DOUBT

Here is a profound and freeing truth: the love of God saves us from the wrath of God through the death of the Son of God. God’s love is excellent in itself, but it becomes exceptional and incomprehensible to human sinners in light of the wrath from which we are saved.

When you are prone to question God’s wrath or doubt his love, the antidote for both is to look to the cross, not as a place where God affirms your infinite worthiness, but as a place where he displays his infinite wrath against sin in concert with his infinite love for his fallen creation.

Whenever you doubt the love of God, look to the cross. For the cross is where God’s wrath is appeased, his love is displayed, and his enemies become his children.

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^[1] Derek Rishmawy offers a helpful (but long) review of Zahnd’s book here.

^[2] Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” July 8, 1741.

Mike Phay serves as Lead Pastor at FBC Prineville (Oregon) and as an Affiliate Professor at Kilns College in Bend, OR. He has been married to Keri for 20 years and they have five amazing kids (Emma, Caleb, Halle, Maggie, and Daisy). He loves books and coffee, preferably at the same time.

Finding Thankfulness Amidst a Trial by Fire

On the night of October 8th, fires were sparked that would ravage my community in Sonoma County, California. That first night the fires burned with unreal and terrifying speed, sweeping over the wooded, sparsely populated hills, and into the very heart of Santa Rosa, a city of over 150,000. The fires continued to burn out of control for over a week. Nearly 8,000 structures were lost, most of them homes, displacing thousands of residents in an area already experiencing a housing shortage. Over forty people lost their lives.

Rebuilding will take years. An uncertain future faces our community. Will there be enough housing? Will there be enough jobs? Is it worth rebuilding? Will this happen again?

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, those of us living in Sonoma County are learning how to be thankful in the midst of unspeakable tragedy.

WHAT IS THERE TO BE THANKFUL FOR?

No one in Sonoma County was unaffected on a personal level, including me. My family evacuated our home three different times, though our home survived. The fire was stopped a mere 500 feet from my parents’ house. My aunt and uncle, three of my co-workers, and several friends lost their homes.

In such circumstances, “What is there to be thankful for?” seems a legitimate question.

Yet, in spite of the catastrophe, there are reasons for thankfulness. While any loss of life is tragic, if not for the work of first-responders evacuating those in fire zones as the world burned around them, the losses would have been much higher.

That first night, neighborhoods engulfed in flames threatened two Santa Rosa hospitals directly across the street. Firefighters were able to stop the fires from crossing the roads, keeping those vital facilities from being lost. There are countless stories of everyday citizens warning and rescuing their neighbors, defending their neighborhoods against the fires, and saving their homes. For these acts of heroism and selflessness, we can be thankful.

There is one act, in particular, I’m especially thankful for—one I am convinced saved not only my church, but possibly my home as well.

THE KIND OF HEROIC ACT WE CAN ALL BE THANKFUL FOR

Pete Halpin is the Facilities Manager of my home church, Santa Rosa Bible Church. I first met Pete several years ago when he and his family moved into the house next to the church property. They began attending our church, and, right away, Pete struck me as one of the friendliest people I’d ever met. We got to know each other over the years through pick-up basketball games, church functions, and a missions trip to Ecuador.

A few years ago, Pete became the Facilities Manager for the church. He was a great guy for the job, and he could never beat that commute: open the back gate, and he’s at work. As someone who also once worked at the church and lived on the other side of the fence from the property, I could attest to the convenience. I had long since moved from that close proximity, but not by much; I still live less than a quarter-mile from the church campus.

The night of October 8th, with the fire rapidly approaching, Pete, his wife, and one of his sons loaded up three cars and evacuated. Before they made it even a couple blocks, the engine in the car Pete was driving, an older car he was working to restore, began to knock. Evacuation is no time to deal with an unreliable vehicle, so Pete abandoned the car on the road. When he did, he suddenly remembered his 79-year old neighbor. Unsure if the neighbor was aware of what was happening, Pete sent his family on their way and went back to check on the neighbor. Once he determined the neighbor was safe, Pete went back to his house.

That’s when the embers began to fall into Pete’s backyard. Because of the severe winds earlier in the night, the yard was covered with a blanket of dry redwood needles. Pete put out spot fires in the yard ignited by the flying embers. He promised his wife he would not risk his life to save property, but as the embers continued to drop and the fire burned ever closer, now visible on the ridge north of the house, it was a promise that was getting harder to keep. Finally, it was time to go.

But before he could, a feeling came over Pete. A calm that told him he was supposed to be there at that moment. Pete has described himself as an anxious person, but in the midst of this crisis, he felt a divine peace overcome him.

He had to check on the church.

ENTERTAINING UNAWARE ANGELS

He crossed the parking lot to the church building and began assessing the situation. On the northern end of the campus, closest to the fire, Pete saw a spot fire burning behind the maintenance shop. Besides the threat to the shop itself, the area behind the shop was a storage area for all sorts of combustible materials. Pete emptied six fire extinguishers putting out the fire.

While battling the flames, he encountered two men wearing backpacks skulking behind the shop. Surprised to see anybody else there in the face of an impending inferno in the middle of the night, Pete asked who they were. After a brief hesitation, they said they were there to help. Pete didn’t hesitate and put them to work. He had them attach hoses to the spigots and help him move vehicles away from the fence line where it appeared the houses directly on the other side were already engulfed. Pete asked them to help him hook a trailer up to a truck to pull it away from the fence. The two men kept saying they had to leave. Pete yelled, “No! You need to help me move this trailer!” The two stayed and helped before fleeing.

It wasn’t until later, when things calmed down, that Pete realized what he had missed earlier in the tension of the moment. The two men were probably looters who, already in those early moments of the tragedy, had been out preying on the victims. Thanks to Pete, the cowards were forced into service for something good.

After hearing this story, a friend of mine expressed disappointment that Pete was not actually, as Hebrews 13:2 says, “entertaining angels unawares.” I pointed out the verse still applied; the two were just unaware they were angels.

With the fire behind the shop extinguished, no other buildings on the campus were in immediate danger. Fires burned portions of the neighborhood on three sides of the campus but never made it across any of the streets onto the property. If the shop, which contained fuel and chemicals for the various vehicles and tools used to maintain the grounds, had caught fire, it is entirely conceivable that the rest of the church would have burned. If the church had caught fire, there is the very real possibility it would have spread to the houses and many trees in the surrounding neighborhoods, including mine. It could have pulled fire-fighting resources away from the fire that was stopped less than 500 feet from my parents’ house, allowing that fire to spread further.

It’s not a stretch for me to say that, thanks to Pete, my church, my home, my parents home, and maybe my entire neighborhood was saved.

WHAT THANKFULNESS REALLY LOOKS LIKE

Almost a month after that terrible night, my church family met in the auditorium which had been saved by the Lord through Pete’s actions. An opportunity for testimony was given.

A long-time member stood to give her’s. She is 80 years old; her husband is 90. They lost a beautiful home in which they had lived for decades, along with everything in it. The first words out of her mouth during that testimony were, “I am so thankful we lost our house”; said without an iota of bitterness or false sentiment. She was thankful for the opportunities her and her husband’s loss had given them to share Jesus with people.

Such a comment would seem out of the ordinary, given the circumstances. But that has not been the case among those in my church family who lost everything. Time and time again, I hear them say how thankful they are; thankful that although their things are gone, they are safe; thankful for the support of their brothers and sisters in Christ in their time of need; thankful to be a light in a dark time; thankful for the opportunity to serve others who are in the same situation.

LEARNING TO BE THANKFUL

1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This is often easier said than done. In times like these, are there moments when doubt and despair creep into our thoughts? Of course.

But, if we go back to God’s command in Philippians 4:6, to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” we know he will listen. We know his plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11). That plan may not be what we thought it should or would be. No one wants to hear that God’s plan for their life is for their house to burn down. But we can be thankful that his plan, while it may not be clear to us all at once, is perfect, and is for our greater good.

For those of us in Sonoma County, this is a trial by fire in the most literal sense. I am thankful for what God is doing in my hometown and how his people are responding.

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Andy Bauer, husband and father of two, is a police officer in Sonoma County, California. He attends the Santa Rosa Bible Church, where his father, Chris Bauer, serves as Lead Pastor.

John Calvin and Assurance of God’s Love

Spiritual Dry Spells

Many times when we as Christians go through spiritual dry spells, we tend to think that God does not love us. In fact, I have met many people who have called their salvation into question when going through periods of doubt, sin, depression or all the above.

In his greatest work on theology, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin writes:

When we stress that faith ought to be certain and secure, we do not have in mind a certainty without doubt or a security without any anxiety. Rather, we affirm that believers have a perpetual struggle with their own lack of faith, and are far from possessing a peaceful conscience, never interrupted by any disturbance. On the other hand, we want to deny that they may fall out of, or depart from their confidence in the divine mercy, no matter how much they may be troubled.

Calvin says that faith is not simply the removal of all doubt or disturbance. Faith is not certainty. Saving faith has very little to do with the strength of our faith or our ability to conjure up mental images to remove all worries. Calvin defines faith elsewhere in the Institutes as “a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us.”

Faith Rests in God’s Love

Faith is trusting that Christ will be faithful even in the times when we’re not faithful to him.

Faith is resting in the fact that God loves and enjoys us.

Far too often I put faith in faith instead of faith in Christ. This leads to a loss of peace and to my thinking that something is wrong with me or that I’m not even saved, just because I have doubts and worries.

But note Calvin’s comment: No matter how troubled we might be, that in no way changes Jesus’ love for us or our security in his salvation.

To say it another way, God’s love doesn’t waver even when our faith does.

Faith is trusting Christ instead of trusting in ourselves to trust Christ. There is a huge difference between the two. One looks upward; the other looks inward.

Look upward.

There’s No Condemnation

So what does this idea have to do with discipleship? The answer is everything. For discipleship to truly be gospel-centered there has to be a foundation of love, joy, peace, and justification. Without a foundation of knowing that you are accepted (even during the times you don't "feel" accepted) you never feel free of the guilt, shame, and condemnation that plagues you or your ministry.

In our discipleship, we far too often subtly try to earn what has already been given to us. There is a small voice in the back of our minds that wants to “do ministry well” so we can prove that we are not as bad as the voice in our head tells us we are.

The enemy cannot condemn the believer. Therefore, he will do the next best thing which is to make us feel condemned. This is almost just as good. Discipleship flows out of a loving relationship with Christ. If the enemy can get us to feel like Jesus hates us then we will be useless for his kingdom.

But the good news is that Jesus doesn't hate believers. He loves them enough to die for them, though he knows all the sins (and doubts, and feelings of condemnation, and feelings of self-hate) that they will ever experience.

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Zach Lee is Associate Home Groups Minister at The Village Church and is married to Katy.  Follow him on Twitter: @zacharytlee.

[© 2013 The Village Church, Flower Mound, Texas. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Adapted from “John Calvin on Faith and Assurance”.]

Doubt Is Not a Disease

Should we focus on engaging those who are skeptical about the truths of Christianity? Should Christians who are struggling with their faith join a discipleship group? Should the Church spend more time and resources engaging the doubts that people have in regards to Jesus Christ? Well, yes.

Pastor Timothy Keller once said:

“A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.”

Keller makes it clear that in today’s world we must be willing to acknowledge the doubts that we have and to confront them. Sometimes evangelicals tend to overlook the doubts that people struggle with and just sweep them under the rug. This is not the solution. Church leaders must focus on discipling those who are struggling with doubt. Here is what Scripture reveals to us about faith and doubt.

Faith is a Gift

In Romans 12:3 the Apostle Paul says, “For by the grace given to me I say to every-one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has as-signed.” As we meditate on this verse, we are able to see that God gives out different amounts of faith to his people. The measure and amount of one’s faith depends totally on what God has assigned. Faith is a gracious gift from God. However, we are also able to see that doubt is a tool that our Father in Heaven uses for his purposes and plans. In God’s sovereignty, he sometimes uses doubt as a tool to drive us to Jesus Christ. All of this is done in his perfect timing. With that framework in mind, we can now turn our attention to examining why doubt should not be taboo.

Scripture reveals many doubters to us. The disciple, Thomas, is probably most widely known for struggling with doubt (Jn. 20:24-29). However, there are plenty of others who are worth mentioning. Abraham struggled with believing that God could make him a father in his old age (Gen. 17:17). Moses did not believe God could use him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt (Ex. 3:10-15). Peter struggled with belief, when he almost drowned at sea (Matt. 14:28-32). So if you struggle with doubt, know you are not alone. The Bible is full of doubters who were used by God for his sovereign purposes, and there is no question he can use those who struggle with doubt today.

There are plenty of men and women you probably know who struggle with doubt within your church. These people should not be treated as inferior Christians. They should not be treated as people who have an infectious disease. When we understand that faith is a gift and that the measure of one’s faith does not determine the level of one’s spiritual maturity, we will finally be a people who do not drive doubters away from the church. The church should always be a place for skeptics and saints alike.

If all of us were honest with ourselves we would admit that doubting as a Christian is not abnormal. When Christians go through intense trials or have been praying for God to answer a specific prayer over a prolonged period of time with no answer, doubts arise. Does this suggest they are not trusting God enough? Perhaps not. I have found myself more than once in my life exclaiming in prayer the same words uttered by the father of a demon possessed child (Mk. 9: 21-24). The simple prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief,” is indeed a prayer that should be included in almost every Christian’s life.

The reason this prayer should be included in our prayer life is because of the ever-present reality that Christians struggle with doubt. This should not make us feel ashamed. We must always remember that Jesus Christ still heals the child in Mark 9 despite his father’s doubt. This should encourage us because it serves as a constant reminder that God still works with us and in us through our doubts.

Picture yourself in a home group filled with both skeptics and mature believers. Imagine the diversity of this group. Skeptics are able to voice their concerns and ask questions about the faith. Mature believers are able to evangelize and present the gospel message in a practical way. This benefits both parties and there is no question that a community like this would encourage skeptics and believers.

The Gospel for Doubt

There is good news for those who are struggling with doubt, and that is the message of the gospel. The good news proclaims to both skeptics and saints that God has done everything for us through Christ Jesus. His faith excels where our faith falters. Unbelievers and believers should acknowledge their doubts and always be willing to confront them head on. The church can help in this area. The gospel is the message that the church should always proclaim because it is the only message that has enough power to provide confidence for both the unbeliever and the believer.

An unbeliever might be struggling with doubting certain tenets of Christianity, and he might need to be confronted with an apologetic defense of the faith, but that should never take complete place over the gospel message. Hearing the gospel proclaimed is what leads to faith (Rom. 10:17). For a believer, the gospel is what encourages the Christian to look to Jesus Christ and his finished work even in the midst of doubts. Christians must preach the gospel to themselves because it serves as an antidote for the doubtful heart and mind.

The Church should always do everything it can do to help those who are struggling with doubt. There are various ways that this could be done, but I believe that the most effective way is by explicitly and constantly proclaiming the good news of what Christ Jesus has done for sinners. And we must always remember that faith is a gift, and doubt is not a disease.

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Matt Manry is the Director of Discipleship at Life Bible Church in Canton, Georgia. He is a student at Reformed Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary. He also works on the editorial team for Credo Magazine and Gospel-Centered Discipleship. He blogs regularly at gospelglory.net.

The Danger of Not Doubting

“Who is Jesus?” I asked my students on the first day of class.

“The son of God”

“God”

“The Savior”

They concluded drearily between secretly checking their smart phones and staring vacantly at me, as if I were speaking Portuguese. So I ask again, “Really, who is Jesus?”

If you had walked into the classroom, you would’ve assumed we were practicing our awkward silences.

I teach Bible classes at a nice little Christian high school with about sixty students and a fairly conservative culture. They’re good kids. Most of them are remarkably bright and incredible at Bible trivia. But something is missing.

The students, like most students, have been taught to memorize and regurgitate information. They are actually pretty good at it. And my students have had the added blessing of memorizing and regurgitating incredible Biblical truths on a daily basis for most of their lives. But there is, for the most part, a lack of any realization that the Biblical truths they are memorizing are actually true!

I believe their apathy (and all apathy) is rooted in deep doubts about the goodness, practicality, and truth of the information they’re being taught. In high school, I hated math because I doubted its usefulness and I didn’t trust Old Man Marley for the first half of Home Alone because I thought he was secretly a bad guy.

I believe a lot of these students have doubts about who God is, why they have to read the Bible, and what the “good news of Jesus Christ” has to do with anything. Not because they weren’t raised in godly Christian homes, or because they are rebels—but because they are human. Humans doubt truth. We always have.

Doubt

When we approach the profound truths of God or anything, really, sometimes we just see a black hole—something that seems impossible to comprehend, enjoy, or believe. We doubt every day. Every time we fear the unknown, we practice doubt. We cannot just ignore or write off doubt. We must wrestle with it.

Belief is essential in the Christian life. John wrote his account of the life, death, and resurrection “so that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31). Paul says that grace comes to us “through faith” (Eph. 2:8). And Jesus says that the work of God is to believe in Jesus!

But belief isn’t easy. Belief is not simply scoring high marks on a Bible quiz. It’s the pursuit of truth—an investigation into the depths of reality. As Jonathan Dodson says in Raised?,

“Anything worth believing has to be worth questioning, but don’t let your questions slip away unanswered. Don’t reduce your doubts to a state of unsettled cynicism. Wrestle with your doubts. Find answers. If you call yourself a believer don’t settle for pat proofs, emotional experiences, or duty-driven religion. Keep asking questions.”

My students had been catechized well, but they had never wrestled with their doubts, and in turn most have never interacted with the living Jesus. They assume that expressing doubts will get them in trouble —but really, they will be in much deeper trouble if they never ask “what does this mean?” Despite what they may think, their doubts may, in fact, be from God.

Just as God came down from heaven to wrestle with (not to catechize!) Jacob (Gen. 32), doubts may at first seem to be an enemy, but prove to be dear friends. As George MacDonald observed,

Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood…Doubt must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed”

Our doubts can take us deeper into the knowledge of God—not further away, as many fear. When we wrestle with God, we come away changed.

So this semester, I have decided to encourage doubt in my classroom. While I will be teaching my students the fundamentals of Missiology (the topic of my course), I also want to teach them to wrestle with God. I want them to ask the hard questions—to really ask themselves (and me) “what does this mean?” I foresee a long semester ahead, but as a student wrote on a worksheet last week, “if you don’t ask questions, you won’t get answers.”

Using Doubt in Discipleship

How can we steward doubt—“messengers of the Living One to the honest”—in the already messy process of disciple making? I don’t know exactly, but here are five general thoughts on disicpling amidst doubt.

1. Don’t Ignore Doubt Have the courage to look for doubt. When someone gives a “Sunday School” answer, don’t be afraid to search for the heart behind the answer. Maybe there is a true, orthodox love for God behind that “right answer,” but that isn’t always the case. Jesus didn’t ignore Thomas’ doubt, instead he directly engaged it. Jesus didn’t condemn him for his doubt, but told him,

“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28)

2. Be Humble Just because you may not wrestle with nagging doubts about the resurrection right now doesn’t mean the doubts of others are not legitimate. Pride is particularly deadly, when you are instructing others. Humbly encourage doubters to draw from the same well of truth you have.  This will foster a safe environment for others, as they wrestle with their doubts.

3. See Doubt as an Opportunity Doubt can certainly lead to sin, but doubt can be an opportunity to trust and seek God. Encourage yourself and others to “see doubt as the door to that which is unknown, but must be known.” Faith is not the absence of doubt, but the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).  God can, and historically has, used honest doubts as an opportunity to lead believers to rest, repent, and believe. Doubt is an opportunity to encounter the living truth, and, as Sir Francis Bacon observed, “no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth.”

4. Remember the Gospel The absolutely certain, imputed, and active righteousness of Christ shows us our doubt is not our demise. Doubts do not stop God from saving, loving, and pursuing his people! This means, when a brother or sister in Christ is wrestling through doubts—intellectual or otherwise—God still loves them, and still views them as perfectly hidden in Christ. The cross is doubt-proof—as much as we doubt, we cannot change the glorious, historical truth that Jesus died once for sin. This means that every question is safe to ask and no doubt is too big for the cross to overcome! Jesus’ perfect lack of doubt has overcome our doubt.

5. Remember that God Transforms Doubt Thankfully, God does not leave doubters in their doubt. God has a long record of intervening in human history and radically transforming even the strongest doubters. From Moses (Exod. 3) to Job to Jonah to Thomas, God works through those who have deep doubts about God and their call. Consider Sarah,

The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (Gen. 18:9-12)

God promised things that seemed impossible. Our humanness wants to doubt God because, honestly, some of the things God promises are insane. But God delivers. Sarah laughed at the thought that God could ever fulfill His promises, but God answered Sarah’s doubts and through it, glorifies Himself,

“The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” (Gen. 21:1-7)

Sarah’s laughter was transformed from doubt to joy. God answered Sarah and God answers our doubts. God replaces our doubt with worship. The burden of proof is on God, and God comes though.  This is the only hope I have that my high school students will encounter God in the foolishness of what I teach.

Conclusion

We never “arrive” and we will never know everything. As long as sin wages war against the Spirit, we will struggle with doubts. But thankfully, we are not alone in this struggle. Our perfect righteousness, hidden in Christ, is secure despite our doubts. And God has promised to be with us in our fight with doubt. My students may not “get the gospel” this semester, they may play Flappy Bird in class instead of wrestling with truth, but as Jonathan Dodson rightfully notes in Raised?,

“Those who are skeptical and struggling with belief, Jesus remains ready to receive your questions. He will listen to your doubts”

_ Nick Rynerson lives in Normal, Illinois (no, seriously) with his groovy wife, Jenna. He received his B.A. from Illinois State University and currently serves as a deacon and pastoral intern at Charis Community Church in Normal. He writes regularly for Christ and Pop Culture, and is passionate about Americana music, (lower case) orthodoxy, and whatever he’s been reading lately. Connect with him on twitter @nick_rynerson or via email.

The Opportunity of Doubt

It is human, all too human, to doubt. When we share our faith with our non-Christian friends, we are often skirting the tension between finite understanding and infinite understanding—between the materially possible and the spiritually necessary. Doubt and faith have nothing to say to each other, and yet in this world, they often appear inseparable. For this reason (and by God’s grace), I have felt the Spirit prompting me at times to share my doubts with the folks I disciple. My prayer is that what follows is both a guide to the stormy waters of doubt as well as a clear pointer to the light of Christ shining above the troubled seas of our lives.

One Hundred and One Fun Things to do with Doubt

Last football season, I had an extra ticket to a game, and I invited my friend along. We stopped by the grocery store for some beers and sunscreen before heading to the tailgate party. Which is to say, I wasn’t really brooding about Existence right then, but my friend was. As we waited in the check-out line, he started talking about the end of the world: how humans have polluted the land, air, and water; how we’re continuing to do it; how we’re actually increasing our efforts.

Zoom out. We were waiting in line in a noisy, crowded store, and my friend was speaking to one of my most complex, unending despairs. Here’s how the doubt runs in my mind: both the Bible and science indicate that the future isn’t exactly rosy for the earth, and yet one of God’s initial commands was for humans to be stewards of His creation. I can’t help but feel deeply ashamed of the ways my actions contribute to the destruction of the environment.

This doubt stems from a cognitive dissonance: Take care of the Earth versus the Earth will be destroyed. This dissonance is partly responsible for the heated political rhetoric surrounding the environment and sustainability. At any rate, this is what I told my friend. I explained how deep my despair is about this subject, and I didn’t sugarcoat it with some platitude about my beliefs. I was honest. I told him that I have to pray about the Earth every morning. I have to give it back to God. On a cosmic-scale, it’s almost hilarious just how much global climate change is out of my hands, and yet I cannot help but feel responsible.

The beauty is that God doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He doesn’t have to. He knows this planet—He even knows me—far better than I do. By placing my faith in Christ, I align myself not with unthinking religiosity, but with the greatest thinker in the universe. As a result, I am free to act (and sometimes even fail) in pursuing environmental stewardship.

Zoom back in. My friend and I are standing in line to buy junk from the local mega-corporation. (There’s those cognitive dissonances playing out in real life.) But I don’t have to despair. Yes, I think the gospel calls us to help in renewing all creation, but do I always trust that knowledge? No. That’s what I told my friend. The gospel frees me from judgment and empowers me to act (Romans 6:1-2), but I am still compelled to get down on my knees and pray for strength to accept that freedom everyday.

We can open up to our friends about doubt, if we will see past our feelings of despair into our forgiveness in Christ. This frees our witness from both crippling defeatism and self-satisfied legalism. It can season our speech with the salt of critical thought (Colossians 4:6). In other words, the doubts aren’t the key. The key is the compassion found in Christ—that he understands our doubts and still loves us.

With this freedom, my friend and I climbed into my car and drove to our national distraction. Because I followed the Spirit’s promptings to be transparent about doubt, I gained an opportunity to talk about my faith. Honesty about doubt led to a deeper conversation about faith.

Doubts and the Doubting Doubters who Doubt Them

In Christ, there is no real reason for doubt. In Christ, we claim forgiveness, grace, and peace. Through faith in Christ, we possess the power to move mountains. The problem is one of unbelief. Our brokenness, our every sin stems from something we do not fully believe about God, but if we are to share our faith in a genuine way, we must share how God answers our unbelief, how our wayward minds are redeemed in Christ, how our troubled souls find rest and overflowing grace in the Holy Spirit.

When sharing a doubt with your friends, avoid the language of ownership (if possible). More importantly avoid self-pity about the despair attached to the doubt. Avoid smugness about your faith. The hope is that in disclosing a doubt we can open up a discussion of faith and offer loving words about how God answers our unbelief with grace and courage.

For example, many of my non-Christian friends feel the doubt voiced by logical positivist philosophers like A.J. Ayers. In so many words, they’ll explain that religious language is nonsense because it’s scientifically/empirically unverifiable. While this isn’t my particular brand of doubt, it is certainly one to which many non-Christians cling. But in speaking to them about this doubt, I have not found it helpful to rationally discourse about this philosophical stance. The conversation then caves in on the limits of its own reasonability, resulting at best in a series of metaphysical chess problems.

Rather, when I’m attentive to the Spirit, I’ve learned to take a step back and remember my own feelings of doubt—how they create such pointless sorrow and anxiety—and I speak to that. In other words, when we’re in tune with the Spirit, we speak from the heart to the heart (not necessarily from the mind to the mind).

The Division of the Individual

That’s all good and fine for sitting at the café chatting with our friends. What do we do when doubt gets personal? For example, what of the militant doubts that point out the uncounted atrocities that have been committed in the name of religious belief?

Again, take a step back and pray. Remember, this is the despair and anguish of unbelief talking. We are not equipped to answer these charges. Fortunately, Christ is. In this example, it may not be a good idea to air your own feelings of unbelief and doubt, but rather speak directly to the pain of the individual with the healing and love you have found in Christ Jesus.

Here’s the funny thing about faith. We all have it. It takes a certain amount of faith simply to be convinced that my “self” or anyone else exists. Interestingly, folks don’t typically assign this aspect of faith any religious meaning. It’s simply “who we are.” But, in the total absence of faith, who are we really? There are statistics that speak to those who lose this last hold-out of faith, and they aren’t pleasant. Without some small amount of faith, we would begin to doubt the very substance of our being.

This is the critical juncture of how broken we really are. Except for faith, our humanity is literally falling apart. In John’s Gospel, Christ says,  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5). This is kinda scary stuff for a non-Christian to hear, but God is bigger than those fears. God is bigger than the horrifying things that have been done by ignorant and deceived and broken people in his name. How do I know this? Is it simply wishful thinking? Is God loving only because I say so? No. Christ says that’s all sorts of backwards and upside down.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. - John 15:9-12

In other words, when addressing—for example—despair over the atrocities committed in the name of religion, leave everything else and follow Christ. Remind your self and your friend that—according to scripture—nothing has been done in Christ’s true unutterable name that wasn’t also done in love. If an act of “religious belief” was done without love, it was done without Christ, and if it was done without Christ, then it was done without faith. In the absence of faith, all that remains is—not just doubt—but the void, the total dissolution of the God-breathed life inside us.

The critical distinction we must make as disciples of Christ is that our identity and agency do not arise from the formless void gnawing at the base of individual identity. By grace, we are learning to see that the very prospect of this construction of individual self is impossible from its foundation up, hence the terror and pain of those feelings of doubt. But when we take ownership of faith in Christ, then from him flows a new communal identity and a powerful fellowship of agency—the foundation of which is the very center, the unshakable core of all Creation.

Identity Restored

My true identity is in Christ not in myself. In Christ, we stand united with the true meaning of our lives, with our renewed humanity. But for a person hearing this truth for the first time, all this sounds pretty weird. The loss of individual identity? Being united with what? This is when—if I’m in tune with the Spirit—I often hear that still small voice saying, “Share those same doubts you once had… now share how Christ offers so much more.”

Christ is the hinge on which the entire universe turns. Christ is the door that opens to the infinite glory of God. Likewise, the gospel is the key that unlocks our restore identity. The good news is Christ understands our doubts. In Luke’s Gospel, Christ dispels the disciples’ doubts just before his ascension, offering questions that convict me even now: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see.” (Luke 24:38-39)

My prayer today is to lay my doubts before Christ. To meditate on the wounds he suffered for my sake and find in his cuts and bruises the fullness of grace poured out for my sake. What doubt can withstand this flood of mercy? May the Holy Spirit guide the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts toward healing the sickness and pain of unbelief in ourselves and in those we disciple!—that we might sing of the peace and restoration found only in our redeemer Christ Jesus.

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Ben Roberts is follower of Christ & an Editor at both Gospel Centered Discipleship & the speculative literary journal, Unstuck. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, he lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica & son, Solomon. They fellowship and worship at City Life. Twitter: @BenStoleMyName.

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For more on sharing the gospel authentically, check out Jonathan Dodson's Unbelievable Gospel.

3 Ways to Respond to Opposing Views

How do you deal with doubts? When you are hit with a barrage of rational, popular, and culturally acceptable challenges of your faith, what do you do? Do you respond or do you react? How does the truth of the gospel impact the manor in which we answer questions of doubt? How does the gospel change the way we act towards those who challenge and disagree with us? We can either co-opt the gospel, react with prideful arrogance, or respond with the gospel. In college, my discipleship was mostly a 'Christian' reaction to modernism. I was well equipped with an ensemble of proofs, philosophical argumentation, historically verified facts to react to critiques of Christianity. I was well educated in the craft of Christian arguing. I witnessed it in class, and perfected it in my studies. You could say, I sought a altered version of Nehemiah, I had a brick in one hand and a copy of Aquinas in the other. With all the studies and arguments I tried to fend off all objections to my faith. "If I can defend my faith, I won't doubt it," I thought.

Overtime, the pursuit to 'cleanse' myself of modernistic doubts soon brought about stronger and deeper doubts. Similar to the use of antibacterial: you take care of a few germs, but ironically, stronger ones emerge. I shifted gears and tried something new. Instead of fighting against modernism, I found myself with a greater problem: meddling with the gospel. So high strung to make the gospel “work” for those whose claims I was hearing, I began to co-opt the gospel. If I got them to accept Jesus, there was a large chance Jesus was more like David Hume, than the incarnate resurrected Word of God.

Co-opting the Gospel

Instead of allowing the gospel to stand on its power to save, we mold it to fit the thinking of the day. Such was the case with the first Christian apologetics towards the Enlightenment. Christianity's central doctrines of the atonement and resurrection were deemed untenable, a consequence of the elevation of 'human reason' as the infallible standard. The apologist's opposition was performed by appealing to “human reason,” as set out by the thinkers of that time. Leslie Newbigin has pointed out how this was problematic. In reacting to an opposing worldview they domesticated the gospel.

...it is plain that we do not defend the Christian message by domesticating it within the reigning plausibility structure. That was surely the grand mistake of the eighteenth-century defenses of the reasonableness of Christianity. Leslie Newbigin

They sought to show the 'reasonableness' of the Christian gospel in the opposing arena. No one paid attention to the foundation though. Changing the gospel is not the answer to doubts and objections.

Reacting to an Ideology

What if we were to become attack dogs, quickly pouncing on any opposing view or thinking to Christianity? The focus discipleship cannot be offensive destruction of world-views. Disciples are not meant to be wrecking balls for Jesus. When we're solely reacting to rebellious persuasions, we lose sight of the joy, grace, and dependence we have in the gospel. We rely on our own brains, studies, and rational arguments to beat the other side. We don't believe the gospel can stand on its own. We don't believe the gospel we are defending. As Luther once quipped, “Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.” Our reactions can often fail to have checks and balances in place to ward off the vulnerabilities of human pride and self-righteousness. We can quickly come under a false narrative of, “The righteous shall live by answers...” This leads to two common lies:

1. Questions and Doubt Are Sinful

There are two ways to ask a question: cynicism and doubt. Cynicism says, “I don't know and I don't care.” Doubt says, “I don't know, but I'd like to.” Wish the first one luck and grab coffee with the second (Prov 18:2). Cynicism is sin because pride is sin. Doubt isn't sin. Whether it's theism or the death of a saint, questions inevitably arise. Normally, it's when we bump up against our finite limitations. Questions are a fundamental aspect of our creatureliness. Our questions distinguish us from God. In Mark 9, we see Jesus interacting with a father who has more than bumped up against his finiteness. After Jesus makes the case that belief is necessary, the father responds, “I believe; help my unbelief.” (v24) Jesus doesn't recommend a doubt “detox.” Jesus gives grace to doubts and questions. Questions are not the enemy.

2. Discipleship is getting answers and having arguments.

When questions are sin, answers become righteousness. While I'm not advocating intellectual immaturity (1 Cor 14:20), we can be like Peter and relegate God's Kingdom for another. When that kingdom is attacked, we'll draw our human weapons and strike off ears. If the Kingdom is won by intellectual beat-downs, have at all the arguments you can get your hands on. The Kingdom isn't won that way. We come equipped with the sword of the Spirit and pierce hearts. The Kingdom isn't a matter of talk, but of power (1 Cor 4:20). A farmer doesn't see fruit spring up by continually striking the ground constantly. It's part of a greater process of planting and growing. We plant and water with our confidence in God who gives growth (1 Cor 3:7). It is his gospel that bears fruit (Col 1:6). See, at the root of our co-opting and reactionary attempts to win arguments, we are placing our own minds at the center. We think we are God and we want to be God.

Responding to the Gospel

The gospel is the word of truth (Col 1:5). Not just for the 1^st century or just the 21^th. It is the trans-generational, transnational and trans-cultural truth of God for all the world all the time. We don't react to the gospel, but receive it and respond to it. As our whole lives become oriented around the gospel, they progressively become a response to God (Rom 12:1-2). This being the case, it will inevitably confront the unrighteousness in any ideological flavor of the week. We will see problems in the unbelieving mind as it continues to detour around who God is and what he has done. However, Paul told the Colossians, “Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Col 2:6-7). After Paul reminds them what the Christian life is, he warns them to not submit to life and practice that isn't “according to Christ”(v8). As we respond to the gospel, we will have the courage to confront and correct, not from being a intellectual jock, but a humble servant. The gospel changes our posture towards objecting views in four significant ways as we recognize it isn't our work, but God's.

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. - 2 Tim 2:24-25

1. It Makes Us Humble and Hopeful

When it's all up to you and your mind, you lust for the triumphs. People aren't stupid though. If you are in it simply to win it, they'll sniff that out a mile away. If your hope comes from winning arguments, you'll leave real people in your wake as rubble. As soon as you come up against someone who can spit game better and win, you'll be absolutely devastated. However, we can be hopeful even in conversations that come to a stalemate, because God gives the growth. I've learned from Douglas Wilson, “Win men, not arguments.” We can go into discussions humbled under the weight of knowing it is God who is mighty to save, not us. This gives us a humble and hopeful posture for our conversations with others.

2. It Makes us Patient and Kind

When it's all up to you, walking on eggshells is normative. You will be fear tripping over your words and lose sleep over proper sentence structure. Every poke and prod at your argument will feel like an attack against you. However, the gospel is God's power, not your eloquence (1 Cor 1:17). We can breathe deep, walk humbly and carry a big cup of coffee. The converting power they need is God's power. With this in view, kindness will be genuine since we aren't trying to spin the plates of arguing while standing on the wobbly stilts of self-righteousness. Kindness doesn't not mean being a door mat, but it does mean we are as welcoming as one. Enduring evil is a unique hallmark of the Christian. There will be times when you may need to simply endure. The gospel frees us to be patient with the banter, endure the ad hominem, and persevere with the strength of Christ who endured evil on our behalf. Do not repay evil for evil. Because God is at work and not us, we can be patient and kind.

3. We Can Correct While Being Gentle

When it's all up to you, you don't just correct wrong thinking, you win arguments. You say things like, "Whatever the cost, win the argument." Paul reminds us the truth ought to be vindicated against falsity. There is no reason to think the gospel makes you check your brain at the door. We can and should correct where correction is required. Jesus didn't leave bad thinking alone, but he also didn't go around breaking bruised reeds. Because the gospel is true and good news for everyone, we must speak it and defend it, but we will do it out of love.

4. We Will Trust in God

We know it's not all up to us and that God is gracious and sovereign. God would have been just in leaving us in our unrighteousness. Things could be way way worse than modernism and post-modernism. God upholds things by the word of his power. Paul exhorts Timothy to trust in God who is sovereign. He is the giver of repentance. It is his good pleasure to give. This means we pray. Pray like the father would have prayed for his prodigal; so they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the enemy. We don't rely on our mental metal but on God and his grace.

For more on this, Tim Keller on "How the Gospel Shapes our Apologetics”

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Ben Riggs resides in Dayton, Ohio with his incredible and lovely bride Emily. He is Gathering Assistant at Apex Community Church and a house church leader in that area. He is the proprietor of pageflipping.blogspot.com. Ben has a passion to see the power and depths of the God’s gospel be drawn out for all aspects of life for God and others in God’s world.

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Continue reading on doubt: Questioning the Gospel by Jonathan Dodson and Gospel Filibustering by Ben Riggs.

Should a Christian Smoke Pot?

Should a Christian smoke pot? To many in the church this question may sound too absurd to warrant serious consideration. If you live in Washington or Colorado it is a real discipleship question. Given the changing cultural landscape of North America, it is not difficult to imagine a day when marijuana will become just as ubiquitous as tobacco. Considering this trend toward social acceptance and de-criminalization, it will be an issue facing you, your community, and your family in the near future. Your not-yet believing neighbors will invite you over to smoke and you will have to answer this question. A new believer will wonder if they have to give it up. Your children will likely grow up in a world where it is legal. Whether you want to think about it or not, you will be faced with this question.

Many will say, "what's the big deal?" After all, heroes of the faith past and present smoke cigars and pipes recreationally. Charles Spurgeon's love of cigars is so well documented tobacco companies used his name and story to sell them! What's the difference between enjoying tobacco, which is an acceptable drug, and enjoying marijuana, which is on its way to being an acceptable drug? What about the other acceptable "drugs" consumed on a daily basis by faithful men and women across the globe: alcohol and caffeine. If you can consume wine and beer responsibly, can't you do the same with pot? Still others will say, the Bible doesn't say it is wrong or right, and is a decision for each individual to make on their own. Finally, others will respond to this by simply saying, "It's just wrong, you obviously shouldn't smoke pot!" These are honest responses to this question. They also fall short of examining closely the issue at hand and the breadth of scripture.

Before we get into an argument, it's important to clarify what we are pursuing. As believers and followers of Jesus, our goal is just that: to grow in trust and obedience to Jesus. Our actions should be the ones that help us know God more deeply and be conformed to his image. Our question should be, does smoking marijuana help us in our pursuit of holiness? Does marijuana grow our faith, our worship, or missional efforts? Does it hinder us? Or, is it simply neutral? I believe the Scriptures offer us four guiding principles that should influence our decision to "just say no" or smoke. While scripture does not explicitly mention marijuana, it certainly isn’t silent on this issue.

Christians are Called to Submission

The Christian life is synonymous with submission: to Christ as Lord, to one another, to church leadership, and to government authorities. One always wants to take great care to follow first and foremost the law of the Lord rather than manmade laws (cf. Col 2:20-21). However, it is clear from scripture that the Lord intends for man to live in a peaceful, ordered way. Governments and other structures of authority are a normative means through which order is achieved. Authority is not inherently evil. We even see evidence of this in the trinitarian nature of God himself (Mat 26:39). The first of our guiding principles is that the Christian is clearly called to obey the laws of the land in which he lives, the authority structure under which he find himself as a natural result of living in God’s world. When the law of the land explicitly proscribes use of marijuana, even if it is culturally acceptable, the only ethical choice for the follower of Jesus is to submit to the authorities. In this submission you are baring the image of Christ, who submitted fully to the Father and the authorities.

It is the Christian’s duty to obey those in authority over him (Westminster Larger Catechism, 124). In the church-state nexus of the ancient Israelite community, the connection was extremely easy to see between obedience to God and submission to state law. They were one and the same. However, we see similar commands also given in the New Testament, which was written during a time when the situation was quite different. Romans 13:1-7 calls Christians to “be subject to the governing authorities,” and that “those [that] exist have been instituted by God.” This is particularly remarkable considering Paul wrote this in a time when Nero, who was notoriously cruel to Christians, was in power. First Peter 2:13-14 similarly commands, “Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” Peter goes on to explain that an important part of the life and ministry of the Christian has to do with the way they submit to authority, even in harsh situations involving suffering.

For a Christian who finds himself in the situation in which he is living in a state where use of marijuana is illegal, it would be disobedient to Christ to disobey the law. Disregarding the authority of the local government is disregarding our Lord, Jesus. Most believers would agree with this. But what about the places where it is legal, we can indulge? Is it "to each his own" in Washington and Colorado?

Drunkenness is Unambiguously Prohibited in Scripture

Scientific data in regard to the effects of marijuana on the user are notoriously varied. At times it seems like advocates for marijuana are discussing an altogether different drug than those who oppose it (see Alison Mack and Janet Joy's work for the Institute of Medicine, Marijuana as Medicine? the Science Beyond the Controversy). For the sake of this discussion, we will assume that using marijuana produces an intoxicating effect in the user that is comparable to drunkenness. I acknowledge in advance that this statement is an unfortunate oversimplification, but for the purposes of this article it serves us well. The short scope of this article does not permit an in-depth look into the nuances and effects of various types of marijuana consumption. However, a clear link can be made between the overconsumption of alcohol and drug use. One large difference between the two is that one can consume alcohol without becoming drunk. Recreational marijuana, on the other hand, is used for the explicit purpose of getting “high.” So, we are not comparing marijuana to alcohol, but rather we are comparing marijuana to drunkenness.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament strictly forbid drinking too much or intoxication. Wine is first mentioned in Genesis when Noah produces it after the great flood subsides. In Genesis 9:21 we see Noah’s abuse of alcohol leading to a shameful incident with his son, Ham. Noah then curses Ham, whose son is Canaan, leading to the Canaanite people whose existence is a perpetual burden to the people of God throughout the Old Testament. No explicit imperative against drunkenness is given here, but the arch of the story teaches the powerful lesson that drunkenness leads to profound disobedience and curses. Additionally, throughout the Old Testament, drunkenness is associated with men of ungodly character (Lev 10:1-11; Sam 25:36; 1Kgs 16:9; 20:16). Proverbs 20:1 clearly explains, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”

In the New Testament Paul repeatedly teaches against drunkenness (1Cor 11:21; Eph 5:18; 1Tim 3:8). In Revelation, drunkenness is typical of the nations that are far from God (Rev 17:2; 18:3). In Galatians 5:19-21, one of the “deeds of the flesh” listed by Paul is sorcery. The Greek word is φαρμακεία, the etymological root of our English word, “pharmacy.” Drugs were often used as part of the spells of those who practiced this kind of sorcery. This sorcery, and drug use, is presented in direct opposition to living according to the fruit of the Spirit.

Apart from merely forbidding drunkenness, the word of God lifts up a certain type of life that is hard to achieve if you are drunk or high. We are called to be “sober-minded” (2Tim 4:5) and able to take care of our families (1Tim 5:8). Marijuana has been shown to stunt brain development, hinder social ambition, and commonly leads to depression and schizophrenia. Living in a fallen world is hard enough. Submitting ourselves to the effects of marijuana make it extremely difficult to simply do good. To contrast this, the Christian is to, “not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it” (Prov 3:27). Submitting oneself to the effects of drunkenness and marijuana make this impossible.

Ultimately we see that, no matter what our situation, the Christian is to live life by walking in the Spirit, controlled by no other substance (Eph 5:18). This is how we are to become the kind of people God has called us to be and you can't do that while being drunk or high.

Physical Health is Connected to Proper Worship

God has called humanity to be stewards of his creation. This includes our bodies. The Christian’s world is not one that is strictly spiritual. Howard A. Snyder explains, “Spirit and matter are not two different worlds...They are interlaced dimensions of the one world God created in its entirely and intends to redeem, save, liberate and heal in its entirety.” Christ came in the flesh in part to rescue and redeem our bodies (Rom 8:23). The Lord is intimately concerned with not only our souls but also with our physical bodies. Therefore, the choices we make with our bodies either honor and worship the Lord, or they do not.

Smoking marijuana leads to thousands of hospitalizations in the US every year. It has been known to cause cancer, cognitive and behavioral impairment, and increased risk of psychosis, among other harmful effects. (You can read more about these studies here). It additionally leads to fatal “drunk” driving car accidents and countless deaths caused by the black market system that is often used to deliver the drugs to users. Thousands of deaths a year are caused globally due to the criminal market for narcotics. While marijuana may not be as addictive as other substances, it has still been shown that 9% of people who try it do in fact become addicted. It has been argued that addiction can divide the self of the Christian and increase the difficulty in the battle against sin in daily life (see Christopher C. H. Cook, Alcohol, Addiction and Christian Ethics). The addictive nature of the drug should raise a red flag for us, especially in light of Paul’s words, “I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor 6:12). The Lord, lover and creator of all life, is grieved when any of his people would make decisions that may harm the physical life of himself or others.

In addition to introducing physical harm to the body, smoking marijuana can lead one to idolatry. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.” In the context of sexual immorality here, he explains that when one sins with his body he commits an act of false worship. He explains the same can be said of the misuse of food in Philippians 3:19 where for some enemies of Christ, “their god is their belly.” Here worship of what one eats is directly opposed to worship of Christ. It is clear that the Lord considers what we do with our bodies an act of worship. This truth, should give the Christian even further cause to abstain.

Is marijuana God’s best design for our bodies? At best, marijuana may harm one’s health, and at worst its use could lead to death and idolatry. We want our existence to be one that honors the Lord our God to the fullest extent. In regard to how we treat our physical bodies, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which it would be normative to needlessly introduce harmful practices and habits like recreational marijuana smoking.

Our Relationships with Others

As worshipers of Jesus, we follow in his example to lay down our lives for the sake of others (John 15:13; Eph 5:25). So, it should not surprise us that scripture recommends we exercise great care and caution in regard to the consumption of all things controversial. This is especially true when relationships with other believers are in view. In such scenarios, the unity of the community and the health of relationships is stressed over and above the personal pleasure of the individual. In Paul’s discourse in Romans 14 we see that we should undoubtedly consider how our consumption of these controversial items might cause a fellow Christian to sin. While one person may be able to smoke in a non-sinful way, seeing him may cause a weaker brother to fall into using marijuana in a sinful way. Consideration of the effect on others must play a role in what a Christian decides to eat, drink, and smoke.

Christians are also called to consider the views and opinions of those who don't believe. We are to love everyone as a neighbor (Luke 10:25-37). As worshipers of the Lord, we are called to represent him to the world. Both the Old and New Testament refers to the people of God as a kingdom of priests (Ex 19; Rev 1:6). This is a high calling and demands a certain amount of examination of our public life. Christ tells us, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mat 5:16). I make no attempt to argue the validity of these associations, but the fact that they exist in the perception of many North Americans is undeniable: marijuana is commonly associated with laziness, lack of ambition, and the shirking of responsibility. We are called to attract people to Christ, not repel them. As a people, we are to “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [us] for a reason for the hope that is in [us]” (1Pet 3:15). It is hard to believe that someone would be attracted to our hope while we are under the influence of marijuana. It is perhaps even harder to imagine that while under this influence a Christian would truly be able to make a winsome, compelling defense of this hope. The opinions of others is not the sole factor in our ethical decision-making process, but it is clear, from scripture, that one’s neighbor should be an important element in the equation. Does smoking marijuana, in any meaningful sense, advance the mission of making disciples?

Just Say No

Is anything in the life of the Christian to be lost by, “just saying no?” What does a Christian lose by abstaining from this recreational drug? After taking a genuine look at these four principles, it is hard to imagine a scenario where the Christian could ethically make recreational use of marijuana. If you are still not convinced, I would ask: why is it important to you? If you cannot answer

Using marijuana raises a complex variety of familial, legal, medical, religious, societal, and ethical issues, and this article is far from comprehensive. Certainly more work needs to be done to answer the flow of fresh questions that continues to rush in from those inside and outside the church. For the time being, marijuana is still illegal in most areas in the Unites States, and the Christian is called to fidelity to this governmental authority. The abuse of alcohol, and the ensuing effects, are treated as a great hindrance to the life of the believer throughout Scripture, and it is safe to place marijuana use in this same category. As stewards of our bodies and protectors of life, we should refrain from using any drug that clearly leads to bad health and addiction. And finally, we must remember to consider others greater than ourselves (Phil 2:3). In many cases smoking marijuana will cause the Christian to fall short in his calling to love his neighbors, both inside and outside the church.

The goal of the Christian life is to know, love, and worship our Lord and Savior. As an extension of his own good character, the Lord has graciously given us the Bible so that we would know how to love and worship him. The many questions surrounding marijuana use in the life of the Christian can be boiled down into one simpler issue: “Does doing this help me worship the Lord?” According to the principles listed here, it simply does not.

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Joe Congdon is part of a church planting being sent to Tokyo, Japan with Mission to the World.  He is finishing his MDiv at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, where he lives with his wife and two kids. When he is not thinking through issues of art, missiology, and theology, he loves spending time at home with his family. Follow their efforts at RestoreJapan.com and on Twitter @JoeToTheWorld

Praying For Bad Things to Happen To Bad People

When was the last time you were mad at someone? I mean really mad? Mad enough to pray that God would do something terrible to them? As I read my news feeder this morning articles about the trial of an abortionist in Philadelphia occupied the bandwidth of my iPad. From exposure, to trial details, to commentary on the issues at hand the Gosnell murder trial was front and center. As I read the details of the trial a very sinister and unsanitized thought entered my head. "Maybe they will find him guilty and snip his spine at the base of his neck like he did to all those babies... or worse!" As soon as it was tracking through my frontal lobe though, I felt guilt. How awful that I would think some sort of thought like that towards this man. My Christian upbringing has taught me to reject thoughts like that as vengeful, angry, and wrong. I deserve wrath just as much as Gosnell does. I deserve death for my sin just as deeply as he does. Thinking like that has no place in the mind of a Christian. Or does it? Psalm 137 has long been an intriguing and difficult passage for me to handle. What place does a song that ends with "dash their babies heads against the rocks" have in the Bible? It sounds so vengeful, so vitriol, so wrong. How did a song that elevates the death and vengeance of another people come to be in the Bible, be considered "Christian," or even inspired Scripture? Maybe the problem isn't with the Bible. Maybe the problem is with our view of justice and the place of praying prayers that ask for God to pummel our enemies into dust.

The Imprecatory Category

Within the Psalms themselves we find more than just one example of expressions like Psalm 137. Some have categorized these unique Psalms into a category of prayer labeled "imprecatory Psalms." As C.S. Lewis states in, Reflections on the Psalms: "In some of the Psalms the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like the heat from a furnace mouth." These Psalms are ones in which an appeal to God is made to curse, destroy, or remove an enemy of the writer. They are pleas for vengeance, justice, and equity for the downtrodden.

The problem with this category of Psalm is that it doesn't seem to fit with the other parts of Scripture. How can we pray things like Psalm 109 prays?

 Let his years be few; let someone else take his position. May his children become fatherless, and his wife a widow. May his children wander as beggars and be driven from their ruined homes. May creditors seize his entire estate, and strangers take all he has earned. Let no one be kind to him; let no one pity his fatherless children. - Psalm 109:8-12, NLT.

If we’re humble to the Scriptures then, functionally we have to put this category of imprecatory prayers within our Christian lives. If we are going to submit ourselves to the Scripture in every part and believe what the Bible says, then we have to figure out how this kind of prayer fits our lives. The Psalms themselves were collected and used as a worship songbook for the nation of Israel. Psalm 137, as one of the songs of Ascents, was probably recited as the Jews went up to Jerusalem for the annual festivals. Jesus himself most likely recited this Psalm on his way to Jerusalem for one of the Passover Feasts he observed. But can you even imagine the words "Blessed be the one who dashes their babies heads against the rocks" coming out of Jesus' mouth?

A Tolerant Unimprecatory World

It may sound trite to say that our world has stripped the Biblical notions of justice, vengeance and righteous anger from just about anywhere. To look at a person who has deeply sinned against us and pray to God "Let no one be kind to him" is categorically mean. Our tolerance of people who would even pray like this even further diminished. Didn't Jesus himself say, "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44)? Praying that they have a very difficult time of things in life however doesn't seem to equate with loving your enemy.

Let's face it, the only people our world allows us to be intolerant with are intolerant people. It doesn't fit with the cultural Zeitgeist of our times. Even at its core praying that God strikes down people opposed to us doesn't feel loving. It doesn't feel Christian. Functionally many Christians have just removed these sorts of passages from their Bibles altogether. Worse yet is that we have ignored and forgotten this sort of thing is even in the Bible. The question is are we listening to culture more than we are listening to our Bibles on this issue? Is there room for prayers and songs such as these?

One of the reasons we struggle to pray things like this is because we struggle, culturally, with the concept of justice. More specifically, we have lost the categories of right and wrong. And yet, we all know it is there. The families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting categorically understand “right” and “wrong”. The recent Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath spoke to us, collectively, as a “wrong” event. Immediately after the capture of the suspected bomber the Boston police department tweeted “justice has won.” Yet without a category of right and wrong, good and evil, the concept of justice falls down everywhere. Justice in its essence means good for the righteous and evil for the wicked. If there is no real rights and no real wrongs in this world, and everything is left as a cultural preference in our society, then justice itself is a construct we can also do away with. Hitler, Stalin, Gosnell, bin Laden, and every rapist, murderer, pedophile, and terrorist should go free and be left alone to their own devices.

Our hearts, internally, don’t leave us with that option. In our hearts, regardless of how relative and tolerant we are, we desire justice. We want right to be right, and the wrong to be wrong. Especially if we are wronged. We want justice.

For this very reason God’s justice comes to us as a welcome relief. God’s justice tells us that he will do the right thing, for the right people, in the right way, at the right time. Justice for God speaks of all his perfections coming to bear on his creation in beautiful exactness. The Scriptures so clearly affirm that God is just, and will always be just. As Abraham attempted to negotiate with God for the safety of the city of Sodom on behalf of the righteous inhabitants there he called forth God’s justice and stated, “Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25, NLT). The tension for us is that we often wonder where God’s justice is. We want justice now. We want blood today. We want punishment and vengeance to fall upon the guilty against us at this very moment. Wrong must be punished; right must be honored.

Entrusting The Means To God

One of the reasons that I appreciate the imprecatory Psalms so much is that they give me a legitimate means by which to express frustration with God about the injustice of this world. They give me a category and an outlet to help me deal with both persons and circumstances of injustice, immorality. They put me in my place and give God the rightful place he has as Lord over all.

When we look at the Imprecatory Psalms we see that the Psalmist isn't just praying ill will on others, and then going out and carrying that ill will out himself. The Psalmist is expressing himself to God in need. He is saying, "God things are so bad here right now because of this, will you enact vengeance upon them because of their wickedness." There is an air of release in praying these things. In appealing to God to act in this way the Psalmist is giving themselves and the outcome over to God. They are entrusting themselves to a faithful Creator. This doesn't mean God, at that moment will do as the person has prayed. It means that the responsibility of setting things straight is put into the hands of the rightful authority.

For many the idea of praying about vengeance and justice is a foreign notion, because we don't want to be mean about it to others. However, God gives us that means as a matter of faith. When I pray about the difficult situations or people in my sphere of life, or the world at large, I am asking God to take control. I am relinquishing my right to stand as judge, jury and executioner and giving that mantle to God.

Vengeance Is Mine, Says the Lord

Often times I think I don't allow myself to pray in these ways because I doubt God will deal with it. I doubt that he will actually act justly, and so I hope that someone else will do it. As soon as I had my thought about Kermit Gosnell I despaired. In my mind I played out the thoughts that the judge would go lenient on him, that he'd get off on a technicality, and that he'd walk free, even lauded, in our society. My despair was brought on by the fact that I had forgotten about the justice of God. I was hoping that someone, somewhere would give this "monster" his due.

Only God can do that rightly. Only God can bring vengeance down upon us because of our sins. With the imprecatory category I can now pray "let his years be few" and stop worrying about whether God will do it full justice. He is fully just. His action will be right and adequate. The end of the Scripture story is very clear, God will bring full, precise, wise justice upon all those who oppose God and his ways. The angels sing “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” (Revelation 16:5–6, ESV). God will give to everyone what they deserve. Justice will be served.

However, for some this justice has already been served. This makes our prayer for justice a tension filled one. For in praying these sorts of things it might so happen in a different manner. The vengeance that God might pour out against wickedness might have already been secured. On the cross Jesus bore the full weight of God's justice and wrath for those who believe. In Jesus violent murder, an unjust and evil act in itself, the righteous justice of God was performed. Jesus as our substitute stood in our place and took our penalty, God’s wrath, for our sins. As I pray for vengeance upon my enemies and wicked people God’s answer might result in the person hearing and receiving the gospel news and believing fully in Jesus. In that case justice has been served. Christ has stood in their place, he has taken their penalty, he has absorbed the full weight of the wrath of God and the vengeance of God has been applied. The offending sinner has been given a clean slate. The question is am I okay with God's mercy and justice in this situation? Will I entrust myself to him to do what he deems best with each and every individual?

Maybe the real problem with our prayers for justice is that we are afraid of God being just, and answering with mercy towards the sinner. It is in the case that we need to repent of our arrogance and self-righteousness. Were we not the ones that were rebellious and wicked and offensive to God as well? Did we not deserve death for our sins? Did not Christ take our punishment himself? Maybe we don’t understand God’s justice.

Pray Boldly

Maybe our faith and prayers are too weak. We don't pray boldly enough for both the justice and mercy of God. Maybe we are missing a means of gospel transformation in our own lives by not taking up the Psalms and praying those words to God. This includes the feelgood "The Lord is my shepherd" (Psalm 23) type Psalms as well as the "may they perish at the rebuke of your face" (Psalm 80) imprecatory prayers.

We ought to pray the entire Psalter, both highs and lows and in so doing let the actions of justice, grace, vengeance, mercy and hope be given over to God, who is faithful and true. Let's pray boldly and let's entrust ourselves to God who pours out his perfect justice at the cross, and will do so again at the Final Judgement. It will make us more compassionate, more bold, and better equipped to deal with hard statements in the Scriptures.

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Jeremy Writebol is the Executive Director of GCD. He is the husband of Stephanie and father of Allison and Ethan. He serves as the lead campus pastor of Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, MI. He is also an author and contributor to several GCD Books including everPresent and Make, Mature, Multiply. He writes personally at jwritebol.net. You can read all of Jeremy’s articles for GCD here.

What is the purpose of the Bible?

I was recently taking a walk with my family through our neighborhood. We ran into some neighbor friends and in the midst of conversation began discussing the recent History Channel series, “The Bible.” The neighbor asked my thoughts on the program’s accuracy, both historically and theologically. This opened the door for the question: What is the purpose of the Bible? This is a great question that is not always answered well. There are several misconceptions about the Bible’s purpose. For some, the Bible is seen as a collection of mythical stories about heroes whose point is to convey a moral lesson. For others, the Bible is seen as a book of lessons and rules by which we live good lives. In the over-churched yet under-gospeled South, the Bible has even been misapplied to justify preferences, lifestyles, and, at times, foolishness, that Scripture itself does not mandate.

Often, this stems from limiting the Bible to information that a person should learn – mere knowledge to acquire but never practice. Likewise, the Bible can be limited to mere practical steps for living. While both of these features are important and have a role in discipleship, they miss the full purpose of Scripture. Scripture is a grand story of redemption in which we find our story. It is the authoritative word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, revealing the person and work of Jesus. When we listen to Scripture in discipleship, we will be transformed to become more like Jesus together.

Listening Well

As a music major in college, I studied classical guitar. I also played in a local band that kept busy playing shows, recording albums, and pursuing the rockstar dream. This often  kept me from a disciplined practice of classical guitar. Once in a group meeting of all the classical guitar majors, our instructor advised, “Be sure you’re listening to good music. Don’t listen to junk that’ll just ruin your ears. Listen well and strive to create something good.” He urged us to focus on both music theory and practice.

Around that time I attended a concert in Atlanta featuring Christopher Parkening, one of the greatest classical guitarists of our time. Parkening played solo guitar in a way I never thought possible. His dynamic style featured fast, technical melodies as well as lush, peaceful tones. The concert was nothing less than inspirational. In that moment, I witnessed the beauty of both the technical theory of music and its performance. I was transformed and encouraged to study the technique of classical guitar as well as to strive to excel as a performing musician. This affected not only me, personally, but also my fellow classmates, as we cheered each other on toward better performance.

Similarly, our discipleship is a marriage of theory and practice – the information of gospel truth as well as the practical application of that good news. In this way, Scripture becomes the tune to which we are to listen – a beautiful symphony composed and performed by God.

The “information” of Scripture is the grand story of redemption, revealing the identity, character, and nature of our God. This story’s hero is Christ himself. In teaching his disciples, Jesus states, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

Likewise, the “practice” of Scripture is the application of this truth. James 1:22 says to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Other examples include the instruction to love one another (John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 1:22, 4:8; 1 John 3:11), fellowship with one another (1 John 1:3-7, Acts 2:42-47), forgive one another (Ephesians 4:25-32), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another (Galations 5:13-14), teach one another (Colossians 3:16), be patient with one another (1 Thessalonians 5:14), pray for one another (James 5:13-16), submit to one another (Ephesians 5:1-21), and encourage one another (1Thessalonians 5:11-15). Since our new identity is found in the person and work of Christ, new actions and a new way of living follow.

As we listen, we take in not only the information of gospel truth but also the practical application of this good news, thereby being transformed to become more like Christ together. Acts 2:42-47 is a great example:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The disciples’ devotion to the teaching affected their personal lives as well as their shared community. Through worship and obedient action together, their hearts were “glad and generous.” They did not merely do generous things, they had an inner transformation together. This is summed up in the word “fellowship,” which describes a community of active participation.

Rhythmic Participation

Heeding the wisdom of our guitar instructor, we music majors devoted ourselves to classical guitar together. We would listen well and practice often; culminating in performing recitals and concerts, both as soloists and together in ensembles. There’s a drastic difference between being being a mere listener of music and being a musician. And although many can appreciate the sound of good music, its creation comes from those who not only listen but who also devote to practice and performance. So it is with discipleship in listening to Scripture.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In this gospel commission, Jesus charges the disciples to make disciples by bringing to bear both the “information” and “application” of the good news together for transformation.

First, we see that “teaching” is sharing the information of the gospel. Jesus states that all Scripture bears witness about him (John 5:39) and that Scripture written about him in the law of Moses, Psalms, and Prophets would be fulfilled in him (Luke 24:44). Since all Scripture is about Christ, this is what we are to teach. This is the information of the gospel.

Second, we see the application of the gospel in the instruction “to observe all that I have commanded you.” Teaching is not a one-time passing of information but the ongoing action of kneading the gospel into the hearts and minds of disciples through observing what has been taught. When questioned by the religious elite of the day, Jesus replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” In quoting Scripture from Deuteronomy 6, Jesus displays his authority over the Old Testament as well as the continuity of God’s redemptive plan in gospel discipleship.

Third, we see transformation in Christian discipleship. Discipleship begins with Christ (“all that I have commanded you”) and involves both a teaching disciple (“teaching”) and a learning disciple (“to observe”). Yet teaching information alone is not sufficient in becoming a disciple. Likewise, merely adhering to what is taught or commanded does not truly encompass discipleship. True discipleship in light of the gospel gives disciples of Christ a new identity that results in new action. This transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit that includes both instant and ongoing action.

As we listen to Scripture, the Holy Spirit works to transform us, empower us, and mature us together.

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Jeremy Carr (ThM, MDiv) is lead teaching pastor and co-founding elder of Redemption Church in Augusta, GA. He has been a member of the Acts 29 network since 2007 and has written for the Resurgence. Jeremy is husband to Melody and father to Emaline, Jude, Sadie, and Nora. His book, Sound Words: Listening to the Scriptures, will be released by GCD books in May. Twitter: @pastorjcarr.

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Can Racially Diverse Churches Exist?

In 2006, I planted Emmaus Church with a small team of people who dreamed of a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic, multi-racial church. We had a vision that our church would not just have racially integrated worship services but also racially integrated community life because of the reconciling power of the gospel. In the early years of pursuing this vision, we were often told this goal was impossible to reach (especially for a church in Portland, Oregon, the whitest major city in America). I would like to report to you that we never for a moment believed such voices, and we never failed to believe that God was willing and able to make our vision become reality.

But I can’t.

Despite our full commitment to pursuing a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic, multi-racial church – and despite our unwillingness to settle for only half of that equation – we often doubted it could happen. And when it did in fact happen, we then doubted it could be sustained. Of course we have not been alone in this sentiment. The vast majority of pastors I know would love for their churches to reflect the racial diversity of their cities. Yet those very same pastors make little to no attempt to actually achieve that desire. This is because in America, in general, and in American Christianity, in particular, there are so many factors working against a truly integrated church family that it most often feels like a fool’s errand.

But is it?

Can American Christians find themselves in gospel-centered, multi-ethnic, multi-racial churches that are integrated both in and beyond the Sunday gathering? Can this be normal? Based on the Scriptures and my personal experience, I believe the answer is “no and yes.”

No, Racially Diverse Churches Cannot Be Normal

Racially diverse churches cannot be normal because unity is not normal. Human beings have been against each other since Adam and Eve hid their nakedness and blamed each other before God. It is in our sinful nature to be both divided and divisive (Galatians 5:19-21). This is one of the reasons that the Homogenous Unit Principle often works; it appeals to the sinful desires of our hearts to exalt ourselves and separate from those who do not likewise exalt us by affirming who we are and what we like.

This inborn tendency toward division and divisiveness is made even stronger by the social construct of race because it provides us with (false) justification for our sin. If we adopt the man-made category of race we escape condemnation because we are now convinced that our division and divisiveness is not a product of our self-centered hearts but a product of God-ordained biology. This is how American slavery was defended in the 18^th and 19^th centuries (e.g. “God built white superiority into creation so he intends for society to function this way”), and this is how the segregation of American churches is often defended in the 21^st centuries (e.g. “God made us to worship differently, so it makes sense for us to worship separately”).

In light of the fact that we have inherited both a sinful tendency toward division and a social construct that exploits it, a truly racially unified church will never be normal. Never. This is clearly implied in Jesus’ extended prayer on the eve of his death. In John 17, Jesus prays three times for the Father to unite the members of his church with one another just as Jesus is united with the Father. He then twice says that it is through such unity that the world will know that Jesus is who he says he is (John 17:21, 23). In other words, unity of this sort is so rare that the world simply cannot explain it apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is in fact the utter abnormality of true unity that makes people stop, notice, and seek an explanation when it sees Jesus’ church united.

Yes, Racially Diverse Churches Can Be Normal 

The fact that unity requires an explanation reveals that unity is not normal, but the fact that Jesus is the explanation for said unity reveals that unity can become normal for those who are in Christ. Thus, while racially diverse churches will never be normal in America, they can become the new normal for American Christians because Jesus has not only done everything necessary to unite us to God, he has done everything necessary to unite us to each other. Consequently, living to see racially integrated churches as the new normal is not just possible, it is preferable for at least three reasons.

First, we should do everything we can to make racially diverse churches the new normal because this is a model Scripture gives us. In Acts 6, the apostles work to integrate and unify a culturally diverse church and, as a result, “the word of God spread” (Acts 6:7). In Acts 11:19-26, we are introduced to the ethnically diverse church of Antioch, and in Acts 13:1-2, we are introduced to their diverse leadership team which consisted of blacks and whites, Africans and Greeks, Gentiles and Jews. I do not think it is a coincidence that it was in Antioch that the disciples were first referred to as “Christians” (pejorative or not), as their multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-ethnic unity could only be explained by their connection to Christ.

Second, we should do everything we can to make racially diverse churches the new normal because racially diverse churches reflect the coming kingdom. When the Apostle John received the revelation, he was given a vision of the redeemed which he described as “a great multitude…of every nation, tribe, people and language” worshiping God in unison (Revelation 7:9). This is what Jesus’ coming kingdom will look like. The church is tasked with bringing a foretaste of this coming kingdom into this present world. Thus, as much as the American church works to bring God’s kingdom into this world through helping the poor, forgiving offenders, and healing the sick, we should also work to bring God’s kingdom into this world through integrating our worshiping communities.

Third, we should do everything we can to make racially diverse churches the new normal because Jesus is the only reasonable explanation for racially integrated churches. True unity between human beings is so rare that Jesus says it requires an explanation for which only his person and work will suffice. If this is true of unity in general, it is much more true of unity across racial lines for two reasons. First, racial categories are more immediately visible to Americans than any other. Second, racial tensions are more palpable and potentially explosive to Americans than any other. Therefore, racial unity is both more obvious than unity across other categories (so our non-Christian neighbors immediately recognize it) and more unlikely than unity across other categories (so our non-Christian neighbors cannot explain it). This opens the door for us to offer Jesus and his gospel as the answer to a question they are actually asking.

American Christians want to experience racially diverse churches for the reasons above. American Christians can experience racially diverse churches because Jesus has done everything necessary to unite us to God and to each other. But American Christians will experience racially diverse churches, if, and only if, we are intentional about seeking them.

Racially Diverse Churches Will Only Become Normal Through Intentionality

Racially integrated churches do not “just happen” any more than conversion “just happens.” Though the Holy Spirit is the only one who can convert people who are spiritually dead, he chooses to do so through human beings who commit themselves to declaring and displaying the gospel to their neighbors. In the same way, though Jesus is the only one who can build racially integrated churches, he does so through human beings who commit themselves to building racially integrated churches.

Are you willing to make that commitment?

If so, there is no formula for success apart from a wholehearted commitment to what seems impossible and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to get there. This means that what is right for another church may not be right for yours. For example, I know of a gospel-centered, multi-racial church that became racially integrated largely because of its exceptional worship team, which was intentionally multi-cultural in its song choice and performance. This worked for them. Yet because of the limited pool of human and financial resources we had when we planted, this would not have worked for Emmaus. Instead, we made a conscious decision to avoid having any music in our worship services for the first year and a half of our existence. We knew that the moment we chose one musical style over another we would be unintentionally choosing one culture over another.  Therefore, we waited for our church to become multi-racial so diverse music could come from our diverse congregation rather than the other way around.

While there is no formula for success, there are several things through which everyone who wants to experience a racially diverse church will have to think. As I share a few of these topics below, I do so with white church leaders and members (like me) in mind. I am convinced that pastors of color are much more equipped to plant and lead multi-racial churches because American culture forces them to be aware of race and to live in a multi-racial environment every day of their lives. For those like myself who need additional guidance, here are four key areas you will have to intentionally think through.

1. Church Leadership

It is very easy to say you want a racially diverse church. But few people will believe you or follow you if you are not willing to also have racially diverse leadership. If you are white, you must consider the fact that people of color are asked to submit to white leadership every day in virtually every sphere of their lives. If they are to believe your church is offering something different from the world, they will have to see you not only empowering minority leaders but also willfully sharing your authority with them and submitting your authority to them. Are you willing to do this with people who see the world and ministry through a different lens than you? This is ultimately what you’re asking your congregation to do, and they will only do it if you model it for them.

Invariably, when I talk about this particular issue with other pastors the same question comes up: Where will I find them? This very sincere question reveals two very sincere problems. The first problem is that white evangelicals live such segregated lives that they can’t think of any people of color who could be potential church leaders. The second problem is that white evangelicals define “potential church leaders” not only in biblical terms but in culturally shaped, non-biblical terms that automatically eliminate a large number of Christians of color. Are you willing to work with leaders who do not come from the overwhelmingly white Bible colleges and seminaries of your particular theological ilk? Are you willing to work with leaders who do not have leadership experience in the overwhelmingly white para-church ministries you are most familiar with? Are you willing to work with Jesus loving, gospel-centered believers who do not share your affinity for a euro-centric view of church history and theology?

2. Worship Service

When most of us think of the ideal worship service, we unintentionally think of a worship service that most appeals to our particular racial, ethnic, or cultural experience. This means that we are vulnerable to defining the elements, order, and style of a good worship service in ways that exclude or otherwise alienate those from other racial, ethnic, and cultural experiences. For instance, to the average white hipster in Portland, a good musical worship set is moody and dark, while to the average black adult in Portland, a good musical worship set is celebratory and upbeat. Similar distinctions can be observed in preferences about the length of the music set and sermon, the oratory style and chosen illustrations of the preacher, the frequency and method of receiving communion, and even the best way to welcome visitors. Are you willing to re-evaluate every detail of your worship experience in your pursuit of a fully integrated multi-racial church? If so, what is the process?

 3. Congregational Education

If an American congregation is to be racially diverse it will most likely include its share of white people. We white Americans have inherited many privileges on the sole basis of our skin tone. One such privilege is not having to think about race at all and especially not having to think of ourselves in racial categories. As such, the white members of our congregations are likely to have difficulty understanding why our church is talking about race so much and making so many intentional decisions with race in mind. It is not uncommon for white Christians in these circumstances to unintentionally and unconsciously speak and behave in ways that actually work against racial unity in the congregation. It is not that they are racist. It is that they do not know how to live in a truly racially integrated environment. Are you willing to make the white members of your congregation aware of their whiteness and all the privileges it affords them? Are you willing to call the white members of your congregation to voluntarily lay down their privileges in service to the black, Latino, Native American, and Asian members of your church and your community? If so, how will you do that?

 4. Humble Listening

If you are going to pastor an integrated church, you are going to have a church full of people whose experiences and viewpoints are different from yours. Likewise, you are going to be aiming to reach a city full of people whose experiences and viewpoints are different from yours. Formal training in Bible college or seminary can prepare you for many things in ministry, but it cannot train you to see through someone else’s eyes. Reading books and blogs from white people who do multi-racial ministry (like me) can help you ask the right questions, but it cannot help you answer them. Your own observation of another’s racial experience and cultural distinctions can be helpful, but it cannot be complete nor wholly accurate. The only way to know what the various people of color in your church or city are thinking, feeling, and desiring is to ask them and listen without any agenda other than learning from them.  Are you willing to profess your own ignorance and to have those conversations?

Racially diverse churches will never be normal. And that’s the point.

In conclusion, let me be clear that I am not an expert on multi-racial churches. Though God has graciously honored our prayers and made Emmaus a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic, multi-racial church, we are only an average-sized church, and we still have a very long way to go. For example, our city is 9% Latino, but our church is less than 2% Latino. We are dissatisfied with this and are intentionally trying to minimize that gap in order to accurately reflect the diversity of our neighborhood, bring the gospel to one of the fastest growing people groups in our city, and learn more about the God we worship through the rich contributions of Latino culture. To do this, our church is in the process of translating its bulletins, website, song slides, and other printed materials into Spanish while I, as lead pastor, am reading books on Latino culture and history, listening to my Latino neighbors, and spending more than 10 hours a week trying to learn the Spanish language. I confess that this is difficult work, and I have no idea if any of it will bear fruit. But I can guarantee we will never see fruit if we’re not intentional in our pursuit of our goal. And that goal is worth every bit of the work.

I hope that you determine the same for your church.

Integrated, racially diverse churches will never be normal. And that’s the point. It is precisely because they are abnormal that they are worth every sacrifice you have to make in pursuit of them. Their utter abnormality causes people to search for an explanation for every one of them that exists. And that explanation is solely found in who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. May you and I work together to see racially integrated churches become the new normal so that all of our churches require such an explanation.

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Cole Brown is founding pastor of Emmaus Church, a multi-racial congregation in Portland, OR. He is the author of Lies My Pastor Told Me & Lies Hip Hop Told Me and blogs on race, culture, theology and related topics at colebrownpdx.com. He lives in Portland with his wife and two children and loves Jesus, Hip Hop, and comedy. Twitter: @colebrownpdx

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Questioning the Gospel

Christians do a lot of back slapping when it comes to belief in the gospel. It’s like we’re afraid to ask hard questions, struggle through difficult times, and doubt the faith. Jenny is a new Christian. She’s well educated, thoughtful, terribly excited about the gospel, and acquainted with suffering. As we talked about her newfound faith, she explained to me that she tried church in the past. She’d had a “bad experience.” I braced myself for some church trashing, but quickly realized Jenny had something to say to the church. Jenny recounted story after story of her difficult questions being turned away by Christians and pastors. She was told, “All the answers are in the Bible. Just read it and have faith.” Her doubts were dismissed as undermining skepticism. Eventually, despite her admiration for the church, she left. Why? She wasn’t allowed to question the gospel.

The Bible Invites Doubt

Non-Christians aren’t the only ones that need to question the gospel. On the other side of faith, our discipleship should be suffused with doubt. Many of us run from it. We look down on doubt. In contrast, the whole Bible presupposes doubt. The Bible is largely written by believers to believers who doubt their beliefs. Many saints were adept at questioning God, asking questions like:

• “Will you put to death the righteous with the wicked?” (Gen 18:25)
• “Oh, Lord, will you please send someone else?” (Ex 4:13)
• “Why do the wicked prosper?” (Ps 73)
• “How long Oh Lord?” (Ps 79)
• “Have you not rejected us, O God?” (Ps 60)
• “How will this be since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34)
• “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46)
• “Why do I do what I do not want?” (Rom 7:20)

These men and women questioned God, to his face. Thomas was incredulous when told about the resurrection. Facing Jesus, he still doubted. Just prior to the ascension, with the risen Jesus standing in their midst, we’re told disciples “…worshiped but some doubted” (Matt 28:17).

Recovering the Practice of Doubt

Christians have lost the practice of doubt. Instead, we often reinforce blind faith. We gather like-minded people around us to reinforce our beliefs, while isolating ourselves from genuine questions about God, Scripture, and life. Non-Christians see this and are put off. Some assume that Christianity is pure indoctrination. Others believe that you have to check your brain at the door of church. So they remain, on the outside of the church, with important, authentic questions about the gospel, with no one to hear them out.

We need to learn from our skeptical friends and neighbors. We need to be more honest about how bizarre our faith sounds. Have you ever considered that Christianity sounds like a cult? We purport that our leader died and rose from the dead, but that he is now, conveniently, invisible. We believe that he will reappear one day to set all things right. Do you really believe this? Why? Can you account for it in a believable way? Many of the gospel teachings are slipped onto the shelf of our mental library, where they gather to collect dust. Sure we “believe” them, but don’t pull them down often enough to doubt them.

God has created a world filled with irony and incongruity. We are redeemed but we aren’t. We are perfect in God’s sight but not in real time. Jesus has defeated death and evil, but people die and suffer every day. Then, there’s the everyday struggle to believe. We possess the promises of God, but fail to believe them every single day. Instead, we believe in the fleeting promises of the world. We believe the approval of co-workers is better that the enduring approval of God the Father. We believe holding a grudge will bring more satisfaction than giving away Christ’s forgiveness. Suffering through a trial, we believe God in unjust or we are awful, instead of seeing God’s grace and goodness to purify misplaced faith in ourselves or in the comforts of this world. O, how we disbelieve.

Blind Faith is Blinding to the World

We disbelieve the gospel because we fail to doubt the gospel. We don’t interrogate it to find better promises. We don’t question God, asking him for greater joy than the fleeting satisfaction we have in comfort. We don’t query the gospel to make better sense of suffering. Instead, we place one hand over our eyes, and point upward: “Just have faith.” This is unbelievable. It is shallow.

Blind faith is blinding faith. It masks the light of the gospel, covering up the perceptive truths of Scripture that must be queried to be uncovered. People like Jenny need Christians who welcome, not stomp, doubt. An unbelieving world needs to see why the gospel is worth believing. They need to see what atonement has to do with pluralism, what regeneration has to do with environmental stewardship, what propitiation has to do with humility, what adoption has to do with sex trafficking, what justification has to do with self-esteem, what new creation has to do with the Arts, what union with Christ has to do with longings for significance. Our colleagues, coworkers, and neighbors also need to hear us doubt the gospel in face of: literature, homosexuality, racism, women, technology, pluralism, hypocrisy, evolution, and atheism, to name a few. The gospel must be questioned if we are to uncover its riches, not only for ourselves but also for the world.

Blind faith reroutes a detour around God’s design in suffering. Peter reminds us that trials are meant to make us question, reflect, and refine our faith. When we suffer the loss of a friend, job, or dream, we are meant to question the gospel. We are meant to discover, through trial, how Christ is better, not just affirm that he is better. Suffering can show us how God is sufficient and the Savior is sublime. But we must doubt. We must take our hands off our eyes to stare our troubles in the face. Only then can faith become precious and perceptive. We’ve failed to realize we are meant to doubt our way into faith every single day. When we doubt the gospel, in God’s presence, we find Jesus standing up in our circumstances, flooding them with hope.

Doubting for Joy

Standing in front of the risen Christ, “they worshipped but some doubted” (Matt 28:17). The disciples are skeptical. They possess the facts, the proofs to believe, but still don’t have faith. Or maybe they believed but lacked faith? Making a distinction between belief and faith Harvard Religion scholar, Harvey Cox writes: “We can believe something to be true without it making much difference to us, but we place our faith only in something that is vital for the way we live.” If we don’t see the gospel as vital, then we will restrict it to the realm of belief. In other words, we can believe the gospel with it making very little difference to our lives. We can believe without faith.

The way forward from belief to faith is through the path of doubt, down the road of inquiry. We must question what we believe in order to increase in faith. For Christ to become vital, we must see how essential he is, in everything. We need the vital organ of faith. Belief cannot live without faith, the animating power of actual trust in a trustworthy gospel. This comes through testing our faith, asking how God is good in our pain, what Jesus has to do with Science, how the Holy Spirit changes on culture. We need to get in front of the face of God and ask the hard questions with humility. We need to pull the gospel off the shelf and doubt it for joy.

Seeing the resurrected Jesus, some disciples “disbelieved for joy” (Lk 24:41). Doubt arose in their hearts. Jesus patiently revealed his hands and feet, scarred from his crucifixion. This was no spirit. Touching his body, they tested their beliefs (that the resurrection wasn’t plausible), and considered the immense promise this belief held if it were true. They leaned forward into faith. The closer they got to the risen Lord, under scrutiny, the more belief gave way to faith. They even watched Jesus perform an experiment, eating to prove he wasn’t an apparition. The prospect of the gospel became more compelling as they questioned the gospel in the face of Christ. They disbelieved for joy. Like the wonder we feel when we hit a homerun, ace the test, or win someone’s affection, they disbelieved for joy. Stunned in awe, they couldn’t believe it, but they were jumping up and down for joy inside. Disbelieving for joy, they fell headlong into faith.

This month marks a new series of articles at GCD following the theme of: Questioning the Gospel. We hope you’ll come doubt the gospel with us and disbelieve for joy.

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of City Life Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship andUnbelievable Gospel. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.