Names for the Nameless

“I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17)

While I was working on this chapter, I got a call from a man who wouldn’t give his name. My assistant buzzed me, laughing. “I have a man on the line who says he needs to talk with you and that it’s urgent,” she said. “He says that he’s a big fan of yours. By the way, he’s lying about that. He called you ‘Dr. Greene.’”

When I picked up the phone and said hello, I asked the man his name. “Let’s go with Bobby,” he said, “if that’s okay with you. I don’t want to give you my real name because I’m ashamed about what I’m going to tell you and, after I tell you, you won’t want to have anything to do with me. I would rather you not know who I am.”

It was an interesting conversation because neither of us knew the other’s name.

We don’t, you know. Know each other’s names, that is.

[K]nowing that your heavenly Father is for you not against you is the only reason to give up your masks and develop the type of authentic relationships you never thought you could have.

In the Bible, names aren’t just names. The name reveals the essence of the person. In fact, sometimes the names of biblical figures were changed to reflect a change in who they were. Revelation 2:17 says that we’ll have a new name in heaven and that name will reflect who we really, ultimately, are. My pointing that out probably makes both of us uncomfortable. If our name reflects the essence of who we are, then everybody will know, and (we assume) that “name” won’t be very appealing.

Isaiah, the prophet, had some good news for God’s people: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’ And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken” (Isaiah 62:11–12).

I have some good news for you too! It’s about your name, and it’s not what you think

It is said that Augustine, after he had committed his life to Christ, was approached by his former mistress. When he saw her, he started running in the other direction. She ran after him shouting, “Augustine, it’s me! It’s me!” “Yes,” he called back over his shoulder, “but it’s not me!”

When Augustine said, “But it’s not me!” it really wasn’t him! And therein lies the best news you’ll ever hear.

Let’s start with a statement made by the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:19–20: “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

According to Paul, the good news is that you’re already dead (we’ll talk a lot more about that in the next chapter).

Normally, I know that isn’t good news, but it is in this case, and I’m going to show you why. Please note that in the verses I gave you, Paul isn’t giving us a command. He’s giving us a fact. It isn’t one more thing you have to do (crucify yourself) to “get right with God,” “to change the world” or “to make your life count.” The truth is that it’s already done. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” it really was finished . . . done . . . over. In Romans 6:11, Paul wrote that we should “consider [i.e., reckon, number, think of yourself] yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” In other words, we should think in a new way about who we really are.

When you die, you not only experience resurrection, you get a new name. The name is Forgiven, Redeemed, Acceptable, and Loved. That changes everything about our hidden agendas and our masks. When you’re crucified with Christ . . .

Your Name Is Forgiven 

I once asked a Jewish friend to forgive the church and me for what we did to Jews in the name of Christ. I waited for him to tell me to get lost or, maybe, to forgive me. Instead, he started weeping. I had no idea why and asked him. “Steve,” he said, “I didn’t hear a ‘kicker’ in your remarks. Often people will say something like what you said to me but there is always a kicker. You guys want me to receive Jesus, get saved, or to ask for forgiveness for what ‘we’ did to Jesus. I waited for the kicker and there wasn’t one. Thank you.”

That conversation is one I’ve thought about a lot. One of the most tragic things about the church is that we have become, as it were, a “church of kickers.” It’s the “Of course God loves you . . . but don’t let it go to your head,” “God will forgive you . . . but don’t do it again,” “God’s your loving Father. . . but don’t forget about the discipline,” or “God loves you . . . but that should make a better person.” I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve brought up Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, his love and forgiveness given to her (John 8:1–11), and people will bring in the kicker: “Yeah, but don’t forget that Jesus told her to ‘sin no more.’” It’s not that there isn’t some truth in those statements. But they sometimes make God’s love and forgiveness so conditional that, frankly, I can’t deal with it. What was meant as good news very quickly becomes bad news because of the kicker.

I have an acquaintance in the billboard business. During the “troubles” in Northern Ireland he wanted to do some- thing about the hatred between Catholics and Protestants. Do you know what he did? He bought billboards across Northern Ireland with one message: “I love you! Is that okay?—Jesus.” That was a powerful message and it wasn’t powerful because Jesus said that he loved them. Everybody knows that. It was powerful because there wasn’t a kicker.

You’re forgiven.

I know, I know. Your “Pavlovian” response (and mine) is to wait for the kicker. You can keep on waiting because there isn’t one. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, who you’re sleeping with, what you’re drinking or smoking, what you think, who you’ve hurt, the games you’re play- ing, the masks you’re wearing, the agendas you’re hiding, or whether or not you get better. When you bring it all to Jesus, you’re forgiven.

Deal with it.

As an aside, the fact that our new name is Forgiven has amazing implications for relationships between Christians and for the masks we wear. The reason Jesus embedded “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us” in the prayer he taught us is that he knew that without forgiveness at the heart of our relationships, we would continue to play at religion, and never love or be loved.

You can’t forgive until you have been unconditionally forgiven (no kicker) and then you can only love to the degree to which you have been unconditionally forgiven. I will never remove my mask and set aside my agendas as long as I think Christianity is about fixing me and others, building empires, changing the world, making my life count, correct- ing doctrinal truth, promoting programs, raising money, and being nice. It’s not. It’s about the forgiveness of sins. Paul wrote, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul, your name is “Forgiven.”

If you know Jesus, yours is too.

Are there implications to that? Of course there are . . . sometimes. Does it make you a better person? Of course it does . . . sometimes. Does it make a difference in your relationships? Of course it does . . . sometimes. Does it bring you into the stream of compassion and practical ministry to the world? Of course it does . . . sometimes. Does it give you a “burden for souls”? Of course it does . . . sometimes. And sometimes it doesn’t. That’s not the issue. Your name is “Forgiven.” Rejoice and be glad.

But you have other names too. When you’re crucified with Christ . . .

Your Name Is Redeemed

The word “redeemed” is a very strong word. It means to gain or regain something at a price. The Scripture says that in Christ we have been redeemed “through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7–8). Again, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23–24).

There is an old sermon illustration about a boy who worked hours making a small boat. He took it down to the seashore and put it in the water. To his horror, the boat was picked up by a wave and carried out into the ocean, eventually disappearing. It was sad because he had worked so hard and long making the boat. Later he was walking by a pawn- shop and saw his lost boat in the shop window. He told the pawnbroker that it was his boat but the pawnbroker said, “It may have been yours, but it’s mine now. If you want it back, you’ll have to pay for it like anybody else.”

The boy worked all summer. He mowed lawns, babysat, and walked dogs to get enough money to buy back his boat. When he had enough, the boy went back to the pawnshop and purchased it. As he walked out of the shop he was heard to say, looking at his boat, “Little boat, I made you, I lost you, I found you, I bought you back, and now you’re mine, all mine.”

That’s what happened to us. God said, “I made you, I lost you, I found you, I bought you back, and now you’re mine.” But being his isn’t just about ownership; it’s about being adopted by a father who is rich, generous, and kind. The Bible says that he “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption . . .” (Colossians 1:13– 14). Again, the Scripture says that God has sent the Spirit of Jesus into our hearts, causing us to cry out, “Abba Father.” “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:6–7).

I’m often asked what I do. I never know exactly what to say. Sometimes I say that I’m a preacher, or clergyman, or pastor, or professor, or writer, or broadcaster. There are times when I say that I’m a “religious professional” who “works for God.” A friend of mine told me to stop saying that: “When you work for someone, you have a job as long as there is work to do and you do it well enough to please the boss. But when the day’s work is over, you leave and go back to the house you paid for with the money you earned. Steve, you don’t work for God. You’re his son. When the day is over, you go up to the big house where you live. Try to remember that.”

I do. My name is “Redeemed.” That’s your name too.

But you have other names as well, because when you’re crucified with Christ . . .

Your Name Is Acceptable 

Most Christians have a handle on the forgiveness thing. You’re forgiven and then you work hard to be good. It’s all about pleasing God, being faithful, and trying your best to be obedient. It’s hard but we love to quote that “in Christ we can do all things.” In other words, a Christian is for- given and then he or she becomes better and better every day in every way.

What if I told you that God was already pleased, that he already thinks of you as faithful, and in his eyes you are already obedient? It’s true. The theological word is “imputation” and it is so radical, so amazing, and so unbelievable that I have trouble believing it. But God said it and, unless he’s started lying, it’s true.

The Bible says, “. . . and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ . . .” (Philippians 3:9).

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteous- ness” (Romans 4:5). “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness . . .” (Isaiah 61:10).

When Christ died on the cross, there was a trade. God traded my sin for Christ’s righteousness. I would have settled for forgiveness because that is more than I deserve. The problem with forgiveness is that it can become something similar to a professor who cuts slack for a student. “Okay,” the professor says, “I’m going to overlook your poor work and give you a passing grade, but don’t ask me to continue doing this for you. You are going to have to work harder.” Imputation is far more than that. It’s the trade whereby the professor’s academic record becomes yours.

I went to a banquet once where ties were required. Nobody had told me. A friend of mine saw me outside the banquet hall and said, “Steve, you don’t have a tie. I have an extra one in my room. I’ll be right back.” Two minutes later he handed me a tie. I put it on and was acceptable.

The interesting thing about the tie my friend gave me is that it was his best tie. All evening people said to me, “Nice tie!” Not only was I dressed properly with a tie, I was dressed extravagantly with the best tie in the house.

That’s what God has done to make us “Acceptable.” He’s given us the best clothes in the house, the righteousness of Christ.

In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Mercy, one of the characters traveling with Christiana, Christian’s wife, laughs in her sleep. Christiana asks Mercy about it and Mercy explains that she had a dream in which she was very convicted about her “hardness of heart.” Then, in her dream, Mercy says a man came and wiped her tears with his handkerchief and dressed her in silver and gold—clothed, as it were, in the righteousness of Christ. Then he takes her to the throne room of a holy God where Mercy hears, “Welcome, daughter!”

That was my experience.

You see, as my friend Rod Rosenbladt, says, “It’s not what’s in your heart, it’s about what is in God’s heart.”1 They told me that God was holy. He is. They said that he was a consuming re. He is. They told me that if I worked at it, studied “to show myself approved,” and if I were faithful and obedient, the holy God would be pleased. They were right. But I just couldn’t do it. Don’t get me wrong, I tried. I really tried hard. My heart and my “clothes” were simply too dirty to get clean. Finally, I gave up and started to walk away.

That’s when I looked down at my new clothes—the righteousness of Christ—and I heard his voice, “Welcome, child! Welcome!”

I laughed too.

But there’s one more name. When you’re crucified with Christ . . .

Your Name Is Loved 

You should meet my wife Anna. She’s a saint. Very few could live with somebody like me. And just so you know, I’m not being “authentic” or “humble” when I say that. It’s the truth. I can be angry and kind in the same sentence, happy and sad in the same hour, and loving and hateful in the same day. I would be bipolar if either my manic state or my depressive state lasted longer. Anna, on the other hand, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. She is a gift from God and an anchor for this crusty old preacher.

I don’t want to get too detailed here (you’re not that safe) but the other day I called home and my wife wasn’t there. I left a message on our answering machine. I don’t even remember what the message was but I’m almost positive that it included the words, “Love you.” I happened to get home before my wife did and listened to the message I’d left. I was shocked. I sounded ticked, upset, and kind of harsh. When I got home, I told Anna that I had listened to my message (the one intended for her). “I sounded very angry in that message . . . and I was wondering if I always sound like that.” She smiled and I knew. “I’m so sorry,” I told her. “I’m going to be a lot kinder than I have been.” She smiled again and then . . .

. . . she gave me a Baby Ruth.

A Baby Ruth?

Yeah, and she’s been doing that for almost all of our adult life. In fact, sometimes I fake bad stuff when I’m hungry, just to get a Baby Ruth. When I yell, forget a birthday or anniversary, do something a preacher ought not do, I get a Baby Ruth. Of course I don’t deserve the Baby Ruth. That’s the point of love. The principle is this: you can’t experience love until it’s given when you don’t deserve it. Everything else is reward.

That’s what God has done. Listen to what Paul writes: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39). I would suggest that those words pretty much cover it. They cover all of our masks and all of our hidden agendas.

God gives out Baby Ruths! Bet nobody ever told you that before.

Behind the Mask

• You’re forgiven without a kicker. Sit with that a moment. What does that mean to/for you? What does God’s forgiveness do to your masks and agendas?
• As a son or daughter, you are “adopted by a father who is rich, generous, and kind.” Do you really believe that? How would you live if you did?
• “It’s all about pleasing God, being faithful, and trying your best to be obedient.” Why doesn’t this work? What is it about instead?
• How does God’s unconditional love cover all your masks and hidden agendas?

—

Steve Brown is a radio broadcaster, author, and the founder of Key Life Network. A former pastor, he also sits on the board of Harvest USA and devotes much of his time to the radio broadcasts Key Life and Steve Brown, Etc.

Excerpted from Steve Brown’s Hidden Agendas: Dropping the Masks That Keep Us Apart. New Growth Press, ©2016. Used by permission.

Why Are We Chasing?

“I wonder whether, in ages of promiscuity, many a virginity has not been lost less in obedience to Venus than in obedience to the lure of the caucus. For, of course, when promiscuity is the fashion, the chaste are outsiders.” – C. S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”

Each of us have a core status that we long to achieve or earn and the pursuit of that status drives us in just about everything we do. These statuses become for us what Lewis called “The Inner Ring”—a small, selective, elite society of people who have become a clique of which we yearn to belong. Those societies don’t have to be recognized globally or at the highest level, but they do have to be recognized within our own spheres of local life. For each of us the allure of acceptance, applause, authority, or abundance is a siren call for our lives to chase and do all we can to achieve the societal connection of that particular Inner Ring.

But why do we chase these things? In short, we’ve made fundamental exchanges that have generated consequences that are ultimately killing us. These exchanges are not only true universally for all of humanity, but they are seen specifically in each of our lives. No one is exempt from the “Great Exchanges” that we have made and no one is exempt from reaping the consequences of those exchanges, yet it is those very exchanges that have left us hungry for the achievement of being part of the Inner Ring. Let me detail three exchanges that we have made and the way they have left us pursuing Inner Rings.

From Imago Dei to Imago Stati

The first exchange came at the hands of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and has been a consequential exchange that you and I make daily. We have traded our identity in God for an identity in our status. Genesis 1-3 spells out this exchange.

In the beginning God creates and makes all things in the universe for his glory. He is the Creator and the King and all things are made good in his sight. Nothing is out of place, nothing out of alignment, all things are identified properly and beautifully. Even humanity is created and called “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Yet what makes the creation of male and female unique is the nature of their creation and relationship with God. God himself declares that humanity were created “in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). Beyond resembling God in terms of his dominion over all things being made in the image of God means that humanity was created in relationship with God. Just as God exists completely in relationship with and to himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so humanity was created to bear God’s likeness in community with one another and live in perpetual relational union with him. The imago Dei marks humanity as representatives of God and relationally close to God. In the beginning, we were made to bear the identity of belonging to and with God. Nothing else in all creation bore that mark.

The exchange came, however, with the crafty serpent’s deceit. Instead of our first parents understanding their identity as being representatives and relationally unified with God, they were led to believe they were not unique to God—that they were instead lacking something of God’s image in their lives, namely his moral capacity to “know good and evil” (Gen. 3:4). What Satan deceived our first parents into believing was that a unique relationship with God was less desirable than obtaining a shared status with God. At the moment they believed that lie, the pursuit of an Inner Ring began. No longer did they love the imago Dei (image of God) they were created in, now they longed for the imago Stati (image of Status) that they did not yet possess.

The fallout from this exchange was nothing less than death. Their capacity to attain the Inner Ring they so desperately longed for was impossible. Instead of becoming like God, as the serpent had promised, they became disenfranchised from God. The relationship was broken and the imago Dei was, as John Calvin puts it “erased.”

Humanity had lost their original relationship and reality.

It’s because of this exchange, from relationship to status, that all of us live in the pursuit of Inner Rings. Our original relationship has been lost and now to find worth, value, and identity we chase the status symbols of the Inner Ring. Instead of existing as beings with value, dignity, and worth we’ve become creatures who chase after the status we do not have. Exchange number one is the exchange of identity through a relationship to identity in a status. It’s death for each of us.

From Provision to Performance

The second exchange we made was the exchange from the provision God had for us to the posture of earning our own way. We exchanged God’s riches to find and fix ourselves on our own accomplishments. Again, Genesis 1-3 demonstrates the template of this exchange.

According to Scripture, God’s creation of the universe wasn’t to set it up as a empty, desolate environment that would grow and be cultivated into maturity. He created a mature world with mature plants, mature animals, mature human beings and placed our first parents into a luscious and beautifully abundant Garden. Adam and Eve lacked absolutely nothing. They had all the provision of food, shelter, abundance, and pleasure they could ask for. Nothing was missing.

Yet the Deceiver came and sought to convince us otherwise. Our first parents were told that God was holding back, that his love for them was inadequate and insufficient. More so his provision of wisdom and knowledge was incomplete. What God was doing was not providing for them, but withholding the very things they needed to make it in the world. The lie was sown and we believed it!

We believed that God’s good provision wasn’t sufficient for the long-haul. We looked at the options; either we could rest in God’s perfect timing and provision for us or try to provide for ourselves more completely. We chose to earn rather than receive. Humanity decided in that Garden and every day since then that our best step forward is to pursue and perform to earn a status, rather than enjoy the provision of everything from God’s generous and gracious hand. We’ve chosen to earn our identity rather that receive and live in the provision that God has for us.

Imagine after working a full 10-hour shift you head home from your job. On the way home, you stop at a favorite restaurant to buy take-out for your family to enjoy. You stop at the florist and pick up a beautiful bouquet of flowers to bless and encourage her as well. You stop at the Redbox and pick up that movie your children have been longing to see. You head home to bless your family. However, when you get home you notice a line of cars out front of your house. People are walking in and out with various things. One person walks out with your television, another with your children’s favorite toy. Someone has a plate of grilled chicken and green beans. As you rush into the house you find your wife with a distant look on her face. “What are you doing?” you ask. “Well,” she says, “I really don’t like the way you’ve been providing for us, in fact I think we can do it better ourselves.” And with that your favorite chair is hoisted out by another unsuspecting couple looting your possessions. Everything is for sale.

That is the kind of folly that we have embraced. Instead of enjoying and trusting God’s good and faithful provision for us, we’ve turned into performers trying to earn our way forward. We’ve jumped out of the identity given to us as God’s people into the pursuit of making a name for ourselves. We’ve rejected the faithful provision of God’s hand for us and have decided to earn our own way forward. What God said through Jeremiah certainly is true of us, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

From Common to Exclusive

If the reason why we pursue Inner Rings and the societal acceptance they bring comes from an exchange of our identity and our provision, we are in pretty bad shape. However, the hole we have dug down for ourselves is deeper still. The first two exchanges are enough to destroy us, yet there is a third. It is the exchange of the common for the delight of the exclusive.

What did Adam and Eve have in the Garden? They had identity, they had provision, and they had community. They related perfectly with God and with one another. They enjoyed perfect unity, harmony, joy, delight, compatibility, and acceptance with God and with one another. It is readily apparent that our first parents enjoyed and held all things in common together. Nothing divided them or their relationship with God. This is the essence and origin of the word “community”—common. Humanity was designed and created to be a common people.

Yet the seduction of Satan was great. The common wasn’t the best or most beautiful for the world. God was holding out. He was holding back. He was being exclusive. He was being the “One Percenter” hoarding the wealth to himself while Adam and Eve were left to lack and not possess. Satan’s attack hits right at God’s exclusivity. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” By twisting God’s words he created the tension of common and exclusive. As Eve responds, she affirms the provision of God, “We may eat of fruit of the trees in the garden” but also identifies where God has exercised his exclusive rights. “You shall not eat of this of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden” (Gen. 3:3). Humanity lives in the common, but God deals with the exclusive.

Humanity’s exchange on that day has broken our community. In trading the sacred commonality of life together in an attempt to possess the exclusive reality of God, we’ve been at each others throats ever since. The entire race fell into corruption and decay when that exchange was made. No longer was there unity; disunity prevailed. In shame, our parents hid from God and one another embarrassed by the nakedness their sin brought. Adam shifted the blame to God and his wife for his sin. A curse of death fell upon the human race.

Now—let me absolutely clear—God is an exclusive being, one of a kind in the entire universe, and he is good and right. He alone is worthy of all power, glory, authority, splendor, and majesty. He is wholly other than us. No one can attain to his greatness and glory and no one can possess his majesty. The very word “holy” which describes who God is throughout Scripture (see Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8) is loaded with the sense of God’s unique rarity and exclusivity. He in no way is evil, unjust, or malicious in withholding things from us. He is God; we are not. And yet, just as God is exclusive in his nature, he also exists eternally in perfect community. His creation of humanity was creation of us into common unity with him.

The Fall came for us in our exchange. We desired the exclusivity of God for ourselves. We were seduced into thinking our common unity as human beings was worthless. Satan created an evil dualism that we follow to this day. He appealed to fear of being an outsider, not having, and not being part of the exclusive club who possess “the knowledge of good and evil.” The serpent attacked the idea of the common and elevated the exclusive. We traded the joy of community as people made in the image of God for the pursuit of God’s exclusivity as God.

Inner Rings Crafted

I am sure that as Tolkien and Lewis sat around a table at The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford they shared thoughts of the pursuit together. One crafted a legendary tale in which the pursuit of the Inner Ring became a pursuit of The One Ring. The other saw it lived out in every life as men and women traded the identity they were created to posses for the status they sought to obtain. He saw it as we traded the good provision of God for the enticing self-reliant attempts to earn our own way. It showed up in our rejection of the common beauty of one another for the prestige of being one of the few.

In the beginning, there were no Inner Rings. We were created perfectly in community with God and with others. We enjoyed the security and comfort of full and abundant provision. We were children loved and accepted by God. The reality is that we were part of the greatest community, the greatest Inner Ring; God’s special and uniquely imprinted creation. And, in a moment, we gave it up for a lie. We bought the myth that we didn’t have enough; that there were Inner Rings left for us to obtain. As soon as we bought that lie we fell immediately into the Pursuit. We’ve been chasing “The Precious” ever since.

—

Jeremy Writebol (@jwritebol) has been training leaders in the church for over fourteen years. He is the author of everPresent: How the Gospel Relocates Us in the Present (GCD Books, 2014) and writes at jwritebol.net. He is the pastor of Woodside Bible Church’s Plymouth, MI campus.

Good News in a Bad News World

If you only spend a few moments watching or reading the news, it's obvious that the world no longer resembles the peaceful reality of Eden. Death, destruction, famine, hatred, greed, and brokenness are not the exception today, they are the norm. They are so common that these things are sometimes described as inevitable or expected. No one expects life to be perfect or to go on forever—but we know, in our core, it should not be this way. Doesn’t it all seem out of place and unnatural? (Guess what? It is.) How did everything get this way? We find our answer in Genesis 3.

Satan, the enemy of God disguised as a serpent, challenges God’s command to stay away from the tree. He asks Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). We see later in the Bible that Satan likes to twist God’s words (Matt. 4:1-11). He convinces Adam and Eve that God is a liar, and that God is holding out on them. He convinced them that God doesn’t want them to be like him, so he tells them to stay away from the tree (Gen. 3:3-6).

After being tempted by Satan, our ancient parents ate the fruit, immediately noticed that they were naked, and hid from God. They were ashamed. They were self-conscious. They were scared. They had disobeyed their Creator, and they knew it. They handed over their God-given responsibility to God’s great Enemy.

This was the first sin.

Sin, Death, and the Bad News of the Garden

Sin can be described as anything (whether in thoughts, actions, or attitudes) that does not express or conform to the holy character of God as expressed in his moral law. Sin is rebellion against God, first and foremost. Some say that to sin means to “miss the mark.” When we sin, we don’t just miss the mark—we point the bow in the other direction and shoot into the sky. Sin causes us to “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and leaves us under God’s wrath (Rom. 1:18). It doesn’t just cause division between people or cause us a little more trouble that we’d like; it brings division between people and life, and because of sin, death is now something we all must deal with.

Sin is bad news, and the creator of all bad news in the world.

The gut-wrenching stories we see on the news every night are an integral part of living in a world infected by sin. But sin also brings division between God and people. We see this immediately when Adam and Eve were taken out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin against God. Their perfect relationship with him was damaged from then on out (Gen. 3:16-19). This left mankind freefalling toward utter destruction.

Not only were Adam and Eve punished for their sin, but the consequences of their rulebreaking affects every person born afterward. They passed the nature of sin to their children and it’s been passed along ever since. The Apostle Paul says that “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” and that “one trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Rom. 5:12-19).

Sin runs in the family. Sin is a disease that would make the bubonic plague blush. Sin is deadly, in every sense of the word. It’s the real Black Death. It brings not only physical death, but also spiritual death.

Our bodies are buried in the ground, but even worse, souls without Christ are banished to Hell, a place of torment and never-ending separation from God (Matt. 25:46; Jude 1:7; Rev. 21:8). As Scripture tells us, physical death can and will be defeated, but spiritual death lasts into eternity. Adam and Eve, and all of us, were made to live forever with God. Now, we all are sentenced to death from the very start apart from his forgiveness (Rom. 3:9-18; 6:23).

We need to be delivered from sin and its effects. The apostle Paul felt the soul-crushing burden of sin, and he wanted to be done with it. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:23–25).

Good News in a Bad News World

But there’s good news in this bad news world. Deliverance from sin, the undoing of Satan’s work in the Garden of Eden, is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. As John says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Simply put: Jesus came to conquer Satan and restore the world to its rightful King.

Jesus is the most important person that lives—and ever will. He sits alive today in the heavenly places as the Cosmic King, inviting sinners to repent and place their complete trust in him for the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life.

It's all about Jesus. This Galilean carpenter is the hope of the world. The entire plan of God (Gal. 4:4-5), the whole swing of the Scriptures (John 5:39), and the sum of human history all lands squarely—like nails ripping through flesh, bone, and wood—on Jesus (Eph. 1:10). All things belong to Jesus, and all things were created by Jesus (Col. 1:15). And right now, all things are held together by Jesus, from Haley's Comet to the micro-skin-flake falling from your fingernail, Jesus is in control. “In him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17) and, "he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3).

Is that your Christ? Do you have towering thoughts about the Lord Jesus, or are they reduced to a first-century Israelite who had a knack for healing and preaching? “Who is Jesus?” isn’t the mega-stumper question on the SAT. This isn’t the dreaded pop quiz question that you know you studied but can’t remember. This is eternity. This is your life now and your life to come.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus asked his disciples this very question. “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'"(Matt. 16:13–15). Is Jesus just a teacher? Is Jesus just a healer? A popular prophet? Captain of the fib team?

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). So, what then? Who is this man?

Like the great C. S. Lewis said,

Socrates did not claim to be Zeus, nor the Buddha to be Bramah, nor Mohammed to be Allah. That sort of claim occurs only in Our Lord and in admitted quacks or lunatics. I agree that we don’t ‘demand crystal perfection in other men’, nor do we find it. But if there is one Man in whom we do find it, and if that one Man also claims to be more than man, what then?

The quest for the Biblical Jesus is of first importance. We can be like Adam and Eve and run away to a substitute, or we can be like Peter and stumble our way toward him.

—

Brandon D. Smith works with the Holman Christian Standard Bible and teaches theology at various schools. He is also co-author of Rooted: Theology for Growing Christians. You can follow him on Twitter.

J.A. Medders is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Church in Tomball, TX. He and Natalie have two kids, Ivy and Oliver. Jeff digs caffeinated drinks, books, and the Triune God. He blogs at www.jamedders.com and tweets from @mrmedders. Jeff’s first book, Gospel-Formed: Living a Grace-Addicted, Truth-Filled, Jesus-Exalting Life, released this November from Kregel.

This is an excerpt from Rooted: Theology for Growing Christians by J. A. Medders and Brandon D. Smith. Get it on Amazon here.

Paying it Forward

Once we start to realize that discipleship is an everyday, all-of-life process for our own lives, we’re halfway to understanding God’s call. The other half of that call is seen most clearly in the great commission, where God calls his people—all his people—to “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” (Matt. 28:19-20). Part of our own discipleship is “paying it forward”: seeing God not only work in us, for our own discipleship, but also seeing him work through us, for others’ discipleship. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us that a primary way we grow into maturity in Christ is through “speaking the truth in love” to and with each other (Eph 4:16). God didn’t design discipleship to primarily happen alone. All-of-life discipleship—learning to follow, trust, and obey Jesus in the everyday stuff of life, and training others to do the same—requires submitting to and obeying God’s Word in three key environments: life on life, life in community, and life on mission.

LIFE ON LIFE

God’s means of your growth, redemption, and restoration is others in your life who are committed to bringing your brokenness out into the open and bringing the gospel of Jesus to bear on it. The layers with which we’ve covered ourselves have to be pulled back, and we can’t do that kind of work alone. We have to get close. We have to be seen and known. This is what we call life-on-life discipleship—life that is lived up close so that we are visible and accessible to one another, so that others can gently peel back the layers and join us in our restoration.

Jesus lived life with his disciples. He was close enough to really know them. He observed what they believed by watching how they lived. He became closely acquainted with their brokenness so that he could see their wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong acting. They were exposed. And as they were exposed, Jesus helped them to be restored.

LIFE IN COMMUNITY

If you look at the life and ministry of Jesus, and subsequently the ministry of the apostle Paul, you certainly would not come to the conclusion that one-on-one discipleship is best. Jesus discipled his followers while they experienced life together in community. We know they “got it” because the story of how they continued to live tells us they were devoted to one another in the day-to-day stuff of everyday life. Jesus’s way of discipleship cannot happen in one-on-one meetings alone.

The church is Jesus’s body. It has many parts, but it is one body, so it takes many of us committed to each other’s development to help us each become more like Jesus ... We all need many people who love Jesus around us to do this. Every person in Christ’s body is meant to work this way. You are meant to play a part in equipping and encouraging others. God intends for all of us to actively engage in disciple-making in light of our unique design so that we both do the work and equip others to do it.

LIFE ON MISSION

Jesus didn’t say, “Show up to class and I will train you.” Nor did he say, “Attend synagogue and that will be sufficient.” No, he called the disciples to join him on the mission (“Follow me”), and while they were on the mission with him, he trained them to be disciple-makers (“I will make you fishers of men”).

In other words, Jesus taught them the basics of making disciples while they were on the mission of making disciples. They could observe everything Jesus said and did. They could see how he rebuked the religious leaders who tried to make it harder for people to come to God. They were able to watch his compassion and care of people being ruined by sin. They couldn’t overlook his willingness to heal and help the broken. And the power he exerted over demons was clearly on display. They listened, watched, and learned in the everyday stuff of life. After a while, he invited them to share in some of the work he was doing. Sure, they messed up, a lot, but he was there to help, to correct, to clean up—to train them—while they were on his mission. They were in a disciple-making residency with Jesus.

After the disciples had spent time watching, learning, and practicing under Jesus’s watchful eye, he sent them out to begin to practice what he had taught them. He did not send them out alone; they went together. Then they returned and reported to Jesus what they had experienced. All did not go perfectly. So he trained them in the areas of their weaknesses and failures. He did this kind of ongoing training with them for more than three years. As a result, when he finally ascended to heaven, they had been prepared to fulfill the mission. The best training for mission happens while on mission.

MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES

The necessity of these three environments is the basis for what are commonly called “missional communities”: the Christian life—and the gospel identities and rhythms we’ll start to consider next week—cannot be lived alone, nor can it be carried out as one person among several dozen or a few thousand, which is the context of many American church gatherings. Instead, the best venue for living as disciples of Jesus happens in the context of a few other disciples, mutually committed to growing each other’s lives and faith, pursuing God’s mission together.

Missional communities are not programs of a church; missional communities are the Church.In other words, the way God intends his people to live and thrive as disciples of Jesus is in the context of a community, growing in the gospel and on mission together. It’s in this type of community that life on life, life in community, and life on mission discipleship most easily happen.

—

Jeff Vanderstelt is the visionary leader of the Soma Family of Churches and the lead teaching pastor of Doxa Church in Bellevue, Washington. Vanderstelt is the author of Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. He and Jayne, his wife of 22 years, have three children; Haylee, Caleb and Maggie. 

Ben Connelly started and now co-pastors The City Church, part of the Acts 29 network and Soma Family of Churches. He is the co-author of A Field Guide for Everyday Mission (Moody Publishers) and also leads church planting for the Soma Family in North America. Connelly, his wife Jess and their kiddos Charlotte, Maggie and Travis live in Fort Worth, TX.

Jeff Vanderstelt and Ben Connelly. Saturate Field Guide: Principles & Practices For Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Saturate, ©2016. Used by permission.

A Guide for Discipling Believers One-on-One

You know John. God did a great work in John’s life after graduation from high school. He had been a typically rebellious teenager who had heard the gospel but was not truly converted. But God, in His kindness, reclaimed John’s prodigal life and brought Him to a point of repentance and faith in his college years. He immediately connected with a group of Christians from the local church adjacent to his home and poured himself into its ministry. His life was marked by an insatiable hunger for the Word, a longing for relationships with other Christians, a humble desire to serve, and a genuine pursuit of a life that honored God.

Before long John found himself overseeing a group of middle-school boys and assuming increasing levels of leadership within the church. While John was honored to be asked to lead, he knew that there was a problem.

He had never been discipled.

Sure, he attended the church service each week, went to the classes offered by the church, and occasionally listened to his favorite preacher via podcast. However, no one assumed spiritual responsibility for him or walked with him through a process of understanding and applying the gospel to his life. Even worse, he was now being asked to make disciples without having been discipled himself.

John felt trapped. He knew that he was ill-equipped for the task. It was exposing all sorts of sin in his heart and he knew that he lacked the maturity and training necessary to lead well. Not only that, but the stress of leadership in the church was having a negative impact on his family. On most days, he masked this insecurity behind sheer, white-knuckled will power. He worked hard and pretended that he knew what he was doing. But he didn’t. And he, his family, and the church were suffering as a result.

The church felt trapped, too. The pastor was busy and the never-ending needs of the church always seemed to crowd out meaningful time to train John. And what’s worse, he really didn’t have a good plan for discipling guys like John anyway. He had never been discipled either. So, on a good week he might share a meal with John and ask how he was doing or give him a book that had proved valuable in his own ministry. What else could he do? The only other option was to send him off to seminary and run the risk of never seeing him again. Young leaders were too rare and too valuable to the church to make this choice.

Our churches are filled with people like John. They love Jesus and the church, and they are looking to the church for discipleship. They are not all college aged men. Some are teenage girls, some business professionals, and some elderly church members. They need the church to create a intentional plan to take new converts and disciple them towards maturity and leadership in the church. This task is not optional for the church. Paul reminded Timothy that his task was to take “the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (2 Tim 2:2).” Churches have a responsibility to create a culture of disciple-making and multiplication.

The church desperately needs an intentional plan for taking new believers, discipling them to maturity, and entrusting them with intentional leadership within God’s church.

If the task of discipleship is neglected the results are predictable. The developing disciples will have to do the following things on their own:

• Understand the gospel message and how it shapes their own spiritual formation;
• Apply the gospel to their lives and the lives of others through intentional disciple-making;
• Develop the fruit of the Spirit and the character of a leader in the church;
• Learn how to practice key spiritual disciplines and grow in the grace and knowledge of God;
• Make key life decisions, such as a spouse or a career;
• Join a healthy church and become a meaningful member;
• Discern their own gifting and calling;
• Find a leadership role that fits that gifting and calling;
• Learn how to care for fallen and broken people.

This is a weighty task that cannot be accomplished through simply shuffling people off to a new class in hopes that they will grow. More often than not the potential disciple will end up frustrated, burned-out, and stagnant in their own spiritual formation, because they are being asked to do in isolation what is meant to be done in the community of the church.

Churches who lack a strategy for disciple-making and leadership development will also have to do the following in isolation:

• See a host of their members fall away due to sin or neglect that results from a lack of maturity;
• Lament the lack of trained and skilled leaders for the ministries that God has entrusted to the church; such as, small group leaders, Sunday School teachers, or future staff members;
• Depend on classes and programs to do the arduous work of disciple-making;
• See new believers come to faith in Christ and yet lack any strategy for nurturing them to maturity;
• Fail to equip the church to do their most important task – make disciples;
• Place people in leadership roles that may exceed their maturity;
• Determine a good fit for staff positions in the church based on a resume alone;
• Depend on seminaries or parachurch agencies to train its leaders in the hopes that this feeder system will consistently produce enough leaders for the church’s needs;
• Remove leaders whose calling, character, or competence do not match the leadership needs to which they are called.

The result is wasted potential, immature church attendees, poorly led churches, and thousands of unreached men, women, and children littering our nation. The surpassing riches of God’s grace in the gospel, and the vast lostness of the world, compel the church to reproduce theologically robust, missionally active, and Spirit-led disciples (Eph 2:6-10). The development and deployment of future disciples in the church and for the church is vital for the church to thrive in the coming generation. This is a stewardship that we must not neglect.

Churches can train leaders—but most need tools to aid them in this task. Aspire is written in an effort to not only motivate churches to engage in this vital work but also to provide them with the basic framework for developing disciples and leaders in their context. There is no such thing as a plug-and-play model. What works for us in Greenville, SC may not work exactly the same way in an urban context on the West coast. Aspire can, however, provide a vital tool to mobilize the church to implement a pathway for discipleship that uses the tools provided here and yet supplements and applies these ideas with additional resources that are needed in their context.

—

Matt Rogers is the pastor of The Church at Cherrydale in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife, Sarah, have three daughters, Corrie, Avery, and Willa and a son, Hudson. Matt holds a Master of Arts in counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as well as a Master of Divinity and a PhD  from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Matt writes and speaks for throughout the United States on discipleship, church planting, and missions. Find Matt online at www.mattrogers.bio or follow him on Twitter @mattrogers_

Adapted with permission from Aspire: Part One: Transformed by the Gospel. Receive a discount on orders of 10 or more here. Aspire is a 15-week study, written in two parts, designed to be used to disciple believers in the local church. Each week's study combines rich theological content and clear practical application in a journal-based format. Ideal for one-on-one discipleship relationships, Aspire guides believers toward life-long transformation.

Confessions of a Bible Thumper

I became a Christian at the age of eight at Round Pond Presbyterian Church in Franklin, KY, where my uncle was the pastor. While witnessing communion during a Sunday service I began to understand the gospel in a new way: that I was a sinner and that Christ had rescued me. I was baptized two weeks later in Sulphur Fork Creek on the county line. In the years that followed, my life as a disciple was characterized by varying degrees of knowing and doing. In my youth I was passionate about what I knew of Scripture and what I was learning. I would gather my friends together in the school cafeteria to read and discuss the Bible. God used my seemingly insatiable desire to learn the Bible. Years later my walk of faith was characterized by action as I was seeking to do the things I was learning from Scripture. I was passionate about evangelism and overseas missions, tirelessly pursuing active ministry and calling others to follow. Throughout the years I pursued discipleship through various means: different books, methods, churches, para-church ministries, and mentoring relationships. These experiences were life-changing for me yet I was still seeking the best way to be both a disciple and a disciple maker, trying to balance the knowing and doing of the Bible. I discovered that discipleship was not only knowing and doing, but also being and becoming. This process of transformation involves Scripture and others in Christian community. My love for Scripture grew. This eventually led me to seminary at which time the vision for a new church in my hometown began to take shape.

My experiences have led me to the conviction that discipleship is a life-long pursuit and an ongoing process of transformation by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who worked in and through Scripture is also at work in and through God’s people. I am increasingly convinced that discipleship methods based on biblical ideas and principles alone, though good and helpful, can remain short-sighted of the gospel.

Why I Wrote This Book

Theology must be practiced. The doctrine of Scripture is of utmost importance for Christian discipleship. Scripture is God’s written record of the gospel story in which we find our own story. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture as a means of grace—the Spirit and Word go together.

Scripture must play a prominent role in discipleship as the Holy Spirit works through the Word to grow us into the image of Christ personally, as well as grow us in community—faithful to the Great Commission. Christian discipleship, therefore, must be saturated in Scripture.

A disciple’s greatest need is to be constantly reminded of the gospel, as well as his or her new identity, community, and mission. The Bible explicitly reminds us of all this. Therefore, no matter our stage of faith or role in discipleship, we ought to evaluate our view and use of Scripture personally and in our community of faith. My prayer is that we have biblical expectations in discipleship. My hope is not only that you fall more in love with God's Word, but that you fall even more in love with the God whose Word it is.

Defining Discipleship

Throughout high school and college I played in various bands. A friend and fellow musician discovered the band Phish and quickly labeled himself a “phish head.” He wore tie dyed clothing branded by the band, made a mixtape to give his friends, and toured with the band. Phish greatly influenced my friend’s musical style in songwriting and performance. Phish was an identity he owned while connecting with a community of other fans on mission to spread the music. This is a great portrait of discipleship.

A disciple is a student who becomes more like his teacher. As a follower, a disciple takes on the characteristics of the one he follows. The characteristics bring about transformation and prompt action. By nature a disciple reproduces his discipleship, calling others to study and follow the one he follows. Discipleship is an identity that shapes community and fuels a mission.

For Christians, our identity, community, and mission are defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is good news that evokes faith—ongoing relational trust in the person and work of Christ. The gospel, therefore, is good news that we learn. This good news shapes not only our beliefs, but also our motivations, actions, and relationships. We learn the gospel, relate in light of the gospel, and communicate the gospel on mission together.

Gospel learning takes place primarily through Scripture. Gospel relating is done in the context of community. Gospel communication, by proclamation and demonstration, is the nature of mission by which others learn the gospel and become disciples. Christian disciples, therefore, are both relational learners and relational teachers.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus announces, “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 the Great Commission, the disciples see their identity as disciples in the context of a community on mission with the good news to make disciples. Sent by Christ himself, the disciples represent the redemptive authority of Christ. Jesus does not provide an explicit methodology, but informs the mission to “make disciples” which includes “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” To this we must ask three questions: What has Christ commanded? How are we to teach? What are disciples to observe?

3 Essential Bible Questions

The gospel commission to make disciples involves information, application, and transformation. “Teaching” is 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.

Secondly, we see the application of the gospel in “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. We will take a close look at this often rejected concept of authority in chapter 1.

Thirdly, we see transformation in Christian discipleship. Discipleship begins with Christ (“all that I have commanded you”), involves 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.

Short-Sighted Discipleship

During our first year of marriage, my wife and I took a trip to the Grand Canyon. We rented a car and took our time enjoying the scenery of the Arizona desert. Following the signs to the canyon, we made our way into the national park, parked the car, and walked to the rim to enjoy a beautiful sunset. The purpose of the signs was to lead us to the canyon rim. Once on the rim, we no longer looked at the signs that led us there, but rather we focused on what the signs led us to: the painted pastels of the Grand Canyon.

In Christian discipleship, methods and traditions are like signs that point us to Christ. They can be helpful and beautiful. These signs are meant to be imprinted with Scripture. By Scripture we see who Christ is and what he’s done, and thus who we are and how we are to live. Scripture points us to the kind of disciples we are and are becoming, and what kind of disciples we are making. Often our discipleship methods become short-sighted, like signs that lead us to the very rim of the canyon only to be missing the clear text. In return, we focus on the sign itself, tragically missing the beauty of the canyon.

In 1 Timothy 6:3-4a, Paul offers instruction on discipleship, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” Paul highlights two features of Christian doctrine: “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ” and “teaching that accords with godliness.” These two go together and cannot be separated. These “sound words” refer to the Lord’s message of the gospel. These words come from the Lord directly and through his apostles and teachers.

Paul warns against doctrine contrary to Christ and teaching that does not line up with godliness. In other words, Paul is providing warning against discipleship that loses sight of Christ and the gospel.

How do we know our doctrine lines up with “the sound words” and “teaching that accords with godliness?” Without the Apostles present with us, how do we determine what is Christ-focused and gospel-centered? The answer: Scripture.

Scripture is of both Divine and Human origin. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture as a means of grace for the identifying and shaping of disciples. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Holy Spirit works in and through Scripture through inspiration. Likewise, the Holy Spirit identifies us as disciples (Ephesians 1:13), dwells in our community of disciples (1 Cor. 3:17, 6:19), and by illumination gives us understanding so that we may obey Jesus by making disciples (Titus 3:5, 2 Thess. 2:13, Acts 1:8). How we view the Holy Spirit and Scripture will influence how we grow as disciples and how we make disciples.

Here we stand, on the rim of the canyon, reflecting on the signposts that have led us here. Through each chapter we will look at one of the bedrock doctrines of Christianity, especially as they pertain to Scripture. We will then see how this doctrine applies to our everyday discipleship: how we practice theology. Finally, each chapter ends with reflection questions to push us all to apply and wrestle with Scripture.

—

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. He is the Author of Sound Words: Listening to the Scriptures published by GCD Books. Twitter: @pastorjcarr.

Editor: Please enjoy an excerpt from Sound Words: Listening to the Scriptures by Jeremy Carr then pick up your copy for 61% off—$1.99 from Saturday Jan 16th 12AM PST - Saturday Jan 23rd 12AM PST.

Jesus’ Teaching Leaves Audience Thunderstruck

Editor: Please enjoy an excerpt from our latest book The Sermon on the Mount: A 31 Day Guide Through Jesus’ Teaching by Tracy Richardson then pick up your digital copy for just $0.99.

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The front-page headline following Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (SOTM) read, “Jesus’ Teaching Leaves Audience Thunderstruck.” When Jesus spoke to the crowd on the hillside that day their jaws dropped. Matthew 7:28 records, “When Jesus had finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.”

Have you ever been shocked, surprised, and dumfounded all at the same time? Maybe by a surprise birthday party, a practical joke, or unexpected news? The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the crowd reacted this way to Jesus’ teaching.

Why did Jesus’ teaching cause such a stir? What was it about Jesus’ message that left the crowd absolutely amazed?

In a nutshell, Jesus’ teaching turned people’s religious ideas inside out and upside down.

The Gospel of Matthew begins with the story of Jesus’ birth, baptism, temptation, and choosing his disciples. In chapters 5-7, Matthew expounds Jesus’ story by presenting the crux of his teaching. Fundamentally, SOTM is a kingdom manifesto declaring how to live as a child of the King in a world that has yet to be fully transformed. 

Could you ace an exam on Jesus’ teaching?

I’m afraid many professing followers of Jesus would flunk. If we are banking eternity on Jesus’ claims, prudence demands we should dig in and do the hard work to understand his teaching.

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount can be a hard to understand. But if you mine the depth of its treasure, your reward will be great. Your heart will be supernaturally renovated to become like Jesus’.

“I have to confess that I have fallen under its spell, or rather under the spell of him who preached it. For the last seven years at least l have been constantly pondering it.” – John Stott

SOTM is best understood when broken down into seven sections. Here is a simple overview of the sermon:

• The Beatitudes (Matt 5:2-11) - Jesus describes eight heart attitudes that are recognizable in a true child of God. These characteristics are the building blocks of discipleship; each trait blossoms into the next as you are transformed into the image of Christ.
• Salt and Light Matt (5:13-16) - Jesus coaches his disciples on their identity and mission.
• Radical Righteousness (Matt 5:17-48) - Jesus explains the radical righteousness that flows from a heart completely transformed by the power of the gospel.
• Spiritual Practices (Matt 6:1-18) - Jesus teaches his disciples the proper way to pray, give, and fast.
• Ambition and Possessions (Matt 6:19-34) - Jesus shepherds his disciples’ hearts on money and anxiety.
• Relationships (Matt 7:1-12) - Jesus teaches his disciples how to approach their relationships with people and God.
• A Decision is Imperative (Matt 7:13-27) - Jesus closes his sermon insisting that the audience choose between the wide and narrow gate. He gives three warnings with examples of folks who failed to make the right decision. Jesus boldly declares that the only way to enter the kingdom of heaven is to listen and obey to his commands.

If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, let me encourage you to marinate in this sermon. The Holy Spirit is willing and able to transform your heart and mind as you savor Jesus’ words. Throw yourself into SOTM and take hold of the Messiah’s teaching. Saturate your mind with Jesus as prophet; let him expound the truth of God’s kingdom to you. Follow Jesus as priest and let him lead you into his Father’s Kingdom. Worship Jesus as king and bring your entire life under his rule and reign. Do this, so that the name of Jesus will be made famous.

—

Tracy Richardson (@alaskagospelgrl) serves at Radiant Church in Fairbanks, Alaska as the Church Planters Wife. She loves to study scripture, throw parties, and run trails. She has a B.S.S. in Fine Art and Literature. She is also Mamma Bear to two wild cubs.

Advent Calls Us to Stay Awake

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23

From the opening pages of the scriptures, from the creation narrative, God the Creator has been revealing who He is. It’s mind-blowing to think that we can actually know God, yet it’s fascinating to ponder that we can never exhaust the bottomless ocean of His character and nature. In every nook and cranny of this world, God is exposing who He is and telling His story. From the unknown depths of the oceans to the peak of Everest, from the sheer magnitude of the universe beyond us to the complexity of the universe within us, from the miracle of birth to the burden of death, amongst fauna and flora, He is telling His story. His fingerprints are everywhere. God’s name echoes off the walls of creation and His story reverberates in the corridors of humanity’s hearts. Like a master artist who signs his name on his work, His creation is saturated with His signature. From the joys of watercolor sunsets to the darkest sorrows; from yesterday’s regrets to every tomorrow, He greets us and signs: I love you.

Why would God go to such extreme lengths to reveal the depths of who He is?

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29v13

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 2v17

It seems God has always desired to be known by His creation, revealing Himself in the most unlikely and unforeseen ways to His people. Through slavery, exile, and defeat; through freedom, return, and victory; through His anointed prophets, angelic messengers, and the generations of silence, God has been preparing to reveal Himself in the most provocative of ways.

Not long after Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the temple, the scriptures say, “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth” (Luke 1v26). Two thousand years ago, Nazareth was a town sinking into obscurity and so corrupted by godlessness that Nathaniel remarked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1v46).

Why Nazareth?

Why not Rome? It was the most powerful and influential city center and capital city of the superpower in the world at the time, the Roman Empire. Maybe Greece? It was the cultural epicenter of the world. Even Ephesus was an integral and influential port city. But Nazareth? Really? That’s like saying, why not New York City, LA, or Seattle? But Toad Suck Arkansas? Really? Yes, really. Nazareth was the backdrop for the next events that unfurled.

If the conception of God’s plan wasn’t already obscure enough, Gabriel was specifically sent to speak with a young virgin girl named Mary who was betrothed to an honorable man named Joseph. Mary was most likely around the age of fourteen. So rewind the narrative a bit. Four hundred years of silence was finally broken, when an angelic messenger of the Lord visits an old, ordinary, and obscure priest whose wife was barren and childless; he then approaches the tiny town of Nazareth to hang out with a nearly preteen virgin girl named Mary. What an unlikely and obscure way to restore hope amongst God’s people and establish His kingdom.

“And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Interestingly, the honorable man Joseph, who was engaged to be married to Mary, comes from the bloodline of the most beloved, revered, and respected king of the Jewish people, King David. He, by the way, was the least likely candidate to be the next king. Plucked out of obscurity, David was a scrawny, young, courageous shepherd boy, who faithfully tended his father’s flock (1 Samuel 16). The psalmist writes, “He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance” (Psalm 78v70-71). God has a pretty good track record of inviting everyday, ordinary people to join Him in His work.

For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 16v7

Gabriel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” How do you think Mary responded? You guessed it. Just like every other human being has ever responded in the presence of an angel: with complete and total fear. The scriptures say she was greatly troubled and didn’t know how to discern the gravity of the moment. Gabriel responded to the virgin, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1v30-32).

These few verses in the biblical narrative fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies with which the people of God would have not only been familiar, but for which they would have eagerly waited and fervently anticipated. In Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his twelve sons and simultaneously his blessing served as a prophecy. His descendants would be rulers and one of them would be an ultimate ruler. Jesus was born two thousand years later and Jesus’ ancestry traces back to Jacob’s son. Six hundred years before Gabriel visits Mary, the prophet Jeremiah writes that the messiah will be a descendant of King David (Jeremiah 23v5). A hundred years before Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah writes that there will be a sign: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7v14). Immanuel means “God with us.” These are words of promise. God has not forgotten us. God’s people longed to be with God. Ever since the days of Eden, we’ve all longed to be with God. The garden longing lingers heavy upon humanity.

The seemingly insignificant young Virgin Mary, living in obscurity, faithfully living a godly life amongst a godless people, is given one of the most significant roles in the most provocative story ever told. A nobody, living in a town full of nothing, in the middle of nowhere, had found favor with God. Just like the shepherd boy David and the old priest Zechariah before her, Mary was found faithful and God blessed her.

Mary genuinely asks, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1v34). She knows the words of the prophets from the past; she knows the messiah will be born of a virgin, she just asks how? Her questioning is different from that of Zechariah’s. The priest doubts; Mary ponders. In her inquiry, she contemplates the miracle. The angel answers, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1v35). Every formation of life in the womb is a miracle. It’s a mystery that God has set and “put eternity in man’s hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3v11). Solomon says, “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything” (Ecclesiastes 11v5). The virgin birth was the work of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit of God was present and presided over the void before creation was conceived, the Spirit of God presides over the void in the womb of Mary as new life is conceived.

Concerned that Mary would be isolated and rejected by her community and family, Gabriel informs Mary that her old and barren cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant. “Wait, what? How can Elizabeth be pregnant? She’s well beyond child-bearing age and she’s been barren her entire life!” Gabriel shares this news with Mary to encourage her and increase her faith. She knows that Elizabeth isn’t the first woman in the scriptures to conceive a child out of barrenness. She knows it must be the work of God. Many scholars believe that barren women who eventually conceived, which is against nature, would be used throughout Israel’s history to prepare Mary (and the world) for this moment. The intricacies of God’s story are stunningly beautiful. “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1v37). Gabriel assures Mary that God does not fail. And now, she will not have to navigate this pilgrimage alone.

“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1v38).

Facing the certain reality of the how this will change her standing with her soon-to-be husband, with certain rejection of her community and with her reputation on the line, Mary faithfully and humbly says yes.

—

My son Moses loves adventure stories. About a year ago, we began a nighttime story routine. The stories were always the same. An unlikely hero overcomes some crazy predicament that seems impossible to escape. My son loved it, mainly because he was always the unlikely hero. Deep down, my son has a desire to participate in the impossible. The beauty of Advent is that it gives us the opportunity to show our children how we have been invited into the impossible to participate in the miraculous work of God to redeem and save His people. In this story, Jesus is the unlikely hero, but we in Him get to participate in the impossible.

May our children hear the voice of God inviting them to humbly participate in the impossible.

— In 2012, Freddy planted ekklesia, in the suburbs of St. Louis, with the desire to understand the everyday rhythms of the church. This exploration led to conversations on understanding family more deeply. As a former student pastor, family pastor, and now church planter, Freddy has a desire to rekindle an old conversation in new generations - to tell an old story. This is the story of Jesus, the story that shapes all stories. May this story be told in our homes for generations to come. Freddy, his wife Michele, and two sons Ryder and Scout live in St. Charles, Missouri.

David planted Mid-Cities Church in St. Louis, MO in 2014. He is passionate about seeing God's message of reconciliation bring about tangible transformation in both the hearts of people and the life of his city. As our hearts are connected with the Father's heart the message of the gospel becomes clear and the work of Jesus becomes a reality. David is passionate about connecting those dots for others. David, his wife Tara, his daughter Julia and son Moses live in Maplewood, Missouri.

Visit Story Catechism and check out their books. Use promo code gcdadvent for 15% off. Also, they were generous enough to share a free sample of two of their books with GCD’s readers (download sample: Story and Advent).

Grace's Humbling Necessity

From the moment we came into the world as helpless babies, right up until this exact second, we are utterly and completely dependent on the grace of God for everything we have, including life itself. What is more, if we have any hope of life after death—eternal life—it is only because of God’s free and undeserved grace for us in Jesus Christ. Until we understand this, it is impossible for us to have the relationship with God that we truly need. But when we do understand this—when we understand our absolute need for Jesus—then his grace changes everything.

PAST EXPERIENCE, PRESENT NEED

Our need for grace may seem obvious at the beginning of the Christian life, when we first put our trust in Jesus. Then we know that if there is anything we contribute to our salvation, it is only the sin that necessitates a Savior. According to the good news of our salvation, Jesus died and rose again so that in him we would receive forgiveness for our sins and enter into everlasting fellowship with the true and living God. We are not saved by anything that we have done, therefore, but only by what Jesus has done. It is all by his grace, not by our works. Yet grace is not something we leave behind once we decide to follow Jesus.Grace is our present need as well as our past experience. The gospel is not just the way into the Christian life; it is also the way on in the Christian life. We continually need to remember that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:9).

In my first chapel address as president of Wheaton College I said something that took some people by surprise, maybe because it’s something that many Christians forget. I said that I don’t know of a college anywhere in the world that needs the gospel more than Wheaton does.

In saying this, I did not mean to imply that there aren’t a lot of Christians at Wheaton. In fact, every student, every professor, and every staff member on campus makes a personal profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Still, it wouldn’t be surprising to find unbelievers on campus: in most Christian communities there are at least some people who do not yet have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is not what I meant, however, when I said that Wheaton College needs the gospel. I meant that the gospel is for Christians every bit as much as it is for non-Christians. We never outgrow our need for God’s life-changing grace— the gospel of the cross and the empty tomb.

A SELF-CENTERED PRAYER

The main reason we continue to need the gospel is that we continue to sin. To experience God’s life-changing grace for ourselves, therefore, we need to recognize the deep-seated sin that necessitates our salvation.

One of the best places to see our need for grace, and also the way that God answers that need, is in a story Jesus told “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). In other words, this is a story for people who will not admit their need for grace. It is a story for us, if we are too proud to confess our sins. It goes like this:

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. - Luke 18:10–14

The story opens with a surprise, because in those days everyone knew that tax collectors did not go to the temple and did not pray. Tax collectors were employed by the Roman government, and thus they were considered traitors to the Jewish people. Many practiced extortion. Thus one preacher compared them to “drug pushers and pimps, those who prey on society, and make a living of stealing from others.”1 Make no mistake about it: this tax collector was a crook!

The Pharisee, by contrast, stood for everything that was right and good. The Pharisees were widely regarded as spiritual overachievers. They were theologically orthodox and morally devout. Possibly our respect for this particular Pharisee increases when we overhear his prayer. He comes before God with thanksgiving. He testifies that he is not an extortioner or an adulterer. Rather than taking money for himself, he gives it away to others. He not only prays, but also fasts. In contemporary terms, this man would be a pastor or a theologian—or maybe the president of a Christian college.

Yet for all his devotion, the Pharisee was not righteous in the sight of God. Why not? His most obvious problem was pride. Although he began by addressing God, he spent the rest of his prayer talking about himself. In only two short verses he manages to mention himself five (!) times: I . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . I. It gets worse, because if we translate verse 11 more literally, it reads, “The Pharisee, standing, prayed about himself,” or even “with himself,” in which case he was not talking to God at all! He did not truly ask God for anything or offer God any praise but simply reveled in his own sense of moral superiority. In other words, the Pharisee was exactly like the people listening to Jesus tell this story: confident of his own righteousness. Here is a man, said London’s famous preacher Charles Spurgeon, who thought he was “too good to be saved.”

It is easy to see how self-righteous the Pharisee was, but what we really need to assess is the same attitude in ourselves. If we are living in Christian community, then either we will grow strong in the grace of God or else we will become bigger and bigger hypocrites. So we need to ask ourselves: When am I like the Pharisee in the story Jesus told?

Here are some possible answers: I am a Pharisee when I care more about my religious reputation than about real holiness. I am a Pharisee when I look down on people who are not as committed to the cause of mercy or justice that I am committed to. I am a Pharisee when I look around and say, “Thank God I am not like so-and-so” and then fill in the blank with whatever person in my neighborhood, or student on my campus, or colleague at my workplace, or family in my church, or group in my society that I happen to think is not as whatever it is as I am.

When else am I a Pharisee? I am a Pharisee when I am impressed with how much I am giving to God compared to others. I am a Pharisee when other people’s sins seem worse than my own. I am a Pharisee when I can go all day, or all week, or even all month without confessing any particular sin.

ANOTHER WAY TO PRAY

Thankfully, there is a totally different way to pray—a way that will save your sinful and maybe hypocritical soul. Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector did not count on his own merits but begged for mercy instead: “The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).

There are three parts to the tax collector’s prayer: God, the sinner, and the merciful grace that comes between them. The man’s prayer started with God, which is where all prayer ought to begin. The first act of prayer is to approach the majestic throne of the awesome and almighty God. When the tax collector made his approach, he refused even to look up to heaven, because he had a right and proper fear of God’s bright, burning holiness.

So the tax collector’s prayer began with God. It ended with himself, the sinner. I say “the” sinner, rather than “a” sinner because the Greek original of this verse uses the definite article. As far as the tax collector was concerned, he was the only sinner that mattered. Rather than comparing himself to others, he measured himself against the perfect holiness of God. And by that standard, he saw himself for what he was: nothing more and nothing less than a guilty sinner before a holy God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wisely wrote, “If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.” One good way to avoid this error and acknowledge the true extent of our sin is to identify ourselves as “the” sinner when we pray, as if we were the biggest, most obvious sinner in our congregation, corporation, family, or dormitory. “It’s me, Lord,” we should say when we begin our prayers. “You know: the sinner.”

AT THE MERCY SEAT

This brings us to the most striking feature of the tax collector’s prayer: in between God’s holiness and his own sinfulness he inserted a prayer for mercy. Like King David, he stood before God and said, “Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace” (Ps. 86:6).

When the tax collector prayed, “Have mercy,” he used a Greek verb that essentially means to atone for sin by means of a blood sacrifice. To understand this, we need to go back in the Old Testament to Leviticus 16. Once a year, the high priest would make atonement for the people’s sin. He would take a perfect male goat and sacrifice it as a sin offering. Then he would take its blood into the Most Holy Place of the temple and sprinkle it on the mercy seat.

What did this priestly act signify? The sacrificial goat represented God’s sinful people. In a symbolical way, their sins were transferred or imputed to the animal. Then, having been charged with sin, the animal was put to death. The goat thus served as a substitute, dying in the place of sinners.

Once a sacrifice had been offered, the animal’s blood was the proof that atonement had been made for sin. The sacrificial blood showed that God had already carried out his death penalty against transgression. So the priest took the blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, which was the golden lid on the ark of the covenant. This sacred ark was located in the innermost sanctum of the temple— the Most Holy Place. On top of the mercy seat there were golden cherubim, symbolizing the throne of God. Thus the ark served as the earthly location of God’s holy presence. Inside the ark, underneath the mercy seat, was the law of God as a covenant that the people had broken. Sprinkling blood on the mercy seat, therefore, was a way to show that an atoning sacrifice had come between the holy God and his sinful people. The sacrificial blood showed that their sins were covered, that they were protected from the holy wrath of God.

In effect, this is what the tax collector prayed for when he said, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” He was asking God to make blood atonement for his sin. There the man was, praying in the very temple where the sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. When Jesus says that “two men went up to the temple to pray,” this is generally taken to mean that they were there around three o’clock in the afternoon, with the crowds that attended the daily sacrifice. Knowing that he was under God’s judgment because of his sin, the only thing the tax collector could do was ask for mercy to come between his guilt and God’s wrath. So he begged for God to be “mercy-seated” to him. He was asking God to atone for his sins, to cover his guilt, and to protect him from eternal judgment.

The order of the tax collector’s prayer echoes the Old Testament pattern for sacrifice: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” First comes God, who is perfect in his holiness. Last comes the sinner, who deserves to die for his sins. But in between comes the sacrificial blood that saves his sinful soul.

SAVED BY THE BLOOD

This is a good prayer for anyone to pray: “God, be mercy-seated to me, the sinner.” Not counting the Lord’s Prayer, or the words of thanks I give before eating a meal, it is probably the prayer I offer more than any other. It’s short and easy to remember. I pray it first thing in the morning or the last thing at night. I pray it before I preach, or any time I am feeling weighed down by guilt: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”

When I pray this way, I am really praying the gospel. By shedding his blood, Jesus Christ became the atoning sacrifice for my sins. His death is my substitute; his cross is my mercy seat; and the blood that he sprinkled on it is my salvation.

To say that Jesus died for sinners is to say that his sacrifice accomplished what the blood on the mercy seat accomplished. Like the sacrificial animals of the Old Testament, Jesus died in our place. Our sins were transferred or imputed to him: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). As a result, our sins are covered; our guilt is taken away. The Scripture says Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26).

Our mercy seat is the cross of Jesus Christ, where the atoning blood was sprinkled for our salvation. In fact, to explain what Jesus was doing on the cross, the New Testament sometimes uses the noun form of the same verb for mercy that we find in Luke 1. We see this terminology in Romans 3:25, which says that God presented Jesus “as a propitiation by his blood,” and again in Hebrews 2:17, where he is described as a “merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God,” who has made “propitiation for the sins of the people.”

This is mercy-seat vocabulary, which assures us that our plea for grace will always be answered. When we say, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner,” we are making an appeal to the cross. We are asking for the blood of Jesus to cover all our sins.

GOING HOME JUSTIFIED

Has God been mercy-seated to you? What compels me to ask this question is the conclusion to the story Jesus told. Two men went to the temple, where they offered two different prayers and, as a result, met two entirely different destinies.

In the end, the tax collector got what he asked for. His prayers were answered. God was mercy-seated to him. Thus Jesus closed his story by saying that this man (and not the other) was “justified.” In other words— and we will say more about this in a later chapter—the tax collector was counted righteous. He was justified by God’s mercy on the basis of the atoning blood of a perfect sacrifice, which he received by a prayer he asked in faith.

God did not justify the Pharisee, however. This would have come as a total shock to anyone who was listening to this story when it was first told, so Jesus was very specific about it. Although the Pharisee declared his own righteousness, he was never declared righteous by God, and therefore he went home unjustified. Sadly, his righteousness was part of the problem. He was too busy being self-righteous to receive God’s righteousness, which comes only as a gift.

The Pharisee’s prayer was all about what he could do for God: “I thank . . . I am . . . I fast . . . I give.” All his verbs were active, in the first person singular. What made the tax collector’s prayer different was that he was asking God to do something for him. Therefore, the only verb in his prayer is passive: “God, be mercy-seated to me, the sinner.”

Pray this way, and you too will be justified before God. What is more, you will be so humbled by your desperate need for God’s life-changing grace that you will not look down on anyone but live instead with the humility, joy, and gratitude that only grace compels.

—

Philip Graham Ryken (PhD, University of Oxford) is the 8th president of Wheaton College and, prior to that, served as senior minister at Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church. He has written several books for Crossway, and has lectured and taught at universities and seminaries worldwide. Dr. Ryken and his wife, Lisa, live in Wheaton and have five children.

Excerpted from Phil Ryken’s Grace Transforming, published by Crossway, and used with permission.

The Original Jesus

Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back—then it spread—then the color seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper—then, while his hindquarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. . . .

Everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. . . . And instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang with the sound of happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter.

—C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe[i]

This passage from C. S. Lewis’s epic Chronicles of Narnia series gives me chills every time I read it. Narnia, under a deep freeze as the result of the White Witch’s spell, was emerging from winter. Having defeated death at the Stone Table with a “deeper magic,” Aslan now rescued from death the creatures calcified into statues by the witch.

This image of breathing life into death easily calls to mind the spiritual rebirth we experienced as Christians when Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, invaded our lives. Prior to salvation, we didn’t think we were dead, but we were. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that without Christ we existed as walking dead, spiritual corpses without any ability to please God. We walked with pleasure in the ways of our father Satan, and had no life within us. But Christ, through the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, breathed life into us. The same life-giving breath that formed life at the dawn of creation has now breathed new life into His fallen creatures.

This creation, redemption, and renewal are the story of Christianity. But I wonder if the church has lost this message in some ways. I’m not speaking about a turn to heresy or those who reject the exclusivity of Christ, but I’m speaking of a development among those of us who hold fast to the gospel. We are tempted to promote a kind of near-gospel that offers blueprints for personal renewal without an emphasis on repentance made possible by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

This Dr. Phil Jesus is attractive in a self-help society. Jesus as a self-help star who doesn’t renew us from the inside but offers a set of vague moral principles by which we can work our way to success. This Jesus is not the one who breathed life into dead creatures but the one who offers a serene pathway to your best life now.

At this point you might ask, “Doesn’t this Jesus offer life principles?” Or you may also ask, “Don’t Christian principles work at times for non-Christians who follow them?” The answer is yes. Christian doctrine holds that all truth is God’s truth. Theologians have long held that the world lives under a concept called “common grace.” This is God’s favor and providence over all of humanity, even those who have no faith in Christ. For instance, a businessman may run his business according to the book of Proverbs—wise and honest, with integrity and fairness—and yet may have never read that book. Along the way he has gleaned useful principles for life, whether from his upbringing, from his application of commonly held best practices, or by learning from wise teachers. And so he applies what can be found in the Bible without even reading the Bible. This is common grace.

Similarly, a husband and wife may enjoy a long, fruitful, intimate marriage and yet not be believers. They apply the things to their marriage that the Bible says makes marriages hold—fidelity, forgiveness, grace—and yet are as lost in their sin as anyone else. How does this happen? It is by God’s favor upon fallen creatures living in His world, under His domain, according to the way He ordered the world to work.

The Bible has good principles by which to live; it is the best collection of wisdom in the world, written by the One who created the world. So in this sense Christians should live by the Bible and be unashamed to declare that God’s way is the best way.

And yet in another sense, the Bible was not given to us by God primarily as a book of wisdom, though wisdom is contained in its pages. It’s not primarily a book of principles, though life principles can be found in its pages. It’s not primarily a self-help manual, though self-improvement can be found in its pages. The Bible is one, long, continuous story, woven through various authors and genres and thousands of years of history. It’s a story that begins with the world as it was intended to be, good and beautiful, perfect and innocent. It’s the story of who we are as humans, created by God in His image and for His glory. It’s the story of a tragic fall and a heroic rescue.

For most of my Christian life, I didn’t read the Bible this way. I’m grateful for the Bible teaching I received growing up, the gospel message proclaimed to me, the Bible verses I memorized, and the hymns we sang in church that have stuck to my soul as an adult. Growing up, much of the preaching I heard was essentially this—how Jesus could improve your life followed with five steps to do better in a particular area of your life.

I didn’t get this message from a liberal, mainline denominational church. I grew up in an ultraconservative church. The way we looked at the Bible was not as God’s unfolding revelation of Himself, the story of His work through time and history to redeem His people. We looked at the Bible as a sort of guidebook for life with a way to get to heaven in the end. It was better than Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura or even Dr. Dobson, mainly because its words were inspired by God and therefore perfect. What we missed, however, was the grand narrative. Thankfully I heard the salvific message of the gospel, but there was so much more of its riches and depth that I missed.

I’m afraid much of our preaching and teaching in the church is like this: merely good, practical, helpful messages by godly men but that could easily be preached at a corporate business seminar. I’m afraid many of our pulpits lack the kind of Christocentric, gospel-saturated, bloody-cross-infused preaching that reminds us daily that Jesus didn’t come primarily to slightly improve us, but to breathe new life into the walking dead.

A Righteous Man Reborn

This kind of proclamation animated Jesus’s ministry. This is why I think the most shocking story in the Gospels may not be His walking on water, feeding thousands with a little boy’s lunch, or even raising Lazarus from the dead. Those events proved that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the promised one prophesied by the prophets of old. But to me, the most surprising narrative is Jesus’s encounter with Nicodemus in John 3.

Nicodemus might have been the most admired religious figure in Israel. If you combined all of the warm vibes our culture holds for Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, and Pope Francis, you’d have Nicodemus. He was described as “the teacher” in Israel (John 3:10). When people had spiritual questions, it was Nicodemus who gave the answers. If anyone had a lifeline to God, surely it was this revered teacher of the Scriptures.

And yet in John 3 we find Nicodemus, the learned scholar, teacher, and spiritual leader, asking questions of Jesus, the suddenly popular carpenter’s son from Nazareth. There was something in Jesus’s message of repentance that was different than anything Nicodemus had heard. And sure enough, when Nicodemus asked these questions Jesus confronted him not with esoteric religious philosophy, but with his yet-unseen personal spiritual crisis.

Jesus pointed his finger at Nicodemus and said, “You must be born again.” This doesn’t seem like much for us who live in the West. Ever since Jimmy Carter employed it in his quixotic presidential campaign, “born-again” language has been part of our modern vernacular.

But to Nicodemus these words were a cold dose of reality and kind of a shock. After all, if anyone needed to be reborn, it was probably those crooked tax collectors at the temple, the unrepentant adulterers, and definitely the Romans who occupied the land God promised to Israel. But Nicodemus? He didn’t think he needed rebirth.

Nicodemus was already reborn, or so he thought. He was spiritual, religious, virtuous, moral. But had Nicodemus been reading the Scriptures closely, or how they were meant to be read with a redemptive-historical focus, he would have seen that the narrative of the Old Testament revealed mankind’s dangerous paradox. Scripture reveals a moral law from God that demands perfection as well as mankind’s inability to perform that law because of our depraved condition. The prophets foretold a day when a Messiah would come and establish his kingdom. The features of this kingdom would be a call to repentance and the regeneration of the heart. Ezekiel said God would come in power not simply to rescue Israel from its oppressors, but primarily to give them a new heart (Ezek. 36:26).

Jesus saw past Nicodemus’s outward religiosity and into his sinful heart. He knew that what Nicodemus needed from Him was not just an updated reading on the Old Testament law, a few pointers on how to better serve his people, or a list of best spiritual practices. Nicodemus needed what those statues in Narnia needed. He needed the breath of life from God.

Despite his performance, his knowledge of Old Testament Scriptures, and his status as an admired spiritual guru, Nicodemus was no closer to the kingdom of God than Barabbas, that dangerous criminal being held in solitary confinement somewhere in Jerusalem. Nicodemus needed what everyone needs, the sovereign work of the Spirit of God breathing resurrection and life into what was once dead. Nicodemus could apply principle after principle—even principles found in the pages of Scripture—and still be no closer to the kingdom of God.

What separates genuine Christianity from every other attempt at reaching God is that it aims not for the moral self-improvement of sinners, but the resurrection of sinners to new life. This is not just a distinctive feature, it’s a whole new paradigm.

Jesus didn’t come to be a great teacher and motivator. The stories of Scripture are not merely for our inspiration and enlightenment. We are fallen creatures created to glorify God but willingly worshiping ourselves and our false gods. Unless there is a movement of the Spirit of God within us, we are hopeless and helpless in the world. This is why Paul, that learned Jew, said that if Christ did not rise from the dead, “we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19 KJV). He knew that the human condition is inherently corrupted. We cannot help ourselves, improve ourselves, or save ourselves. Only Christ in his power can save us.

[i] C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2002), 168.

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Daniel Darling is the Vice President for Communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC). For five years, Dan served as Senior Pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and is the author of several books, including Teen People of the Bible, Crash Course, iFaith, Real, and his latest, Activist Faith. He is a weekly contributor to Parse, the blog of Leadership Journal. His work has been featured in evangelical publications such as Relevant Magazine, Homelife, Focus on the Family, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, . Dan's op-eds have appeared on CNN.com's Belief Blog, Faithstreet, Washington Times, Time, Huffington Post and other newspapers and opinion sites. He has guest-posted on leading blogs such as Michael Hyatt, Jeff Goins, and Jon Acuff. He is a featured blogger for Crosswalk.com, Churchleaders.com, Covenant Eyes, and others.

Daniel Darling, The Original Jesus, Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, ©2015. Adapted by author. http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

An Interview with Justin and Lindsey Holcomb, Authors of God Made All of Me

  It’s perhaps a parent’s greatest fear – that at some point his or her child will become a victim of sexual abuse. The statistics are alarming: Approximately one in five children will become victims by his or her 18th birthday. Authors Justin and Lindsey Holcomb have responded to parents’ concerns by writing God Made All of Me, a resource for moms, dads, and caregivers who want to protect and educate their children.

GCD: What prompted you to write God Made All of Me? What age range was it written for?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: The book is for 2-8 year olds. We wrote it because we have two young children and know that parents need tools to help talk with their kids about their bodies and to help them understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touch. It allows families to build a first line of defense against sexual abuse in the safety of their own homes. Our goal is to help parents and caregivers in protecting their children from sexual abuse. Because private parts are private, there can be lots of questions, curiosity, or shame regarding them. For their protection, children need to know about private parts and understand that God made their body and made it special.

GCD: You were intentional about using the terms “appropriate” and “inappropriate,” when referring to kinds of touch, instead of the words “good” or “bad.” Why?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: It is important to be clear with adults and children about the difference between touch that is appropriate and touch that is inappropriate. Experts discourage any use of the phrases “good touch” and “bad touch” for two main reasons. First, some sexual touch feels good and then children get confused wondering if it was good or bad. Second, children who have been taught “good touch” or  “bad touch” would be less likely to tell a trusted adult as they perceive they have done something bad.

To your child say something like: “Most of the time you like to be hugged, snuggled, tickled, and kissed, but sometimes you don’t and that’s OK. Let me know if anyone—family member, friend, or anyone else—touches you or talks to you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable.”

GCD: How did you approach talking about this issue with your own children?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: We started by teaching them the proper names of their private parts at an early age and telling them that their bodies are strong, beautiful, and made by God. We read books to them from an early age on this topic and would talk about who can help them in the bathroom or bath and that it was OK for the doctor to check their private parts at appointments when mom or dad is present.

We would also roll play different scenarios to get them thinking what they would do if someone approached them and wanted to touch their private parts, show theirs, take pictures, etc. Play the “what if” game with them at the dinner table with different scenarios to see their thinking and problem solving skills. “If someone asked you to show them your private parts and promised to give you candy if you didn’t tell anyone what would you do?” Remind them that they can tell you anything and anytime without fear of getting into trouble.

We’ve also tried to instill a sense of control our kids have over their own bodies. We would tell them to say “no” or “stop” when they were all done being hugged, tickled, or wrestled. We encourage them to practice this with us so they feel confident saying it to others if the need arises. We also tell them they don’t have to hug or kiss a family member if they don’t want to and teach them how to express this without being rude. It is important to empower children to be in charge of their bodies instead of at the mercy of adults.

GCD: What are some practical things parents can do to protect their children from sexual abuse?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: In our book, the last page is to parents and called, “9 Ways to Protect Your Children from Sexual Abuse.” Some of the key practical things parents can do are: teach proper names of private body parts, talk about touches, throw out the word “secret,” and identify whom to trust. You can read about all 9 here.

GCD: It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, but what should a mom or dad do if they suspect their child might have been the victim of sexual abuse?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: You can call your local sexual assault crisis center and talk with a child advocate or hotline volunteer about your concerns. They will be able to point you to the proper authorities. Some areas would have you speak with a detective where other areas would have you talk to a victim witness advocate. Don’t ask probing questions that could instill fear in your child. Just assure them that you are so proud of them for telling you what happened and that you believe them and that your job is to keep them safe.

GCD: Tell us about GRACE. What does it offer to the church and families?

JUSTIN & LINDSEY: GRACE stands for “Godly Response to Abuse in Christian Environments” and the mission is to empower the Christian community through education and training to recognize, prevent, and respond to child abuse. We help educate churches and other faith based organizations how to protect vulnerable individuals from abuse and we help churches love and serve survivors of abuse who are in their midst.  Check out GRACE at www.netgrace.org.

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To keep up with Justin and Lindsey Holcomb, visit www.godmadeallofme.com. You can also follow Justin’s page on Facebook or follow them on Twitter (@justinholcomb and @lindseyholcomb).

Fear and Faith

I find Paul to be a wonderful example of a God-fearing man who had to learn to trust. He had to learn to be content (Philippians 4:11). Paul hadn’t arrived. He was tried by fire. He was tested, and his faith and trust in the Lord grew as a result. I share this because you and I so often hold the men and women in Scripture as our example for life. The example from Paul is one of learning—not of perfection. The valiant woman of Proverbs is another example of a biblical character we may elevate. She laughed at the unknowns in the days to come and found her security and strength in the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 31:25, 30). She is the quintessential biblical example of a strong and courageous woman. When I envision her, I imagine she is unruffled by uncertainty and ready to face any danger. Boy, do I wish I were like her! Thankfully, that is why she is considered an ideal. I, however, would characterize my everyday walk with the Lord quite differently. I am fearful, but I want to be bold and trusting. I am anxious, but I want to find confidence and rest in God. I imagine that the valiant woman, if walking the earth, wouldn’t be comfortable with the pedestal we’ve put her on. No one is perfect, and even the “ideal” woman needed to grow and learn.

Walk by Faith

Similarly, you and I are tried. We don’t become Christians and suddenly understand what it means to walk by faith. Like a baby, we may begin our journey by pushing off from our hands, then crawling, pulling up on the Word of truth, and failing and falling many times. And then one day we reach the point where we take that sure step of faith, and before we know it, we are wobbling toward a straight path. We aren’t born walking from our mother’s womb, and we aren’t born again trusting perfectly.

I’m not alone in this. Just the other day I received an email from a friend, requesting prayer because she was afraid to leave her daughter as she traveled across the state. Before that, and over the past several months, I’ve had the privilege of caring for women who have had miscarriages, and they fear having more or never getting pregnant again. I have a dear college-aged friend who shared that she was afraid she might not do well enough on a midterm to pass her college class; and my single girlfriend is praying that the Lord will bring her a husband—but the prospect seems dim, so she fears it just won’t happen. I could go on. And I imagine you resonate with similar temptations and circumstances.

We too often fear the past, the present, and the future. There is the fear of being who we are, so we try to please people. We, unlike the psalmist in Psalm 23, are afraid that the future is not as good as God says; will goodness and mercy really follow me all my days? (Psalm 23:6). There is the fear of other women, and—as a result—we compare ourselves to them and judge their actions and motives. We fear the future with anxious thoughts about our children not knowing the Lord when they get older or about our husband not returning from a trip. We don’t want our kids to die, so we fixate on death and forget who is really in control. And we wonder if we are good enough for anyone or anything.

I know this to be true firsthand. From trusting God for a husband to praying that I wouldn’t have another miscarriage, I’ve experienced the intense and debilitating temptation to fear. The fear I am referring to is by definition an expectation of harm; it is to be alarmed and apprehensive. When I am tempted to fear in this way, it is because my false sense of control has been altered by a circumstance. Or there are unknowns—what lies in the future—and I realize I have absolutely no control over what will happen. In many ways, our fears rest in seeking trust and security in ourselves. Within a matter of seconds I can bury my husband in my private thoughts; I’ve arranged the funeral and am now terrified as I try to figure out how to raise our two beautiful children by myself. These thoughts are imaginary; it hasn’t happened. It’s just my fear. During those times my mind isn’t meditating on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). I’ve noticed that my decision to play God never works out well for me. Can you relate? Regardless, I think you and I do this because we believe it’s easier to be in control. But when we realize we don’t reign supreme, that we don’t have sovereign authority over our lives, it can be terrifying.

A Remedy for Our Fears

There is, however, and thankfully, a remedy for all our fears. That remedy comes as a person, and the means through which He provides the comfort, along with the Holy Spirit, is through His Word. To fight our fears, we will look at God’s sovereignty and love and watch our fears dissipate as we apply God’s Word to our lives. The very thing we are holding on to (control) is, ironically, the thing we most need to let go of. As you and I come to understand that our God isn’t ruling as a tyrant but is lovingly guiding and instructing as a Father, we can loosen the tight grip on our lives that produces the bad fruit of fear. This isn’t “Let go and let God.” It’s “Let go, run hard toward your Savior, and learn to trust God.”

There is, however, a fear that we want to possess. It is a fear defined as an awestruck wonder of the holy God who condescended to become a man, died on a cross, and bore the entire wrath that you and I deserve so that we might now enter into His presence. We can enter His presence and receive grace. He can turn our weak and sinful fear into a fear of Him. That’s what He does; He turns coal into diamonds. We don’t have to be crippled by fear, because we have a God who holds the oceans in the hollow of His hand. He doesn’t promise that our lives will be easy (far from it), but He does promise to take care of us, His daughters, till the very end and for all of eternity. Ultimately we fight fear by trusting in the Lord and fearing Him.

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Trillia Newbell (@trillianewbell) is a wife, mom, and writer who loves Jesus. She is the author of United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity (Moody).

Excerpted from Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves copyright ©2015 by Trillia J. Newbell. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Worship as the Goal of Mission: Multiplying Images of God

In worship, we represent God’s image more and more clearly, not only to subdue forces of evil but also to multiply these images of God to fill the earth:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living that moves on the earth. (Gen 1:28)

The command to “fill the earth” implies that the earth is not yet filled with images that reflect God’s glory. While the boundaries of the Garden are clearly delineated (Gen 2:10-14), the call to multiply images of God would expand the boundaries of that Garden sanctuary until it filled the whole earth. Our mission is to be used in God’s hand to bring about more worshipers in the image of God who might multiply and fill the earth with even more worshipers.

Outside of the Garden-sanctuary of Eden lay a chaotic inhospitable area. God calls Adam not only to “work and to keep” the Garden of Eden (see Gen 2:15) but also to expand that Garden and “fill the earth” (Gen 1:28). Bible scholar John Walton notes that “people were gradually supposed to extend the Garden as they went about subduing and ruling” in order to “extend the food supply as well as extend sacred space (since that is what the Garden represented).” God wanted to expand that sacred space and dwelling place from the limited confines of the Garden-temple of Eden to fill the entire earth. As Adam multiplied children in his image, then they would expand God’s dwelling place of his presence into the chaos outside of Eden until it filled the earth, and the whole earth reflected God’s order and his glorious presence.

We are created to fill the whole earth with God’s glory. God formed the earth and made it . . . [and] did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited! (Is 45:18, emphasis added; see Ps 115:16)

God’s ultimate goal in creation was to magnify his glory throughout the earth by means of his faithful image bearers. Psalm 8 begins and ends with the goal of glorifying God:

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Ps 8:1, 9)

This majesty of the Lord is his “glory” (Ps 8:1), a glory reflected in humanity who is “crowned . . . with glory and honor” and given “dominion over the works of your hands” (Ps 8:5-6). God’s glory is to be spread “in all the earth” through humanity crowned “with glory and honor” and properly expressing their dominion in creation. We are created to glorify God by filling the earth with image bearers crowned with that glory.

What does it mean to glorify God? The Westminster Catechism reminds us that “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” If we are created to glorify God, then we should know what that means. We glorify God by multiplying images of him who are crowned with his glory; we glorify God by multiplying disciples. Jesus himself glorified God in this way. Near the end of his life, he declared,

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. . . . I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (Jn 17:4, 6)

Jesus glorified God by making disciples who kept God’s word. The mark of these disciples was obedience. Similarly, we glorify God by our mission in making disciples who keep God’s word.

How then do we multiply disciples? Disciples multiply only as the word of God bears fruit in and through our lives. In Acts, the Genesis 1:28 language of “be fruitful and multiply” marks the growth of the church:

And the word of God continued to be fruitful and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. (Acts 6:7; our translation)

But the word of God bore fruit and multiplied. (Acts 12:24; our translation)

So the word of the Lord continued to bear fruit and prevail mightily. (Acts 19:20; our literal translation)

Unlike Genesis 1:28, the word of God, not people, bears fruit and multiplies in Acts. Similarly, in Colossae the gospel “has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit (karpophoreō) and growing (auxanō)” (Col 1:6, our translation; see 1:10). Just as Adam and Eve were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28), so now the gospel is “bearing fruit and growing” and filling the earth (Col 1:6, 10). Spiritual progeny are multiplying to fill the earth through the gospel.

However, why does the word of God increase and multiply in Acts and Colossians through spiritual progeny instead of physical progeny, as in Genesis 1:28? In fact, Genesis 1:28 likely does not have in mind only physical children, but children who also were to be spiritual image bearers of God. We must recall that even in Genesis 1:28, the word of God is essential, since Adam and Eve were to subdue the earth through obedience to God’s word (see Gen 2:16-17). Adam and Eve fail to subdue the serpent because they do not remember and obey God’s word properly (Gen 3:1-7). The genealogy of Genesis 5 traces the initial stage of the proper fulfillment of Genesis 1:28, and the “likeness of God” in Adam is passed down to Seth, who is in Adam’s “likeness, after his image” (Gen 5:1, 3). Here, the image of God in Adam is passed down through Seth, who keeps God’s word, unlike the murderer Cain. Images of God multiply as a vanguard movement, beginning to spread out over the earth with the goal of filling it with divine glory bearers. Acts and Colossians focus now on the spiritual children of Christ, the Last Adam (see Col 1:15-18), who are multiplied (e.g., see Acts 6:7, “And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem,” emphasis added).

Therefore, gospel growth is the key to true church growth. Church leaders can often seek programs and marketing processes to accelerate church growth, and such programs and processes may have a place. However, lasting church growth is essentially gospel growth. If church growth is based on programs that do not root people in the “living word” (see Acts 7:38) of God, then they will “in time of testing fall away” (Lk 8:13). We must get people to come to church, but we must also get the word of God to come to people. The only way to integrate people into the body of Christ is by the word of God growing in them. Our mission is to multiply disciples, image bearers of God who know and use God’s word to subdue the deceptive work of our enemy in the world. If Jesus Christ himself rides out in victory against the evil one with a “sharp sword” of God’s word coming “from his mouth” (Rev 19:15), so we must equip God’s people with this sharp sword of God’s word to come from their mouths, since we are in union with Jesus, and what is true of him in this respect is true of us.

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G. K. Beale (PhD, University of Cambridge) holds the J. Gresham Machen Chair of New Testament and is professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Mitchell Kim (PhD, Wheaton College) is lead pastor of Living Water Alliance Church in the Chicago suburbs. Building on extensive experience in the immigrant church, he has helped found and guide Joshua Generation to equip youth workers to reach their generation for Christ. He also teaches Bible in the graduate school at Wheaton College and participated in the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010. Of Korean descent, he was born in southern California, raised in Tokyo and lives in Naperville, IL with his wife Eunsil and their three children.

Taken from God Dwells Among Us by G. K. Beale and Mitchell Kim. Copyright (c) 2014 by G. K. Beale and Mitchell Kim. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com

Free Easter Edition of Raised?

Happy Easter. To celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we are giving away, alongside authors Jonathan Dodson and Brad Watson, and Zondervan Publishing, an extended excerpt of Raised? for free. This gift is the entire first chapter in which Jonathan Dodson explores both our doubts and our hope in the resurrection of Jesus by pressing into the plausibility of the resurrection. Download the 25 page pdf excerpt.

Watch the four part film, download resources, and purchase the full-length book at raisedbook.com

Hoping in God's Promise in a Broken Here and Now

A Reason to Remain Hopeful

Sometimes the cancer is not cured. Sometimes the slum remains a slum. Sometimes the marriage fails and the friendship ends. Sometimes our hearts break. We suffer; we hurt; we experience loss; we ache. In the midst of these very real battles, Jesus speaks to us out of his own sorrow and grief to remind us that, in the end, hope will win. In the end, life will overcome death, joy will overcome sorrow, freedom will overcome bondage, and triumph will overcome loss.

Still, we wait.

When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” it wasn’t just a prediction about the future. It was also an identity statement. Whenever Jesus uses the words I am to describe himself, he is claiming to be God. I am is Old Testament language that Jews like Mary and Martha understood to mean one thing. They would instantly remember Moses and the burning bush, out of which the Maker of the universe spoke the words, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

The same God who created the galaxies with a breath, who split the ocean with words, and who calls a dead man out of a tomb is the God who is going to make all things new and whose words are trustworthy and true.

Yet we struggle to lay hold of these realities in a broken here and now.

Confronting Worst Case Scenarios

During occasional seasons in my adult life I have suffered from insomnia, anxiety, and panic attacks. Whenever these seasons have come, the anxiety was triggered by fear about the future. The triggers for me fall into three categories or questions. First, am I going to be alone? Second, am I going to get an incurable disease? Third, am I going to be able to provide for the people who depend on me?

Part of the way that I have confronted the anxiety has been to work with a professional counselor. Several years ago, during a particularly anxious season, my counselor observed how prone I was to meditate on worst-case scenarios. Instead of coming up with all the reasons why my fears were irrational and would probably never come to be, she challenged me to assume that my fears were true and face them head-on. She challenged me to think about, and then speak out loud, what the long-term, worst-case scenario would be if I ended up alone, or sick, or could not provide for my loved ones. “Let’s just imagine for a minute that each and every one of your fears was real and actual. Then, let’s fast-forward a hundred years into the future. Where is the worst-case scenario going to take you, Scott? You preach the answer to this question to others all the time. Let’s pause for a moment and see if you can preach it to yourself.”

If I end up alone, the worst-case scenario is that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in him, though they die, yet shall they live. God has set a place for me at the wedding feast of Jesus, and I will be part of the church, his bride, forever. He puts the lonely into an eternal family. He will never leave or forsake me. The long-term, worst-case scenario is that I will never be alone, that I will always be known, loved, and received.

If I get a disease, the worst-case scenario is that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in him, though they die, yet shall they live. Just as Jesus’ body has been raised incorruptible and will no longer be subject to decay, so will mine be. He forgives all my sins and will heal all my diseases and crown me with love and compassion and redeem my life from every pit. The long-term, worst-case scenario is that I will be happy, healthy, strong, and whole forevermore.

If I cannot provide, the worst-case scenario is that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in him, though they die, yet shall they live. Jesus is rich. Everything in heaven and earth is his, and every square inch and every penny, nickel, dime, and dollar belong to him. But Jesus is more than rich; he is the true riches. Whether I live in poverty or wealth, I will always be able to say with the Puritan who was stripped to nothing but a piece of bread and a glass of water, “What? All of this and Jesus Christ, too?” The long-term, worst-case scenario is that I will inherit a wealth that will never spoil, perish, or fade—the wealth being Jesus himself. This inheritance will be not only for me but also for those depending on me who have anchored their own futures in his provision, not mine.

God’s Infinitely Real Promises

Is it any wonder that the most repeated command in the Bible is “Do not fear”?

God’s long-term promises are infinitely more real than any present, broken reality. It takes a God-given faith for us to see these things and let ourselves be impacted by them emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and otherwise. But with this God-given faith, we who are realistic about suffering can also live in hope because the broken reality in which we live is not the ultimate reality. Suffering, sorrow, and death will not be a part of life. All nightmares, imagined and real, will come to an end. Everything sad will come untrue. These words are trustworthy and true.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Thanks be to God.

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Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who are Tired of Taking Sides. You can connect with Scott at scottsauls.com or on Twitter at @scottsauls.

Taken from Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides copyright ©2015 by Scott Sauls. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

How Christians Should Mortify Sin

Hostile To God

Romans 8: 7 is simple and stark: “The sinful mind is hostile to God .” The mind is not neutral ground, and cannot love one preoccupation without rejecting the other. A mind “that is set on the flesh” (ESV translation) must also be treating God and the desires of his Spirit as an enemy. This is why our minds are, naturally, unable to deal with sin. We may realize that a particular impulse is unhelpful, or that a certain course of action is destructive. We may even decide to cut it out, and may do so successfully. But the root of sin is still implanted in the mind— hostility to God. So sin will still grow unchecked in our lives.

And that hostility makes us incapable of pleasing God. Verse 8 is an equally striking statement : “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Left to ourselves, we are totally unable to live in a way that causes our Creator to approve of us. Why? Because the mind that drives the actions is acting out of hostility to him. The person controlled by their own flesh is able to have a thought that is good, or perform an action that is right. But it cannot please God, since it is thought or done in enmity toward him.

Here is a helpful illustration: a man in a rebel army may look after his comrades, may keep his uniform smart, and so on. Those are “good”— but they are done in hostility to the rightful ruler. You would never expect that ruler to hear of this rebel’s conscientiousness or generosity and be pleased by his conduct in rebellion!

But none of this needs to be, or ought to be, the way “you”— Christians— live (v 9). Every Christian is “controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit,” since the Spirit lives in anyone who belongs to Christ. When we received Christ and became righteous in God’s sight, the Holy Spirit came in and made us spiritually alive. The Christian has a body that is decaying (v 10), yet also enjoys a spirit, a mind, that is alive.

And, Paul says, not only must our spirits/ minds not follow our flesh now, but one day our flesh will follow our spirit. In Greek thought, the physical was bad, to be rejected and hopefully one day to be left behind; the spiritual was good, to be embraced. Verse 11 overturns all this: ”He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” Someday, even our bodies will be totally renewed and made eternally alive by the Spirit. There is no dualism (body bad, spirit good) here— one day, both will be perfected.

For now, though, there is still within us the remaining sinful nature, which is hostile and inimical to our growing spiritual life. And even as we look forward to our bodies being given life (v 11), we must “put to death the misdeeds of the body” (v 13—the end of this verse is best seen as the end of a sentence, unlike in the NIV). As John Stott argues, Paul is still likely referring to an experience of life, and death, now— not in the future. Paul says here: If you let the remaining sinful nature alone— if you allow it to prosper and grow— there will be terrible trouble. Instead, you must by the Spirit attack and put it to death. The more you put to death the sinful nature, the more you will enjoy the spiritual life that the Holy Spirit gives— life and peace (v 6).

Mortification

This process of “putting to death” is what earlier theologians used to call “mortification.” They got it from the old King James Version translation of the verse: “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (v 13).

So what do verses 12-13 tell us about what mortification is, and how we do it? First, it means a ruthless , full-hearted resistance to sinful practice. The very word translated as “put to death” (Greek word thanatoute) is violent and total. It means to reject totally everything we know to be wrong; to declare war on attitudes and behaviors that are wrong— give them no quarter, take no prisoners, pull out all the stops.

This means a Christian doesn’t play games with sin. You don’t aim to wean yourself off it, or say: I can keep it under control. You get as far away from it as possible. You don’t just avoid things you know are sin; you avoid the things that lead to it, and even things that are doubtful. This is war!

Second, it means changing one’s motivation to sin by remembering to apply the gospel . This process of “mortification” goes deeper than merely resisting sinful behavior. It looks at the motives of the heart. Verse 12 says: “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation— but it is not to the sinful nature.” This is a critical statement. “Therefore” refers to the statement before, in which Paul tells us we have been redeemed by Christ’s righteousness and will someday be totally delivered from all evil and pain in the bodily resurrection. Then Paul turns and says: “Therefore ... we have an obligation…” Some translations express it differently: “We are debtors, not to the flesh” (NRSV). Paul means that if we remember what Christ has done and will do for us, we will feel the obligations of love and gratitude to serve and know him.

Paul is saying that sin can only be cut off at the root if we expose ourselves constantly to the unimaginable love of Christ for us. That exposure stimulates a wave of gratitude and a feeling of indebtedness. Sin can only grow in the soil of self-pity and a feeling of “owed-ness.” I’m not getting a fair shake! I’m not getting my needs met! I’ve had a hard life! God owes me; people owe me; I owe me! That’s the heart attitude of “owed-ness” or entitlement. But, Paul says, you must remind yourself that you are a debtor. If you bathe yourself in the remembrance of the grace of God, that will loosen, weaken and kill sin at the motivational level.

Therefore, “put to death” (v 13) is just a sub-set under “mind the things of the Spirit” (v 5). Mortification withers sin’s power over you by focusing on Christ’s redemption in a way that softens your heart with gratitude and love; which brings you to hate the sin for itself, so it loses its power of attraction over you. In summary, then, we kill sin in the Spirit when we turn from sinful practices ruthlessly and turn our heart from sinful motivations with a sense of our debt to love and grace, by minding the things of the Spirit.

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Tim Keller is senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Manhattan, New York, and author of numerous books. He is also co-founder and vice president of The Gospel Coalition. For more resources by Tim Keller visit Gospel in Life. You can follow him on Twitter.

Timothy Keller, Romans 8-16 For You, The Good Book Company ©2015. Used by permission. http://www.thegoodbook.com/

Reflect Christ, Deflect Satan

Paul’s story is well documented. He was a killer of Christians and an adamant opponent of their faith (Acts 8:1-3). Later, as a man saved by God’s grace, he constantly urged believers to turn away from their old lives and to press into their new natures in Christ, just as he did. He didn’t harp on rules and regulations, but rather exhorted them to look to Christ for their reason for living. And as a hate-monger transformed into a humble servant, Paul knew the benefit of receiving and offering Christ’s compassion. Few passages in the New Testament describe the character of Christ as a weapon against Satan’s work as clearly as Ephesians 4:25-32. In this passage, Paul makes a very clear assertion to believers: Christians are freed through the sacrifice of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, to reflect him and deflect Satan.

Speak Truth (v. 25)

Paul states, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” In short, he is telling his audience to be honest with one another. He does not issue this warning against lying in order to be seen as righteous to outsiders or to prevent themselves from consequences later on; rather, Paul says that Christians should speak the truth because they are one body.

The word for “members” in the Greek, mele, literally means “a bodily organ or limb,” giving the metaphor that Christians are plainly, not just figuratively, connected as flesh and bone members of a body. It is indispensable for believers to understand that, in a sense, they should treat each other how they themselves want to be treated. If a believer lies to a brother, he is simply sinning against every other Christian and, essentially, himself. Paul carries this thought from verse 24 in which he tells believers to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Although Christians will always struggle with Satan’s temptation to speak falsely until the moment of death, they become new creations in Christ with the ability to walk in a manner that reflects the likeness of God himself.

Control Anger (vv. 26-27)

The passage continues, expanding on the statements made in previous verses, saying, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” These two verses combine to explain that such characteristics belong to the devil and not to God. Anger in and of itself is not a sin when exercised appropriately. Even Christ, who did not sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15), was angry (without sinning) as he rebuked the “money-changers” in the temple (Matt. 21:12-13). When Christians act in such a way that they are representing Satan’s lies and not Christ’s model, they are in danger of, or already participating in, sin. Francis Foulkes clarifies, “The Christian must be sure that his anger is that of righteous indignation, and not just an expression of personal provocation or wounded pride. It must have no sinful motives, nor be allowed to lead to sin in any way.”

Christians are a new creation with a new attitude and a new power to overcome the traps of Satan. Given the opportunity to hold a grudge, the Christian must turn away from their anger and forgive immediately. If “the sun goes down” on a person’s anger, it will continually eat them alive, just as Satan has planned. Satan is a powerful trickster, looking for and providing any avenue for a person to give into temptation and give him a place to work. The gospel affords the opportunity to escape such traps.

Be Generous (v. 28)

For the Christian, there is a new outlook on the idea of giving and receiving: “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Once given this new life in Christ, a person is called to view their possessions differently. Once a thief himself, the new believer must now work honestly for their income and turn it into a gift.

One only needs to look at the life and ministry of Jesus to see that servanthood is the paramount trait of a holy person. Christ was and is God who stepped into human history and lived a perfect, sinless life. As an eternal king, he had no true reason to be humble or to serve anyone, but he did. He gave all of himself in order that Christians might have a life more than they ever imagined (Jn. 10:10-11). Though Satan makes selfishness appealing, the humble character of Christ cannot be overlooked by anyone seeking to model themselves after him. Dishonest gain may often be the easy route to travel, but believers are commissioned to take the road less traveled.

Show Grace (v. 29)

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Here, believers are told not to speak in such a way that someone will be hurt or pushed away by their words. Satan will use biting words to attempt to destroy not only the body of Christ, but relationships they have with outsiders.

Society often judges Christians based upon their actions. The world is not merely looking for a show, but an authentic lifestyle that promotes goodness. While it is rather easy for the Christian to settle into moralistic behavior modification in order to attempt at pleasing Christ and appearing righteous to those around him, the new man cannot stop there; he must act in sincere concern for those looking to him for answers on Christ.

Any person can modify behavior, but a true disciple of Christ lives with a transformed heart that sees other human beings as lost souls in need of Christ’s redemption. Satan will try to distract believers from the Great Commission, but this must be fought against. There is no escaping the call to love others as Christ does.

Do Not Grieve the Spirit (v. 30)

Paul advises Christians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” This is a simple caution with huge implications. When sinning, one must remember that their sin is not only damaging to others; it’s an affront to God.

The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit may sometimes be under appreciated and overlooked by many Christians, but the he is the actual person of God dwelling within the Christian. As the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer, he is rightly and justly saddened and angered by the direct disregard for his holy standard. When the Christian sins, it is not to be forgotten that the holy and righteous God of the universe takes full notice. God is not a distant being, floating in the outskirts of creation; God is an active and living being dwelling in and standing beside each person every day of their existence with full knowledge of their transgressions against him. John Calvin once exhorted Christians to “endeavor that the Holy Spirit may dwell cheerfully within you, as in a pleasant and joyful dwelling, and give him no occasion for grief.”

Christians should give thanks for the seal of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14) given to them by God through Christ on the Roman cross. It is in him and him alone that the old man dies and the new man is raised to new life. This new life holds the promise of eternal liberation, while Satan only offers bondage and destruction.

Attitude Matters (v. 31)

Paul collects all wrong attitudes together in one verse, telling his audience to “let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” Though surely a problem in the church that Paul is writing to, any and all Christians can attest to struggling with these very things. As a Christian, this desire does not simply disappear on the day of new life. There is still constant battle within the soul of a Christian to do what is right and holy when Satan’s temptation seems to be the correct—or at least easier— way to handle the negative situation.

The simple response for the Christian is to ignore a person who wrongs them by “turning the other cheek.” This is true and virtuous. However, with the power of the Holy Spirit within the believer, there is far more power over sin than merely walking away or pretending that an offense didn’t occur. A new creation in Christ has every resource imaginable to actively pursue radical forgiveness and grace. The act of loving an enemy is far and above the call of mere forgiveness. After all, even a non-believer with no supernatural power at all can turn away from a person who insults, attacks, or demeans them. God promises something better; he promises “a way of escape” for believers (1 Cor. 10:13).

Be Kind and Forgiving (v. 32)

Paul concludes the passage with this statement: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Believers are called to such a lifestyle because they are new creations with a new heart, first forgiven by God so that they may show grace to the world. The selfish Christian is a contradiction; no one set free from sin can simultaneously be a captive to it. Paul is entirely clear in verse 24 that there is no such thing as a Christian that lives as he once did.

A major facet of the gospel is that having the inclination to continue sinning does not grant a person the excuse to maintain the same pattern of living. In describing a new creation in Christ, Paul uses the adjectives “kind,” “tenderhearted,” and “forgiving.” These are not natural dispositions of the natural human being; these are supernatural reactions to the broken mess of creation.

Saved For a Purpose

Paul says in Romans 5:14 that Christianity is foundationally void and useless if Christ did not resurrect from the dead after his crucifixion. For the Christian, this has massive connotations. If Christ did not rise, he did not conquer death and in turn conquered death on behalf of anyone else. If Christ was not raised, his forgiveness would mean absolutely nothing. Believers cannot understate the grace that must be shown to others in response to the magnificent and unbelievable power exemplified in Jesus Christ. The final words of a risen Savior are not comforting promises of eternity, but an insistence on being light in the midst of darkness (Matt. 28:18-20).

God’s will is not aimed entirely at the Christian going to Heaven, but rather for his people to represent him well and live according to his immutable standard in the here and now. The gospel frees us from our own interests. Christians have an obligation to love God and love others well precisely because of the cross.

The character of Christ, this gospel-infused sword we wield, is at the forefront of the Christian witness to a lost world. And Satan cannot deflect its blows. As Jesus proclaims, not even the Gates of Hell can stop his Church (Matt. 16:18).

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Brandon D. Smith serves in leadership and as an adjunct instructor in theology and church history at Criswell College, where he is also associate editor of the Criswell Theological Review. He recently edited the book Make, Mature, Multiply and is a contributor to Designed for Joy (forthcoming from Crossway, 2015). Follow him on Twitter.

2 Big Reasons Evangelism Isn’t Working

One in five Americans don’t believe in a deity. Less than half of the population attends religious services on a regular basis. People simply find our evangelism unbelievable.

Why?

While a person’s response to Christ is ultimately a matter that rests in God’s sovereign hands—something we have no control over—a person’s hearing of the gospel is a matter we do have control over and responsibility for.

• “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season…” 2 Tim. 4:2
• Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. – Col. 4:4-5
• So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  Romans 10:17

The first reason our evangelism isn’t believable is because it isn’t done in grace for each person.

Paul isn’t just saying evangelism is our responsibility; he’s telling us to do it “in person.” Unfortunately, a lot of evangelism is an out of body experience, as if there aren’t two persons in a conversation. It’s excarnate, out of the flesh, not incarnate—in the flesh.

I’m reminded of the more passive Christian who looks to get Jesus off his chest at work and into a conversation. “Check!” Or the time in college when I pretended to share the gospel with a friend in Barnes & Noble so others would overhear it! Alternatively, an active evangelist might troll blogs and start conversations to defeat arguments, while losing people in the process. “Aha!” The comment section on a blog is the new street corner.

These approaches are foolish because they treat people like projects to be completed, not persons to be loved. Have you ever been on the other end of evangelistic project? Perhaps from a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon at your door. Or a pushy pluralist at work? You don’t  feel loved; you feel used, like a pressure sale.

Paul says we should “know how you ought to answer each person.” This means that most of your gospel explanations will be different, not canned. It also implies a listening evangelism. How can we know how to respond to each person, if we don’t know each person?

When Francis Schaeffer was asked how he would an hour with a non-Christian, he said: “I would listen for fifty-five minutes, and then, in the last five minutes I would have something to say.”

A second reason people find our evangelism is unbelievable is because it is foolish.

Paul isn’t just telling us evangelism is personal; he’s telling us to do it with wisdom. Wisdom possesses more than knowledge; it expresses knowledge through understanding. It considers life circumstances and applies knowledge with skill. Another word for this is love.

Love is inefficient. It slows down long enough to understand people and their objections to the gospel. Love recognizes people are complex, and meets them in their need: suffering, despair, confusion, indifference, cynicism, confusion. We should look to surface these objections in people’s lives. I was recently having lunch with an educated professional who had a lot of questions. After about thirty minutes he said, “Enough about me. You’re asking me questions. I should ask you questions.” I responded by saying, “I want to hear your questions, but I also want to know you so that I can respond to your questions with wisdom.” He told me some very personal things after that, and it shed a lot of light on his objections to Christianity. It made my comments much more informed, and he felt much more loved, declaring at the end, “I wish every lunch was like this. Let’s keep doing this. I have a lot more questions.”

Rehearsing a memorized fact, “Jesus died on the cross for your sins,” isn’t walking in wisdom. Many people don’t know what we mean when we say “Jesus,” “sin,” or “cross.” While much of America still has cultural memory of these things, they are often misunderstood and confused with “moral teacher,” “be good,” and “irrelevant suffering.” We have to slow down long enough to explore what they mean, and why they have trouble with these words and concepts. Often they are tied to some kind of pain.

We need to explain these important truths (and more), not simply assert them. When we discerningly separate cultural misunderstanding from a true understanding of the gospel, we move forward in wisdom. But getting to that point typically doesn’t happen overnight.

We need to see evangelism as a long-term endeavor. Stop checking the list and defeating others. Be incarnate not excarnate in your evangelism. Slow down and practice listening and love. Most conversions are not the result of a single, point-in-time conversation, but the culmination of a personal process that includes doubt, reflection, gospel witness, love, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

And remember, don’t put pressure on yourself; conversion is in God’s hands. We just get to share the incomparable news of Jesus.

In sum, how you communicate the gospel matters.

Does Anything Need to Change in Personal Evangelism? from Jonathan Dodson on Vimeo.

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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, Unbelievable Gospel, and Raised? 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. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

Jonathan’s new book is The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing (resource website here). You can also get his free ebook “Four Reasons Not to Share Your Faith.”

Re-posted with permission from Desiring God.

Cherishing the Foreverness of Jesus’ Work

Who has done more for us than Jesus? Who’s ever come close? No one loves like Jesus. No one and nothing delivers on their promises like Jesus. The good news of forgiveness from all of our crimes, being made a child of God and a co-heir with Christ, does the heart good . Forever. Jesus has wounded the Dragon, and he is coming back to get his girl, his beautiful church.

the tale of tales

The Bible is the tale of tales. A Jesus-exalting view of the Bible means that you refuse to view the Bible (and the Christian experience) as mere regulations and sanctions for life on earth. The Bible is way more than that. Children’s book author Sally Lloyd-Jones says it best:

No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules , or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne —everything— to rescue the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this Story is— it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby . Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle—the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

What beautiful picture? A crucified, risen, sin-pardoning hero—your hero. Your Savior. Your Jesus, and he killed the big bad wolf. Your sin is finished. Do you believe it? As in all good tales, the enemy is vanquished. It’s time to believe it— that’s part of the “happily ever after.” As in all good tales, the enemy is vanquished. It’s time to believe it – that’s part of the “happily ever after.”

As in all good tales . . .

As in all good tales, the enemy is vanquished. It’s time to believe it—that’s part of the “happily ever after.” How would you describe your relationship with sin? For the Christian, only one word in the Bible fits: deceased. God’s Word doesn’t say that we are simply weakened, cold, hardened, or numb to sin; it declares that we are dead to sin and alive to God because of Jesus. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6: 11). If you’re like me, you probably don’t always feel this way toward sin, but the gospel brings great news. You are no longer under the power, control, and kingdom of Satan and his toxic meal-deals

If you are in Christ, look at how the Bible describes your relationship with sin. I heard these from the great Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson, in a seminary class, and I pass them on to you:

• Sin is no longer your king: “Let not sin therefore reign” (Rom. 6: 12).
• Sin is not your commander: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments [weapons]” (v. 13).
• Sin is done being your dictator: “For sin will have no dominion over you” (v. 14).
• Sin is no longer your master: “You were slaves of sin” (v. 20).
• Sin is no longer your employer: “The wages of sin is death” (v. 23).

Sin controlled you, but no more. You are free. Jesus smashed sin’s scepter, and now he reigns forever. The Lion of Judah roars against all other predators.

back to the gospel—again

Go back to the gospel—again. Not for conversion, but for comfort.

But maybe you don’t feel like you are dead to sin. There is hope. If you are a Christian and your life still sleeps in the pigpen—it is time to confess, repent, and walk in the freedom that Jesus has already purchased for you. Go back to the gospel—again. Not for conversion, but for comfort. The gospel— Jesus’ death and resurrection—is a one-time event, but we believe it more than once—we believe it and re-believe it every day. God’s gospel declares that you are free. You are safe in Christ, and he is ready to help you. Go to God. Cherish the foreverness of Jesus’ work for you, walk in grace, and life change is on the way. In fact, it has already touched down.

Paul’s instruction from Romans 6: 11 is clear: “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Believe it. Don’t close this book till you do. Your being dead to sin is as true and real as Jesus being alive. Christian, you must consider your ties with sin to be forever severed by the blood of Jesus. This is what it means to believe the gospel again—believing the glorious gifts of the gospel.

We will still sin, and Jesus will continue to own us. Sin is no match for Jesus. He’s already shown what he can do. Jesus is bigger, stronger, faster, and greater than all our sin: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3: 3). Do you believe that you are dead to sin? Do you believe that you are alive? What sin do you think you’ll never have victory over ? Today that lie ends; the crimson flood swallows it up—your joy is found in gospel truth. Jesus is the great curse -lifter promised in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3: 15), the great gloom-cleanser of the land, the heavenly and human harbinger of joy.

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J.A. Medders is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Church in Tomball, TX. He and Natalie have two kids, Ivy and Oliver. Jeff digs caffeinated drinks, books, and the Triune God. He blogs at www.jamedders.com and tweets from @mrmedders. Jeff’s first book, Gospel-Formed: Living a Grace-Addicted, Truth-Filled, Jesus-Exalting Life, released this November from Kregel.

Excerpted by permission. Gospel Formed: Living a Grace-Addicted, Truth-Filled, Jesus-Exalting Life by J. A. Medders, Kregel Publications 2014

Culturally Literate Evangelism

Cultural shifts have resulted in the collapse of Christendom, an official or unofficial relationship people have with their country and its civil religion. In America, moral views typically associated with Christianity have been replaced by more progressive views associated with libertarianism on marriage, sexuality, and gender. In addition to loosening the American moral fabric, the collapse of Christendom has left behind a rubble of theological understanding. As the dust settles, we can no longer assume that people know what words like Christ, sin, faith, and God mean. For many, these words may no longer carry their original biblical meaning. We need to become culturally literate in order to be evangelistically fluent. If we don’t, the gospel gets lost in translation.

In secular culture people may actually hear us saying teacher for Christ, bad deeds for sin, wishful thinking for faith, or moldable deity for God. Today, it is a mistake to assume theological literacy. If we are to move forward, the Church must develop its ability to listen to new questions people are asking and learn how to translate the gospel into words and concepts that speak to the heart.

The Need for Cultural Literacy

Consider the need for cultural literacy in this story. A church planter in my city planted little wire signs in grassy medians around the city that read “RepentAustin.org.” I’ll admit it’s a pretty gutsy and confrontational tactic, but Jesus did call people to “repent and believe.” Yet, as I thought about this evangelistic approach, a major objection came to mind. These signs did not take into account contemporary understandings associated with the word “repent.” They conjure up images of judgmental people, filled with hatred toward “sinners,” who self-righteously speak words of condemnation. Instead of intriguing people, it probably elicited disinterest and, perhaps, unduly promoted a distorted view of the Gospel.

What makes this way of presenting the Gospel distorted? First, it does not call attention to Jesus — it focuses on a person’s need to change before they even get to hear about Jesus and what He has done. Second, there are strong cultural memories associated with the word, especially in the South, that are connected with a return to good, moral living — again, a response that has nothing to do with Jesus and what he has done. Many youths, when they hear the word “repent,” associate it with things like: stop listening to secular music, stop sleeping with your girlfriend, and start going to Church. This kind of repentance does not involve turning away from trusting in yourself to trust the Savior. It is simply a switch in lifestyles, secular to Christian. You can alter your behavior without altering your savior.

People adopt the trappings of faith—the religious habits, attempts at moral living, even a new Christianized culture that entails wearing a purity ring and listening to Christian music. But this cultural repentance is not a true turning to Christ; it is a turning to Christianity, to a religious subculture.

Slowing Down to Understand

To be effective in our new cultural landscape, we will have to slow down long enough to understand what people hear and how they speak in order to communicate the gospel in intelligible ways. This involves listening to what people think in order to communicate meaningfully what God thinks. This doesn’t require a PhD in Bible or theology. It requires love: sacrificing our time, tweaking our crammed schedules, putting away our canned responses, and actually conversing with people.

People don’t just need to hear a thirty-second gospel presentation. They need to understand why the Gospel is worth believing. To do this, we must learn their language and know their stories. We need to become “culturally literate in order to be gospel fluent, communicating the gospel in words and idioms that make sense to the people we talk to.

Why Do People Find the Gospel Unbelievable? from Jonathan Dodson on Vimeo.

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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, The Unbelievable Gospel, and Raised? 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. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

Jonathan’s new book is The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing (resource website here). You can also get his free ebook “Four Reasons Not to Share Your Faith.”