What We Build Will Be Tested by Fire

“Alright guys,” I instructed, “I want you to build something beautiful with the materials in front of you. But whatever you build has to be able to stand the test.” For an hour these young men created out of the materials I’d provided them. They could build with any combination of modeling clay, copper pipe, lumber, cardboard, rocks, and a host of other materials.

When time was up we surveyed their work. Some creations had an artistic flair; others looked like child’s attempt to mimic a Michelangelo piece. Some projects were towered vertically—miniature Babels. It was clear much effort had been devoted just to keep the creation upright.

With each young man still wearing a smile of pride and accomplishment, I poured lighter fluid on each project and lit them on fire. This fire was the test I told them was coming. The aftermath was entertaining. Besides the shock on the faces of the guys, it was fascinating to watch their creations burn. Depending on what they had used to build, some had more and some had less of their work remaining.

Now before you start calling me some kind of psychopathic pyromaniac, let’s be clear. The scene I created that afternoon wasn’t an original. Our construction project was actually designed to mirror a biblical text from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

Your Life is a Building Project Followed by Arson

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. —1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Paul is saying to the church at Corinth, “Friends I laid a foundation for you. I brought you the message of Jesus. Now it’s up to you to build on that foundation—for better or for worse.”

Just like my students built with different materials, every Christian, is building on the foundation they have received in Christ. However, Paul surprises us when he says what we build with our lives will be tested by fire.

There are two judgments described in Scripture. One for believers in Jesus (the judgment seat of Christ), and another for those who have not believed (the great white throne judgment).

According to Paul, your life is a building project followed by arson. Jesus is offering us a heads-up that we will stand before him face-to-face. During this conversation, the quality of the story you lived will be revealed. (It is important to note that for Christians, this conversation does not result in a verdict of heaven or hell but rather, reward or loss of reward.)

I’m prone to view my life as a smattering of disconnected parts. I can survey the different areas—husband, father, professor, coach, student, writer, athlete—and things seem kind of hodgepodge. But the Bible says that my life is progressing towards a singular and united outcome. That product is the finished picture of the story I have lived. That story, this lifelong building project, will either leave me smiling after my conversation with Jesus or it will leave me weeping and he will wipe away those tears.

So what are the materials we have to build with? What is the “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw” that Paul refers to?

The answer runs deeper than the good things we do or don’t do. The story you live will not ultimately be the sum product of your behavior. The story you live is actually molded by the subterranean desires that drive you forward. When you stand before Jesus, he will test the purity of your affections. Were you pursuing false loves or responding to the Lover of your soul? Did you build your life around the true story of the gospel or around a hollow and broken story?

The most important task any of us can ever undertake is to launch a full investigation into these questions. What you find through this personal inquiry might change the trajectory of your life.

 Life as a House

The film Life as a House opens with a stunning panorama of the southern California coastline. We see the sun rise as it peeks over the cliffs and you can hear the waves crashing below. The camera pans and we are introduced to the main character who is facing the ocean, stretching, and urinating off the cliff.

George Monroe is the owner of this magnificent property and his neighbors hate him for it. Surrounded by pristine mansions, his embarrassing shack is in disrepair (and no functioning toilet, thus, the need for the cliff). The great irony is that George is an architect. However, he hates his job. He is divorced and alienated from his drug-loving son.

Early on in the movie, George collapses after being fired. Doctors discover that he has terminal cancer. Mere months remain in his life. With the end in view, he sets to work on the project he’s always dreamed of—pouring his energy and skill into the house. He enlists the help of his son Sam who violently opposes the idea but is forced to help by his mother. Sam moves in for the summer.

George has not shared the news of his cancer with anyone, but as his condition worsens the secret leaks. Sam begins to soften towards his father. As the cancer slowly kills George, his house is being constructed and repaired. But even better, a relationship between George and Sam blossoms out of the rubble.

As summer fades, George is hospitalized and it is clear that his death is imminent. Sam places Christmas lights on the house so George can see it from a distance in his hospital room.

George dies. The building is finished. The movie ends with a voice-over of his final words to Sam.

“I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big; it didn't even need to be beautiful; it just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life . . . I built myself a house. . . . If you were a house, Sam, this is where you would want to be built: on rock, facing the sea. Listening. Listening.”[1]

You and I can still build. You are, in fact, building something with your life right now. It’s the story you live.               

[1] “Life as a House (2001) - Quotes - Imdb,” IMDb, accessed April 17, 2015, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264796/quotes.

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Sean (@Sean_Post) lives in Maple Valley, WA with his wife and two sons and leads a one-year discipleship experience for young adults called “Adelphia”. He is completing his doctorate in Missional Leadership.

Adapted from Sean’s upcoming GCD Books title The Stories We Live: Discovering the True and Better Way of Jesus. Coming June 2015.

Living with Eyes Forward to That Day

“I just can’t beat it,” he said with his hands in his hair. He had been confronted with the reality of indwelling sin. “I’m just a guy. I’ll never break this porn habit.” I sat across from this man entranced by pornography’s mystical pull. As I look into the eyes of my brother, I want to say so many things. I begin, “You’re not alone” and go on “If I’m honest—the only thing that broke my porn habit was living in a van with three other guys when I was a traveling musician. There’s just not much room for porn when you can’t even change clothes in privacy.” Most of all, though, I want to ask him this question: “Can you imagine the Day when you will be physically unable to sin?”

Sometimes we are so overcome with our sin and so quick to make excuses we are in danger of overshadowing one of the most glorious truths of Scripture—one Day we will be made gloriously new, like our risen Savior.

Where the Discussion Starts

Without a robust understanding of depravity, we cannot have a correct understanding of the gospel. Recognizing sin as “within” rather than “without” must be the fuel that drives our desperation for redemption. In other words, we are not saved from the scary things out there; we are saved from God’s just wrath toward our own sinful nature.

This discussion is not new. Augustine argued in his own time that human free will is bent toward sin, and apart from a divine act of grace, humans freely choose evil. This is total depravity. The Reformation principle of unconditional election was founded on the same notion that man is totally depraved—nothing in any of us merits the gracious election of God from before the foundation of the world. We don’t bend toward him. He graciously condescends to us.

I’m all in on the discussion of total depravity, especially in light of today’s Evangelical climate—which for some can be summed up as simply, “You can do it.” Well, actually, you can’t. I can’t. That’s the point of grace. And without this understanding, when indwelling sin surfaces, we have no category by which to cry out for grace.

Where the Road Forks

However, there are two ways to frame the discussion of total depravity, as if we stand at a great fork in the road of Christian experience—one sign reading “slavery,” and one reading “freedom.” The first road is our default mode. It is a man-centered view of total depravity. Claiming to be wise, we show ourselves foolish when we declare, “wretched man that I am,” without also boldly proclaiming our redemption in Christ (see Paul in Rom. 7:24-25). Is that not the heart of what Luther was trying to communicate when he wrote to Melanchthon, “Let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger.”¹

The second way to frame this discussion must be God-centered. Here are the questions we need to ask: How long will God allow totally depravity to continue? What has he done to enter into our depravity and redeem it? What is the end of all this?

Where the Scriptures Meet us

And in the weeds of that discussion, we often find ourselves camping on this. Is this a post-Genesis 3 world, or is it a pre-Revelation 21 world?I completely understand that every fiber that God has intricately woven into his creation has been affected by man’s fall into sin. Total depravity is just that—total. However, as I look to the Scriptures, I see them more often pointing forward to a different world. I sense the longing of the prophets and the apostles for a time in which the effects of total depravity will be wholly reversed and when the redeemed of God will always choose righteousness.

When I read articles or hear sermons about the distortion of this post-Genesis 3 world, I want to scream out, “BUT A DAY IS COMING!” And I don’t think I am alone in this . . .

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. –Romans 8:18

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. –Philippians 3:20-21

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. –Isaiah 11:6

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. –Revelation 21:3-4

Here’s what I don’t see—excuses. I don’t see Genesis 3 being used as a crutch by which we might cry, “I wish I could do better . . . but I just can’t.” That notion is just not present in the Scriptures. To be fair, neither is the notion that we can do better, at least on our own.

This beautiful doctrine floods the pages of Scripture—we will be made new. In fact, everything around us will be made new. And, characteristic of the gospel of Christ, this is all by grace! None of it hinges on our own earning. Rather, God will make all things new at the consummation of his redemptive work in Christ.

Also characteristic of the gospel of Christ, this truth is compelling. It compels us, or drives us, to holiness. Or at least it did so for the biblical authors.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. —2 Peter 3:11-13

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Back to the young man in my office across the table, sulking over his porn habit and hiding behind a cup of coffee. When I asked him whether he could conceive of a time when he will be physically unable to sin, he answers honestly, “No.” I completely understand. I have no idea what that will feel like either. But here’s what I preach to him (and myself), “Don’t be driven to despair over your addictive habits. Look to that Day.” On that Day we will see our Savior face to face and be made new. We will simply be unable to sin. The physicality of the new earth should push us towards living holy now.

Christian, who does your depravity drive you to look? To yourself or your Redeemer? Where does your help come from? Are you looking back in despair, or are you looking forward with hopeful angst? Are you living in a post-Genesis 3 world, or in a pre-Revelation 21 world? Look to that Day, to your Redeemer.

^{1. Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter from Luther to Melancthon. “Letter no. 99, 1 August 1521. From Wortburg (Segment).” Translated by Erika bullman Flores. From Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften. Dr. Johannes Georg Walch, Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), Vol.15, cols. 2585-2590.↩}

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Alex Dean (@AlexMartinDean) is a pastor in Lakeland, Florida. Holding an undergraduate degree from Dallas Baptist University, Alex is currently completing his graduate work at Reformed Theological Seminary. His book, Gospel Regeneration: A story of death, life, and sleeping in a van, is available on Amazon, iBooks, and other online retailers. Follow his blog at www.GospelRegeneration.com and follow him on Twitter.

An Open Letter to Justine Sacco on Grace

Can your life be defined by one moment? By one mistake? By one infamous decision? For Justine Sacco it probably feels like it can. Maybe you have heard her story, but in case you haven’t, let me tell it the best I can. On December 20th, 2013 Justine sent out the following tweet before boarding a plane en route to Cape Town, South Africa: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Now what Justine tweeted was irresponsible and misguided. These are the obvious facts.

But what happened to Justine Sacco after that tweet revealed how much our society really loves to see people destroyed. Social media exploded with outrage over the tweet, and Justine’s life suddenly took a swift turn for the worse.

However, I want to focus on this situation from an explicitly Christian perspective. How should we, as Christians respond to Justine Sacco’s mistake? Is there grace for her? Would Justine have a place in your church?

Now I believe that most Christians would say that there is indeed grace for Justine Sacco. Grace is the centerpiece of the gospel—the central message of Jesus. However, are Christians simply using “grace-talk” or actually believing that grace is big enough to cover sins that have been deemed unforgivable?

Finding Grace and Freedom

According to a recent story on Sacco in The New York Times, she admitted to “crying out (what seemed to be) her body weight in the first 24 hours” after discovering that her tweet had been retweeted and shared thousands of times. Sacco inevitably was fired from her job, and spent a long time wallowing in the guilt, remorse, and shame that comes from making mistakes, sinning, and it being exposed to the world.

Now over a year has past since Justine Sacco made a grievous mistake that ruined her life. I do not know what Justine is up to now, and I’m sure she is fine with that. I’m sure she prefers not being in the limelight anymore. Nevertheless, I do wonder if Justine found grace and freedom. Has she experienced the liberation of having her past mistakes redeemed and forgiven? Has she felt the burden of shame and guilt lifted from her?

Many people will say the church is “a hospital for sinners.” This seems right in light of the way that Jesus lived his life. Christ said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk. 2:17). In other places, Jesus dined with outcasts and tax collectors (Matt. 9:10). He seemed to have no problem in keeping company with those who were considered to be marginalized and wrongdoers (Jn. 4).

So what does this communicate to current Christians in an age of internet shaming? In an age of public shaming, is it possible for Justine to start over? No doubt Justine was wrong, but what should the consequences be for her mistake? Exile? Excommunication? Expulsion?

The Mentality of Karma

It’s interesting to me that Christians regularly use grace-language, but live out a karma-like mentality. When situations like Justine Sacco’s are brought before our attention, we tend to immediately think, “She is getting what she deserves.” But what exactly does she deserve? Is it really punishment, exile, and condemnation? I don’t think so.

What’s alarming though is that Christians tend to display this same karma-like mentality online. The culture of shame has infected the way that Christians conduct themselves on the Internet (just take a look at Twitter or Facebook on any given day). To be honest, do we really believe that the gospel message is going to bear fruit in an atmosphere of humiliation and reproof?

Imagine if Jesus would have said to Matthew, “Clean up your behavior and then you can follow me” (Matt. 9:9). Or when Jesus encountered the woman at the well. What if he would have said, “You have been sleeping around a lot, so I’m not sure that this living water is for you” (Jn. 4). What about in the last moments of the thief on the cross’s life (Lk. 23:32-43)? This man would have been considered to be one of the worst of the worst. However, Jesus offered unconditional grace to this man, and did not withhold forgiveness from him.

What if this was what immediately was offered to Justine Sacco? Grace, forgiveness, and love. I know that everybody is not a Christian, and she still would have faced consequences at work and from the world, but why couldn’t the Christian church rally around her and say, “There is room at the table for you”?

Why couldn’t the overwhelming response to Justine’s situation be more centered on Jesus Christ’s undeserved grace instead of on her ill-advised tweet? We now live in a culture where one mistake, tweet, lie, or video can ruin your life. Is this really the message of the Christian gospel? Of course not. But if the Christian church isn’t careful, she will let the secular culture influence her more than the liberating message of Jesus.

This is why I hope Justine Sacco, wherever she is, is confronted by someone who has been grasped by the now-power of the gospel. I hope she is floored by the amazing grace of Jesus Christ. That is my hope and prayer for her, and for many more like her (i.e., Peter Jennings, etc.).The good news really is that good, even though Christians might not present it in that light always.

So Justine Sacco:

I pray that you will be liberated by the good news of Jesus Christ. He died so that we would not be defined by one mistake. He died so that we could be made alive (Eph. 2). If you are still experiencing overwhelming guilt, shame, and distress, I hope that you will recognize that the Christian God is a God who removes our sins as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:11-12). Our sin may run deep, but God’s grace runs deeper still. Realize that.

Your friend and fellow-sinner,

Matt Manry

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

5 Integral Reasons Mature Disciples Sleep

We all have seasons of life where we might get less sleep than we should, but the right amount of sleep is integral for being a mature disciple. Mature disciples get sleep. D. A. Carson explains the importance of sleep:

Doubt may be fostered by sleep deprivation. If you keep burning the candle at both ends, sooner or later you will indulge in more and more mean cynicism—and the line between cynicism and doubt is a very thin one….If you are among those who become nasty, cynical, or even full of doubt when you are missing your sleep, you are morally obligated to try to get the sleep you need. We are whole, complicated beings; our physical existence is tied to our spiritual well-being, to our mental outlook, to our relationships with others, including our relationship with God. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night’s sleep—not pray all night, but sleep. I’m certainly not denying that there may be a place for praying all night; I’m merely insisting that in the normal course of things, spiritual discipline obligates you get the sleep your body need. (Scandalous p. 147)

So why should mature disciples sleep? Here are five integral reasons.

1. Sleep allows us to be fully present in our home, work, and third places.

Being fully present means being ready to engage fully in whatever location you are. In Everpresent, Jeremey Writebol describes the importance of place:

“God has created this very place where I am writing. He has created the very place where you are reading. He has created it by his will. He has created it for his glory. Now, you might challenge that statement because you know some architect drew up the design for this building and a contractor came in and had carpenters, builders, electricians, and plumbers actually make this place. But under God’s authority, using the agency of humanity, he created and holds all things together (Col. 1:15). Place matters because God made it matter. You might feel indifferent to this place right now because it isn’t where you want to be or because it is somehow broken and in disrepair. This place might be a comfortable, quiet place for you right now. It might be a place that doesn’t belong to you; you are a visitor in it for only a season. Whatever the situation, because God has made it and made it for his glory, you are suddenly in God’s place.”

You cannot be fully present if you are half asleep. Mature disciples know this and get enough sleep.

2. Sleep allows us to work with excellence.

Springboarding off the point above. You cannot work with excellence when you are tired. Web MD says,

If you have a demanding job or are trying to get ahead on your responsibilities, you might be caught in a vicious cycle of skimping on or skipping sleep altogether to work longer. But it often tends to backfire, says Sean P.A. Drummond, PhD, director of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and Mood Disorders Psychotherapy in the Veterans Administration San Diego Healthcare System. "You're just not as productive when you lack sleep."

The article lists four ways lack of sleep affects your work:

• Attention and concentration
• Reaction time
• Decision-making
• Memory

You cannot do work that honors God and represents you well if you are tired. Because most of us spend a good chunk of our day at work, it’s also a primary sphere for missional endeavors. If you are constantly tired and doing bad work, it will make it hard to have a gospel witness and build strong relationships with co-workers.

3. Sleep makes this world our home.

God rested after six days of creating and ordering the world. In The Lost World of Adam and Eve, Dr. John Walton says God rested to make the world his home. As God was doing his creation work, the world was just a house, but when he comes down to rest in it—it’s his home. That backdrop should inform our rest. If God has commissioned our work to imitate his, then we must also imitate his rest. It’s one way we can honor God in the sacred spaces he has placed us in. They’re not just impersonal places. The world is our home. God has given us a certain number of hours in each day and its arrogant to assume we can fulfill the culture mandate as image bearers (Gen. 1-2) and gospel mandate as disciples (Matt. 28:18-20) without following God's ordering of creation.

4. Sleep allows us to demonstrate humility and dependence on God.

Sleep also shows dependence on God. We cannot do the work he has commissioned us to do on our own. We do not know better than him. We need sleep. We sleep to demonstrate humility and dependence. Furthermore as a parent, I have to remember I’m responsible to ensure my children get the proper sleep. They are disciples under my care. Douglas Wilson says, “Remember their frame (Ps. 103:14). Don’t skip naps, keep them up until 11:30, withhold a real dinner, and then paddle them for falling apart. Someone should paddle you for pulling them apart” (“Mechanics of Fatherhood”). Making sure our children get enough sleep prepares them to be mature disciples and teaches them dependence on God. Mature disciples get enough sleep and ensure those they shepherd get enough sleep as well. Humility and dependence starts in our beds.

5. Sleep promotes balance in life

Nothing is more practical than sleep. I have battled depression for most of my life. I had a break through 5-6 years ago—a good night sleep and a regular routine covered a multitude of sin. Several recent studies have linked too little or too much sleep with depression. Get the right amount of sleep. There will always be exceptions or a busy season, but the rule should be sleep is a priority. Sleep just keeps our bodies in good working order. Not everyone struggles with depression, but we all have our own issues. Doctors have made a connection between sleep and our overall health. 90% of people with insomnia have other major health issues. “[L]ack of sleep,” shows one study, “doubled the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.” Yikes! A good night’s sleep will help your entire life balance and that will help you as you stay on mission as a disciple of King Jesus. So don’t neglect sleep.

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Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!

Tired of Yourself? Jesus Will Never Tire of You

We crave affirmation and praise. This is so because we are made in the image of God, who is both the object and source of love, adoration, praise and wonder. Yet we are haunted because there is much about us that invites shame more than it does admiration. We miss the mark and we miss the boat, failing not only to measure up to God’s standard, but also our own. To make matters worse, instead of facing our deficiencies head-on, we self-medicate with cover-up strategies to make ourselves look OK even we are not. We clean the outside of the cup while leaving the inside untreated. We are imitators of Adam and Eve after they got caught. Rather than humbly owning and repudiating our quest for independence and obsession with self, we become defensive, shift blame, and avoid relationships that might expose us. We hide the worst in ourselves at every cost. But the “safety” that comes from hiding also comes at a cost. We become alienated because every self-protecting cover-up erodes intimacy with God, other people, and our actual selves. Rather than live free, we schlep through life carrying the cargo of vague guilt and shame-induced anxiety. If we are somehow awakened to our condition, we will cry out for healing from these painful realities. We need help—a kind-hearted rescue from outside ourselves. We can’t get there alone.

rescue from outside ourselves

Enters Jesus.

Although we are exposed and found lacking, Jesus moves toward us as a living hope and ambassador of peace. It is his peace—the declaration that through him, all hostility between heaven and earth, the infinite and the finite, God and humanity, has been demolished—that makes us rich in the truest sense. His peace resources us with an emotional wealth that lets us face our deficiencies more honestly, and in a way that does not crush us. In Jesus, all negative verdicts against us have been reversed. Our vague sense of shame, both illegitimate and legitimate, the shame that comes from outside of us and the shame that comes from inside of us, has been neutered.

We are fully known and fully loved.

We are exposed and not rejected.

We are seen and embraced.

No need to run for cover. In Jesus, there is nothing left to fear, nothing left to prove, and nothing left to hide.

Several years ago, the American Music Awards featured an arrangement of the hymn, “Amazing Grace,” but with one very significant revision of the lyrics—“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved someone like me.” Perhaps you identify with the revision because you find the original lyric (“a wretch like me”) offensive. Non-religious people especially resist the idea that there is a wretched tone to the human condition. To err is human, but deep down all people are basically good, the assumption goes. Believing in the inherent goodness of people, a non-religious person might counter the vague sense of shame by denying that shame exists. Live and let live. Or, as Billy Joel famously sang, “I don’t care what you say any more. This is my life. Go ahead with your own life. Leave me alone.” The problem, however, is that in this scenario, shame is suppressed and denied, but it is not healed.

There is also a religious form of denial. Some call it self-righteousness, others call it hypocrisy. In Luke 18:9-14, for examplee, a religious Pharisee hides behind a résumé of good deeds. He prays about himself, or, according to the original text, he prays to his own soul, “Thank you, my God, that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers, tax collectors. No! I am a devoted religious man! I fast twice a week! I give away a tenth of my income! I attend church!” In this prayer he mentions God only once and himself multiple times. Strangely, his “prayer” neither sees nor savors the grace, truth, beauty, goodness, glory, and magnificence of God. Instead, it is a narcissistic moment of self-congratulation. In truth, the self-congratulation is also a self-salvation strategy, a desperate attempt to medicate a shattered and terrified ego.

Not only does the religious man rehearse his own virtues as he sees them, he also uses his virtue as a basis for looking down on other, “lesser” people with contempt. Rather than humbly confessing his weakness and need before God, he separates the world into “good people” and “bad people,” assuring himself that he is one of the good people. What ensues is a counterfeit feeling of superiority that makes him feel, at least for a time, that his shortcomings are not nearly as serious as the shortcomings of others. The problem, however, is that the vague sense of shame is merely suppressed, but not dealt with in a healing way. In the end, his “I’m good, they’re bad, I’m right, they’re wrong” posture corrupts worship and kills community.

Jesus Gives Graces

But Jesus doesn’t separate the world into good people and bad people. He separates the world into proud people and humble people. What’s more, he opposes the proud, and gives grace to the humble.

The Jesus gospel, unlike the false “gospels” of the non-religious and religious, assures those who believe that all is well, and that we are OK, not because we are superior to others or because we have accrued an impressive moral record, but because of Jesus’ self-substituting love for us. Jesus lived the perfect life that we were unable to live. Then, he transferred the merits of that perfect life to our account. Because of this, God “reckons” every Jesus person as a perfect person, not because we have lived perfectly but because Jesus lived perfectly in our place.

What’s more, Jesus absorbed the horrific, alienating punishment that was due to us—death on the cross and the removal of God’s smile. Now, because of Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, God looks at every Jesus person with pleasure. He hasn’t a shred of disappointment or shame toward us, because Jesus took the fall in our place. He has taken every negative verdict toward us and turned it into a “Not guilty.” He has released us from our own, self-imposed prison and told us we can live free. He has shown mercy to those once called, “No Mercy.” He has said to those once called “Not My People” that “You are my people.”

Because of Jesus, everything that’s true about Jesus is true about us in God’s eyes. He leaped over the bar of God’s law in our place, then got crushed by the bar of God’s law in our place, so that the burden of both would be lifted from our shoulders. Now, we who trust in Jesus are embraced by God as radiant, beautiful, lovable, and guilt-free, all of the time, on our best and also our worst days.

Because it’s not about what we do for him.

It’s about what he has done, and continues to do, for us.

He who began a good work in us will faithfully complete that work.

What better reason to start getting honest about our lives—that we are incomplete works in progress on the way to being made complete—without fear of being rejected or dismissed?

Take heart. In Jesus, you are loved. In Jesus, there will always be a seat for you at the King’s table. Jesus, your Elder Brother, is not ashamed of you.

—

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.

Originally published at scottsauls.com. Used with permission.

The Incredible Way Jesus Suffered in Selma

I saw the movie Selma with my wife in January. I was wrecked. I do not cry often, especially not in films, but along with the stories of the martyrs, the history of the struggle against slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation move on my heart. I wept as I have not wept in years. The kind of tears that wrench your gut and stick in your throat for hours. As I went home that evening, just thinking of the various injustices and degradations depicted threaten to bring on another torrent. I was exhausted with the grief and, yes, the heaviness of hope. I am no film critic, but the film was powerful. I strongly suggest you go watch it. It is not just Black history, or American history, but our history, as Christians and humans made in the image of God. The depth of human depravity, the height of human courage, and the slow, but inevitable coming of justice—however partial, however incomplete–is a story that will not sit easy, but builds you and blesses you nonetheless.

While I could profitably take up many spiritual and theological themes, I want to talk about Jesus and Selma. Or rather, I want to ask a specific question about what our Christology, our view of Jesus, has to do with our view of what happened in Selma and what happens in the suffering of God’s people around the world. Admittedly, this is not the only question, and maybe not even the most important Christological question raised by the film, and yet I want to briefly address it nonetheless, because I think there is comfort and challenge involved here.

Does God Cry?

In the middle of the film, when Martin Luther King Jr. is out of town, a small band of Selma protesters engage in a night march. The police get wind of it and decide to teach them a lesson by ambushing them with a wave of brutality and violence. In the middle of it all, one young protestor, Jimmie Lee Jackson, is shot and killed protecting his mother and grandfather. It is wrenching and heartbreaking. When he hears the news, King comes to visit Jackson’s grandfather and speak some words of comfort. King addresses him and assures him that Jimmie will not have died in vain, but the very first words he says, are something to the effect of, “I want you to know that when Jimmie died, God was the first to cry. He was the first to shed a tear.”

It is a powerful moment, especially as you watch Jimmie’s grandfather look at King with an expression of humility, comfort, and deep pain and say, “Oh yes, I believe that. I know that.” The words are so appropriately-timed and attuned to speak a message that provides balm for the soul. God knows your pain. He is not distant from your cares and woes. They are his cares and woes. Your tears do not fall to the ground alone but join with those shed from heaven above, by the God of all creation.

Of course, the question that struck me in the theater was, “Is that true? Does God shed a tear for Jimmie?”

A God Who Cannot Suffer Becomes A Redeemer Who Can

I asked the question because, as Wesley Hill recently reminded us, for most of her history the church has taught the doctrine of impassibility. The nearly unified confession of church history until about the 20th Century was that, strictly speaking, God does not and cannot in suffer passions—be overwhelmed by irrational or uncontrollable feelings—or be acted upon in his divine nature. The Triune God is the author of life whose own glory is that of perfect, unchanging glory. He is incapable of being overwhelmed or overcome in his divine life. So does God cry? Well, in a sense, no. God is spiritual, not physical. In himself he cannot be overwhelmed as we are, have an adrenaline rush with a flush of the face, a flaring of the nostrils, or an unbidden moistening of the tear-ducts. God does not cry.

At the same time, though, as Ben Myers reminded the attendees of last week’s LA Theology conference, for the Church Fathers the presupposition of impassibility is precisely the logic behind the cross. As I’ve explained before, God’s impassibility does not mean that he does not care, or that he has no emotional life—he does. It’s just that we should not think of it precisely as we do our own. In fact, this is the glory of the God of the gospel—we find a God who cares so much that the one who cannot suffer and die in his own nature, takes on human nature in order to suffer and die with us and for us. The impassible God loves so implacably that he overcomes the obstacle of his own perfect life in order to participate in our life, so marred with pain and sin, to redeem us from it. In other words, the God who could not suffer, became a Redeemer who could.

Jesus is the God who became human so he could shed tears with us at the tomb of Lazarus.

Eternal Mediator

What now, though? The Scriptures teach that this God-man is the one who, after his Resurrection, was exalted to the right hand of the Father in order to intercede for us even now. According to Hebrews, like Melchizedek, Christ “continues a priest forever” (Heb. 7:3). The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity is currently a human seated on the throne of the universe. If it is not too speculative, I would hazard the courage to say that Jesus is the God who can still shed human tears for his people in this world racked with sin and injustice.

I say this on the basis of Acts 9, when the Resurrected Christ comes to Saul, the marauder of the church and says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” The Risen Christ so identifies with his people that any assault on them is an assault on him. Their suffering is his. Their tears are his. As Calvin writes about this passage:

[T]he godly may gather great comfort by this, in that they hear that the Son of God is partner with them of the cross, when as they suffer and labor for the testimony of the gospel, and that he doth, as it were, put under his shoulders, that he may bear some part of the burden. For it is not for nothing that he saith that he suffereth in our person; but he will have us to be assuredly persuaded of this, that he suffereth together with us, as if the enemies of the gospel should wound us through his side. Wherefore Paul saith, that that is wanting in the sufferings of Christ what persecutions soever the faithful suffer at this day for the defense of the gospel, (Colossians 1:24.) –Comment on Acts 9:4

Though impassible in his own nature, in Christ, God suffers in and with his people. Jesus is the God who cries for Jimmie Lee Jackson.

These tears comfort those suffering under grave oppression around the world. Whether it be the marchers in Selma, laboring for the justice of God’s kingdom, or the persecuted church around the world, God’s joy and impassible life does not mean he is separated from our pain and struggle. He is there in the heart of it, working to redeem it.

Yet the Gospel moves us beyond the tears of Christ to remind us that by his once and for all suffering on the Cross and victorious Resurrection, Christ has secured the day when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

May we look forward to that day as we look about our world filled with injustice and pain. May that hope gird us up as we shed the tears that will inevitably come as we follow Christ in looking the brokenness of the world, in order to meet it with the gospel of our justice-loving God.

—

Derek Rishmawy is the Director of College and Young Adult ministries at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Orange County, CA. He got his B.A. in Philosophy at UCI and his M.A.T.S. (Biblical Studies) at APU. He also contributes at the Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, and Leadership Journal, as well as his own Reformedish blog.

Original posted at DerekZRishmawy.com. Used with permission.

How to Successfully Argue Your Point But Miss the Gospel

Why are Christians so unkind to one another and the world? Why do we criticize, degrade, and dismiss? Why do we act like jerks? I have experienced the sting of Christian criticism many times as I’ve posted Scripture or encouragements online. I’m sure you’ve experienced this, too. Christians critique my use of the Bible and correct my theological positions. This happens so frequently on Twitter, there is now a hashtag, #JesusJuked, for Christians who use Scripture as a correction-weapon to tell others how they are wrong. This isn’t cool and this isn’t classy. Nowhere in the Bible has God given us license to treat each other like jerks.

If we continue to pridefully announce our objections to everything, we will soon lose credibility to speak the truth of the gospel. We will be known for our desire to be right and prove others wrong, instead of being known for our love for one another. The world will not believe our points about God’s love when they are delivered with disrespect and pride. Some Christians have been so busy trying to make their argumentative points, they have lost the opportunity to make a difference. It’s that kind of non-Spirit-led, fleshly preaching that turns people from the gospel everyday.

Again, why do we act with such pride and arrogance toward one another?

At the root, we are relying on our own intellect, ego, and proven arguments instead of Christ. We are prideful and think we can get people to see the truth in our own strength. We trust our smarts and wit more than Christ. With our eyes on our selves, we miss others and the gospel.

A Matter of Control

Today, we have access to the Holy Spirit’s power to control our lives. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live with “gentleness and respect” (1 Pt. 3:15) and be “the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15) to the world around us. God has commanded us to walk and live by the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. —Galatians 5:22-23

Scripture tells us “when the Holy Spirit controls our lives” we will have certain characteristics that demonstrate his character. Through our words and actions people should see certain aspects of God’s character: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. If we are speaking out of bitterness, anger, frustration, fear, we are not being controlled by the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are the picture of what it looks like to follow Jesus. If our actions do not display these fruits, we aren’t being controlled by the Spirit.

We often get confused into thinking our frustrations and bitterness are actually righteous obedience. The reality is, however, the righteous acts are those of peace, patience, and kindness.When we aren’t patient with our unbelieving neighbor and his journey with faith, we are not living by the Spirit. When we lose our temper when our co-worker asks another hard question, we are not living by the Spirit. However, when pursue peace among those quarreling in the office, we are living by the Spirit. When we sacrifice our Saturday to help our neighbor with their yard-work, we are living by the Spirit. As the Spirit controls our lives, we become a better picture of God’s character and the gospel.

We not only need to live Spirit-filled lives, but also Spirit-controlled lives. If you don’t know if your actions or words are from the Spirit, ask: Is this statement done out of joy? Done out of love? Done out of gentleness? Done out of kindness? If the answers are no, it’s not of the Spirit.

A Better Way Called Grace

Make no mistake. We are called, as Christians, to persuade others towards the gospel. It is one of our main responsibilities. Paul says: “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this too” (2 Cor. 5:11). We are to share the message of grace.

I’ve been asking myself a question lately, and it has been wrecking my heart: “How is the world supposed to see the grace of God if the people of God are not gracious?”

The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction. —Proverbs 16:21

The writer of the proverb is saying: “Gracious words make a person persuasive.” It is not our arguments or our tight-doctrine that make us persuasive to people. It is the graciousness, love, and joy that only comes from a Christ-filled and Spirit-controlled life. If we walk in step with the Spirit and exhibit these characteristics to a world thirsty for grace, who wouldn’t want to be around us?

When we are gracious, we introduce a little more of the character of God to the world. God, more than anyone, has the right to banish us, to speak ill of us, to expose our heart’s motives, to reveal how wrong we are, and yet God is gracious. He doesn’t critique, jab, or #JesusJuked his children.

The gospel shows us that God is not running after us to smite us, but to save us. “God so loved the world,” and “God did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (Jn. 3:16-17). God lavishes us with grace.

The gospel is not our work, our rules, or our religious structure. It’s the news that Christ has come, died, and rose again for the sake of us sinners. God wants to reconcile people to himself and he’s given everything in his Son to reconcile people to himself. God has done it all for us and that is grace. That’s the gospel the world needs to hear. It’s this simple proclamation and the hearing of this good news that transforms the human heart.

This gospel preached graciously does something profound to the human heart. When we talk about who Jesus was, and what he did, and his great love and gracious covering for our sin—God takes it and drives it supernaturally into the human heart, and the Holy Spirit draws people into faith in Christ. As we graciously share this story of Jesus, the graciousness of God is evident and draws people to the grace of Christ that can save them. When we pridefully argue our points, the message of grace is lost.

—

Matt Brown is an evangelist, author of Awakening (2015) and founder of Think Eternity.

6 Essential Ingredients for Repenting of Pornography

Recently a new survey commissioned by a nonprofit organization called Proven Men Ministries and conducted by the Barna Group took a national representative sample of 388 self-identified Christian adult men. The statistics are alarming and paint a picture of the serious problem of pornography. The statistics for Christian men between 18 and 30 years old are particularly striking:

• 77 percent look at pornography at least monthly.
• 36 percent view pornography on a daily basis.
• 32 percent admit being addicted to pornography (and another 12 percent think they may be).

The statistics for middle-aged Christian men (ages 31 to 49) are no less disturbing:

• 77 percent looked at pornography while at work in the past three months.
• 64 percent view pornography at least monthly.
• 18 percent admit being addicted to pornography (and another 8 percent think they may be).

Even married Christian men are falling prey to pornography and extramarital sexual affairs at alarming rates:

• 55 percent look at pornography at least monthly.
• 35 percent had an extramarital sexual affair while married.¹

These statistics are alarming; in fact, they are downright discouraging. The porn addict lives in a world where they go through a cycle of feeling sorry for what they did, but never coming to see the gospel seriousness of what they have done. The statistics show we must help porn addicts understand the seriousness of their sin, the nature of true biblical repentance, and turning away from sexual sin to Jesus Christ. The great Puritan author, Thomas Watson, once said there are six ingredients for true repentance.

First, sight of sin

A person comes to himself (Lk. 15:17) and clearly views his lifestyle as sinful. If we fail to see our own sin, we rarely, if ever, are motivated to repent.

Second, sorrow for sin (Ps. 38:18).

We need to feel the nails of the cross in our souls as we sin. Repentance includes both godly grief and holy agony (2 Cor. 7:10). The fruit of repentance is showed in genuine, anguishing sorrow over the offense itself, not just the consequences of it. Sorrow for sin is seen in the ongoing righteous actions it produces. True repentance lingers in the soul and not just on the lips.

Third, confession of sin.

The humble sinner voluntarily passes judgment on himself as he sincerely admits to the specific sins of his heart. We must not relent of our confession until all of it is freely and fully admitted. We must pull up any hidden root of sin within our heart. “Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” (Deut. 28:19).

Fourth, shame for sin.

The color of repentance is blushing red. Repentance causes a holy bashfulness. Ezra says, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (9:6). The prodigal was ashamed of his sin that he did not feel he deserved to be a son anymore, but the Father wouldn’t have him back as a servant. He was his son (Lk. 15:21). Sin brings us low trying to shame us to despair, while godly shame drives us to repentance and moves our hearts toward gratitude to Christ. John Owen provides us an example in his On Mortification:

What have I done? What love, mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on? Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Spirit for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? . . . What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? . . . Do I account communion with him of so little value? . . . Shall I endeavor to disappoint the [very purpose] of the death of Christ?²

Fifth, hatred of sin.

We must hate our sin to the core. We hate sin more deeply when we love Jesus more fully. Repentance begins in the love of God and ends in the hatred of sin. True repentance loathes sin.

Sixth, the turning away from sin and returning to the Lord with all your heart (Joel 2:12).

This turning from sin implies a notable change—“performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:20). “Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations” (Ez. 14:6). We are called to turn away from all our abominations, not just the obvious ones or the ones that create friction with others. The goal of repentance is not to manufacture peace among others with perfunctory repentance, but rather to turn to God wholly and completely. This repentance most importantly is not just a turning away from sin. It also necessarily involves a turning in “repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Here is the joy found in repentance. “It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance” (Roms. 2:4). We rejoice that Christ has done so much for us and continues to do for us.

By understanding the seriousness of sin and biblical repentance, we can come to understand that the captives have hope and freedom in Jesus Christ. He came to set them free. While we live in a world that is full of bad news, in the midst of the bad news of our sin there is hope and healing from sexual sin. In the midst of your struggle look to the beauty of Jesus in the cross. Gaze at the wonder of the cross.

Look to Jesus—he is the cure for sexual brokenness. Jesus is in the business of setting the captives free through his finished work. No matter your sexual history, Jesus alone can make you pure again. Turn to him, and trust in him. He is all you need.

I urge you to heed the words of J.C. Ryle who wrote,

Look at the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross, and then go and set your affections on the world if you can. I believe that holiness is nowhere learned so well as on Calvary. I believe you cannot look much at the cross without feeling your will sanctified, and your tastes made more spiritual. As the sun gazed upon makes everything else look dark and dim, so does the cross darken the false splendor of this world. As honey tasted makes all other things seem to have no taste at all, so does the cross seen by faith take all the sweetness out of the pleasures of the world. Keep on every day steadily looking at the cross of Christ, and you will soon say of the world, as the poet does—

Its pleasures now no longer please,


No more content afford;

Far from my heart be joys like these,


Now I have seen the Lord. As by the light of opening day


The stars are all concealed,


So earthly pleasures fade away


When Jesus is revealed.”³

^{1. For more on these statistics please go to http://www.provenmen.org/2014pornsurvey and www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/↩}

^{2. Quoted by Timothy Keller, Romans 8-16 For You. The Good Book Company, 2015. 24.↩}

^{3. J.C. Ryle, The Cross of Christ, accessed January 5th, 2015. http://www.gracegems.org/23/Ryle_cross.htm↩}

—

Dave Jenkins is the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, and the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine. He and his wife, Sarah, are members of Ustick Baptist Church in Boise, Idaho, where they serve in a variety of ministries. Dave received his MAR and M.Div. through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. You can follow him on twitter @DaveJJenkins. Find him on Facebook or read more of his work at servantsofgrace.org.

Adapted from Servant of Grace. Used with Permission.

5 Vital Ways to Seek the Welfare of Your Neighborhood

I have spent my entire life living in two inner city neighborhoods of Chicago (Humboldt Park and West Garfield Park). It is easy to believe that God has abandoned these two communities due to the poverty, crime, lack of education, absence of fathers, and hopelessness. While many would want to avoid these two communities, I have come to understand God’s sovereignty in determining the boundaries of my dwelling place. God has invited me to be his presence for those seeking him. God has invited me into his mission for those feeling their way towards him.

“And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:26-28)

Has God abandoned the hood? Of course not! Have Christians abandoned the hood? Sadly, in many ways we have. We have abandoned God’s mission for our momentary well being. We have focused on our desires before other people’s needs. We do not realize that our well being is tied up in the well being of those around us. We do not realize that we actually find life through death to our individualism.

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7)

Following are five simple ways that you can seek the welfare of your community (whether it’s an inner city neighborhood or not). This is not an exhaustive list, but my prayer would be that it sparks believers to understand God’s purpose for us in the exact places that he has sovereignly placed us.

After reading the five steps, feel free to give additional ideas that you may have. Let’s grow together as urban missionaries!

Step 1: Pray daily for your community

Take ten minutes each day to pray for the families on your block. As you see your neighbors, be purposeful in asking for prayer requests and then follow up with them on those requests.

Step 2: Spend time in your community

In today’s day and age when we jump in our car to go from here to there, this will take some intentionality. But let yourself be seen. Be friendly. As opportunities arise, get to know people. Walk your community, play basketball at the local park, shop at the local stores, eat at the local restaurants, volunteer at a community center or nursing home, worship at a local church.

Step 3: Asset map your community

Map out the resources available in your community and city. These resources might include job training programs, GED programs, sports leagues, after school programs, day camps, tutoring programs, and church service times. Include as much info as possible (Contact name and number, cost, address, etc). Print these lists out and distribute them to people in your community.

Step 4: Beautify your community

Pick up trash. Help your neighbors plant grass on their lawns. Begin a community garden that the block can own and enjoy together. Recruit skilled labor to do a service day in your community.

Step 5: Open your home to your community

Invite people over for dinner. Host a game night. Lead Bible Studies. If you have an extra room, invite someone in need to live with you.

—

Brian Dye is a servant of Jesus Christ. Husband of Heidi Dye. Elder at Legacy Fellowship. Mentorship Director at GRIP Outreach for Youth. Director of Legacy Conference. Follow him on Twitter @VisionNehemiah

Originally published at Vision Nehemiah. Used with permission.

5 Crucial Ways Churches Can Pursue Racial Reconciliation

Over the past several years, a gospel-soaked spirit of ongoing repentance has been growing within my heart with regard to my personal neglect for racial reconciliation. I am talking about an active ministry of reconciliation, based on the core tenets of the gospel, which I believe the Scriptures beckon all Christians to. And while my first step must be toward personal repentance, I wonder if it might be time for a collective repentance as well. Many church leaders have entered the fray in this regard, calling those under their care to repent and seek God’s face with regard to race relations. But in spite of my personal desires to repent, I can’t help but wonder why this issue of racial reconciliation burns in my heart, often swelling up in lament for the general complacency of today’s Church around this issue. In a panel discussion, hosted by Kainos Movement, Christianity Today, and Ministry Grid, several evangelical leaders gathered around the topic of racial tension in America. Naturally, I tuned in live to listen and learn from people like Thabiti Anyabwile, Derwin Gray, Matt Chandler, Trillia Newbell, John Piper, Eric Mason, and others weigh in on this important issue. But perhaps the most meaningful portion of the evening—at least for me—came in the form of a comment made by Derwin Gray, lead Pastor of Transformation Church in Indian Land, SC. Derwin’s comment was not original—he openly cited the Apostle Paul. But it was so poignant and appropriate for the climate of the American Church today.

Gray skillfully drew the listener’s attention to Ephesians 2, one of the key passages relating to the issue of racial reconciliation. He reminded us that the heartbeat of the gospel is the blood of Christ. If the blood of Christ was spilt to raise dead men and women to life by his grace, then the whole flow of Ephesians 2, up to and including verse 14 is founded on this very blood! For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (Eph. 2:14)

There you have it. Racial reconciliation has burned in my heart because it is a gospel issue. It’s not peripheral. Paul made this clear when he confronted Peter for withdrawing from the Gentiles in the presence of the Judiazers (see Gal. 2). When Peter slipped back into deep-seeded racism and ethnic superiority, Paul entered in bold confrontation in order to defend the gospel. And when the gospel is under fire, the Church must not remain silent and still. We must act. We must defend it, fighting to maintain and uphold it, as those who have gone before us for centuries have sought to do. The whole thrust of Ephesians 2 should compel Christians to act on the issue of racial reconciliation because our peace is blood-bought. Therefore, it is not enough to sit. If we remain complacent here, we demean the blood-bought peace in Christ the gospel gives us freely.

I’m not an expert on racial reconciliation. I’m a young man. But I have an immense desire for my generation to not let this moment pass. Not for our glory, and not because this is our time to shine, but simply for the following reason. Over my lifetime, I have witnessed an explosion of gospel-centeredness—a modern reformation of sorts. I have seen the advent of websites, blogs, movements that have formed for the sole purpose of defending and heralding the gospel. But if we are to be truly gospel-centered, how now could we remain silent with regard to racial reconciliation?

My concern is this—where does the Church go from here? Here are five crucial ways the church can pursue racial reconciliation.

1. Start with empathy.

To listen is not equal to remaining silent. To listen is to actively pursue the understanding of another. I mean this no matter which political persuasion, ethnic group, or socioeconomic background you come from. Put yourself in the shoes of another. Often, I hear Christians using words like they and us when referring to people of other ethnicities. Most of the time they are used in the context of explaining why a certain group acts a certain way. But what if we tried to put us in the shoes of them? What if we empathized? Empathy, after all, is also at the heart of the gospel. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15)

2. Take part in the global conversation.

Say what you will about technology, but one thing is certain—global conversations thrive in their sandbox. In many ways, the eyes of the world are on the American Church. But what does it mean to enter into such a conversation? Perhaps the best sources of information—from a Christian worldview—are ministries and people invested in the issue:

• Thabiti Anywhile
• Kainos
• RAANetwork
• Derwin Gray
• Pastor Bryan Lorrits
• Dr. Rev Carl Ellis Jr. and Karen Angela Ellis’ Ellis Perspective
• Desiring God
• Dr. Anthony Bradley
• Brian Dye’s Vision Nehemiah

Tune into panel discussions (you can view the one from December 16th on the Kainos website). Learn what other Christians are saying about these issues. And if God has given you a platform, speak. But, leaders and pastors beware this promise from Hebrews 13. We will give an account for those to whom we minister. Let us heed the words of John Piper from the panel discussion, in which he advised us to speak biblically about these issues, providing our people with a biblical framework and vocabulary for discussing such issues.

3. Take part in the local conversation.

It is not enough to sound off on Twitter. No matter how many followers you have or how big of a reach your blog may draw. We must have this conversation on the local level. Dr. Eric Mason, pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia and president of Thrive in the City, called for a nationwide solemn assembly around the issue of racial reconciliation. Dr. Mason provides instructions for hosting such a gathering in your church. Maybe you have other ideas to engage your community. Great! Meet at a coffee shop. Host a discussion in your home. Find a way to get involved. Let’s not neglect the local body for the online community.

4. Pursue racial reconciliation in your personal life.

There are a million ways to do this. Make it a point to pursue relationships with people from varying ethnicities and backgrounds. Build these times around fellowship and food in your home. Get involved in your community whether that’s a sports team for your kids or a neighbor project or a local school. Or why not attend church with your black neighbor?

If you live in a city, your neighborhood is already diverse. And suburban neighborhoods are following suit. What a wonderful opportunity for Christians of all ethnicities to embrace the gospel and develop relationships within our neighborhoods. As I said, everyone is watching the Church right now. Who’s watching you?

Get your church involved in local public schools. Hands down, one of the best times of ministry in my week is the Tuesday afternoon FCA club at Southwest Middle School. This is easily the most diverse societal group I am part of. Southwest is situated in a radically diverse neighborhood. When I serve there, I always learn something huge about the gospel. White people don’t hold a corner on gospel truth. Each week, I am encouraged to see young people from numerous ethnic groups who are being transformed by the gospel and are transforming me. Through this club, our church has had countless opportunities to minister to families of all ethnicities. We have had chances to develop relationships. We’re not perfect; we’re not saviors. But it’s a step. And I love it.

5. Pray for racial reconciliation.

In the end, God is the one who reconciles men and women to himself and to one another. It is absurd to leave prayer out of the conversation. We must seek the Lord. We must plead with him for reconciliation. We must not grow weary in this. We must pass this practice on to our children so that, fifty years from now, they are still praying for reconciliation until Jesus returns (may it be soon)!

So, there it is. Where can you seek to get involved in any or all of these areas? How can you help to mobilize your church? In the end, racial reconciliation is central to the gospel. It is an issue of discipleship. Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations. Will we heed his words?

—

Alex Dean (@AlexMartinDean) is a pastor in Lakeland, Florida. Holding an undergraduate degree from Dallas Baptist University, Alex is currently completing his graduate work at Reformed Theological Seminary. His book, Gospel Regeneration: A story of death, life, and sleeping in a van, is available on Amazon, iBooks, and other online retailers. Follow his blog at www.GospelRegeneration.com and follow him on Twitter.

Women in the Local Church: A Conversation

Today we are hosting a conversation with Lore Ferguson, writer and speaker. This conversation centers on how the local church can make, mature, and multiply stronger women disciples.

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Gospel-Centered Discipleship: There are many opinions about what Christian women need most in and from the church. In your opinion, what's the greatest need for women from the church?

Lore Ferguson: What women need most is the same as what men need most—to understand and see the power and effects of the gospel made clear in their lives. I think we often think of the men as the gospel proclaimers and the women as the gospel enactors. Men teach and preach, women serve and build. Even if we wouldn’t draw such clear distinctions with our words, it is the way the local church seems to function. In the same way the gospel is for all people, though, the effects of the gospel are for all people all the way through.

GCD: Pastors have not always honored or considered the needs of women in the church. How can pastors grow in their understanding of the needs and meeting the needs of women in the church?

Lore: Ask us! Whenever my pastor is asked by another man how to lead his wife, my pastor says, “I know how to lead my wife. You ask your wife how to lead her!” It’s the same with us. Keep an open dialogue with the women in your local church (not just the wives of your pastors/elders). Many pastors seem to have similar personalities and marry women with similar personalities/giftings, which enables them to minister well to women of the same personalities. But the local church is made up of every personality and gifting. Ask women—aside from your wives—how you can serve them and help them flourish.

GCD:

What are the biggest hurts for women in our churches that we are overlooking and missing?

Lore: Every woman is different, so my answer here might not be helpful in the sense that it might reflect more what’s going on in my heart than in the average woman’s heart. I think there seems to be a universal desire for us to be loved and cherished as an essential part of the body. This includes being heard and not having to fight for a voice, but recognized as someone who has an equal and distinct voice (the essence of complementarianism). We understand the distinct part, and feel that often, but we don’t feel the equal part quite as much.

GCD: As a follow up to that, I’ve heard from women that they desire a voice on the front end of the decision process as opposed to hearing about it after the fact and being asked for feedback. How would you recommend pastors change their approach in decision making to include a broader range of voices and specifically women?

Lore: If the approach is that they’re asking women’s input after the decision, or the only women they’re asking on the front end are their wives, I’d just say invite more women into the front end fact-finding mission. I regularly have men from my church seek me out for thoughts on how we minister to women in different contexts. In no way do I assume I’m part of the final decision making process, but I hope and pray my words are considered as a part of the water that ship sails on. As I say further down, a woman’s role is to help, but sometimes we’re better helpers on the front end of things.

GCD: One of the biggest conversations in the church has to do with women's roles and opportunity in the church. Many women feel there isn't a role for them in the church, yet when someone reads how Paul praises women's involvement in the church, we can't help but ask—How did we get here? Why is our experience of church seemingly different than Paul's?

Lore: There seems to be a lot of fear in some complementarian churches. Fear of the messiness of life on life, fear of sexual brokenness, or fear of being seen as a place where the women wear the pants (whatever that means). What that results in is the staff can become a Good Ole Boys Club instead of a place where we see, value, employ, and utilize the gifts of women in an equal measure. I don’t mean women are given equal authority—eldership in the local church is clearly for men, but the disparity in staffing and investment in women does not reflect the equality we say we believe.

GCD: From the outsider's eye, there seems to be a rise in women bloggers, women's books, ministries, and bible studies. How have these helped in empowering women? In discipling women? And what are the dangers of these in relation to discipleship in the church?

Lore: In regard to empowering women, the internet/publishing world has empowered every voice, so I don’t know that we’re moved the conversation that far forward as a whole. For every woman who speaks out, there’s another voice speaking against her. I’m not sure the quantity has helped the quality. I do think that all the voices might have harmed the discipleship of women because it’s taken discipleship out of the local context and made it global. Women are getting their theology, encouragement, teaching, etc. from blogs and books in an unprecedented way. Meanwhile face to face engagement within the local church has suffered.

GCD: In this conversation, there seem to be polar extremes of complementarianism and egalitarianism. Have those terms clouded the conversation or helped the conversation in empowering women?

Lore: They’ve done both. Whenever we have terminology for something, it helps make the conversation more clear. The problem is when our experience differs from the actual definition, and I think the complementarianism/egalitarianism debate is a cesspool for disparate experiences and definitions. We’re talking past one another most of the time instead of really sitting down and understanding culture, context, history, and how the Bible speaks to all people for all situations.

GCD: Women on staff at complementarian churches are the minority and, when they are, they are rarely in roles beyond children and women. How can complementarian churches seek to empower women better in staff roles?

Lore: Hire them! The benefit of elder led churches is you have men whose responsibilities include shepherding and discipling men. We would think it was foolish if that wasn’t a qualification for an elder, but we don’t have women in those official roles (or if we do, they’re in charge of “women’s ministry” which is a fuzzy, unhelpful term). We need women whose job it is to disciple and shepherd women. Not necessarily lead women’s events, organize meals, or teach VBS or kids church. We need women who will walk faithfully with women in discipline, holiness, Bible study, teaching, etc. One thing to note is that I’m speaking from the context of larger more urban churches with more resources, you’re going to be able to hire more women. In a smaller church where hiring more women isn’t possible for various reasons, it should just be on the minds of the leaders there that they’re going to need an extra measure of intentionality in making sure their women are shephered and are discipling.

GCD: I've heard many women express a lack of discipleship while they watch men experience it. How does this happen? How is it fixed?

Lore: I don’t think the lack of discipleship is a distinctly female issue. Discipleship is going to be hard no matter our context or gender, otherwise we wouldn’t have needed to be told to do it so emphatically by Christ. Men experience a lack of discipleship too, but I think what happens is, especially in complementarian contexts, men are more visible, so we see the resources being poured into them in a more visible way. If there is a lack though, this is how it happens: many women only know how to contextualize the gospel in one situation or life-season, i.e., their marriage or home. The result of that is you have single women and empty-nest women who don’t have specific people within the sphere of their influence with whom they’re walking in discipleship. But it secondly happens when the local church doesn’t prioritize the discipleship of women. It’s fixed by prioritizing it in your staffing and ministry paradigm.

GCD: How have you heard gifted, godly, and strong women express their desire to serve the church and their elders?

Lore: In every way and every day. Women were uniquely designed to be helpers, so we see possibility in every situation. We’re not just helpers in the sense that we come alongside what’s already happening, though, we’re also helpers in the sense that we see things men just don’t see. That’s actually a beautiful thing! We don’t want to do the same thing as the men do, or overtake their God-given roles. We do desire to play our equal and distinct part though.

GCD: There seems to be an unnecessary awkwardness in male and female relationships. Many fear inappropriate relationships. How does the gospel free us from this fear and empower our relationships?

Lore: All through the New Testament Paul uses shockingly inclusive language to refer to the church, familial language. It’s not shocking to us because we’ve used it for two thousand years, but to the early church, calling one another brother and sister and father and son without the blood bond would have been shocking. In the western church we’re very accustomed to holding the opposite gender at arms length—which actually provides more room for fear than if we drew our brothers and sisters close and engaged in the messiness of family. There is righteous wisdom when it comes to avoiding sin, or the appearance of evil, but there’s also so much we miss out on when we hold our brothers and sisters away from us and don’t engage their distinctiveness from us. The gospel is marked by hospitality, by being drawn close to God (who is the most holy of us all!). By drawing us near, He is saying, “Your soiled self doesn’t sully me. I will engage that and cover it and love you all the more through it.” I say embrace that awkwardness, press through it, hug generously, listen fearlessly, counsel wisely, and live as though you’ll give an account for every action. My lead pastor does this better than almost any man I know. He simply isn’t afraid of women and always draws near to us. As much as he’s able and it’s appropriate, he closes the gap.

GCD: What levels of leadership and responsibility can a woman have in the church without encroaching on a pastoral role?

Lore: This is a tough one partially because I think it does depend on the pastor(s). If you have strong and humble men leading, men who will listen and lead well, a woman has a lot of freedom within those bounds. But if you have timid and/or young immature men leading, there’s going to need to be more restraint by the women. As far as biblically and theologically, that’s an issue for the local church elders to navigate.

GCD: A misconception seems to exist that complementarian and strong, gifted, and godly women don't go together. In this misconception, egalitarianism seems to draw the strong women. How can complementarianism strengthen women?

Lore: By majoring on the majors. We believe that women are equal and distinct, but too often we only feel our distinctiveness, our otherness. If we believe women are equal, then we have to begin to treat them as such. And—forgive me for encouraging men to be like Sarah—but we have to do it without fearing what is frightening (I Pt. 3:6). It will be messy or difficult—but so is gardening, child-rearing, and building a house, and we know we don’t do those things in vain.

GCD: Men can be taught, encouraged, and impacted by the gifts and lives of women. This seems lost in opportunities given to them to teach class, lead mixed small groups, and even in everyday church relationships. How do we move away from this gap?

Lore: Again, I think it needs to be reflected in staffing/ministry paradigm. We don’t need wide here; we need deep. By that, I mean we don’t need a huge women’s ministry. We don’t need more conferences or retreats, etc. We need to staff women who will go deep with few, disciple them in a long-suffering, difficult way, so those they disciple are empowered to do the work of the ministry. The more we are building healthy, discipled women, the more confident those women will be in engaging men in right and biblical ways, and the more happy they’ll be to submit to God’s good design for them as equal, distinct image bearers.

GCD: Paul highlights many women as “partners” with him in the gospel. It is safe to say that women don't often feel that way. What would a great partnership look like to build the church without compromising a complementarian approach?

Lore: If complementarian churches would gather and staff an equal amount of women as men, I think they’d be surprised at how effective the ministry of their local church would be. We seem to assume a church with strong leadership means a church with more men on staff, but staff isn’t eldership. Our elders/pastors ought to be men, but we should have a clearly reflected equality throughout the rest of our ministerial staff. In the same way as a marriage in which there is a clear partnership is effective, the local church that reflects this equality would thrive. And I don’t mean it would thrive in the sense that it would grow leaps and bounds (though I think it would), but their people would thrive under the firm, godly, nurturing, gentle, wise unification of their male and female leaders.

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Lore Ferguson is a writer whose deepest desire is to adorn the gospel in everything she says and does. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a covenant member at The Village Church. Lore writes regularly at Sayable.net, and you can follow her on Twitter @loreferguson.

Making Peace Through Confronting And Repenting

Everyone assigns a different meaning to the word “peace.” To some, peace is a calm feeling, an ability to relax, and a care-free life. To others, peace is the end of hostility, a white flag raised to end a terrible war. To others, it is something that happens when we avoid conflict, ignore faults in others, affirm and flatter and “sweep it under the rug” rather than challenge hurtful actions or patterns. Biblical peace is none of these things. Rather, biblical peace is something that we make by engaging in healthy, redemptive, life-giving conflict when necessary—especially with those whose actions and patterns are hurting us, other people, and/or them. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers.” But what does this mean?

To make peace is to rescue a hurtful person from himself

Paul writes that if anyone is “caught” in a transgression, those who are “spiritual” should restore him (Gal. 6:1). If a person is caught in a transgression, it means he has actually been overtaken by a sin. It now controls him and, if he is to be freed of it, he will need outside intervention. Some of us have participated in an intervention with a drug addict or an alcoholic. When friends or family notice that a loved one is being overtaken by an addictive substance, they come together and lovingly seek to rescue the addict from his own, self-destructive patterns. To ignore the problem would be terribly unloving. To do everything in your power to block a person from continuing in destructive patterns—this is true love and true peace-making.

Peace-making is counterintuitive

None of us wants to confront. We fear uncomfortable conversations and potential rejection, so we may choose to ignore hurtful patterns in others, or, perhaps worse, to flatter them into thinking that there is nothing wrong with their behavior. When Paul says to “restore” a person caught in transgression (Gal. 6:1-2), the same word in other ancient writings refers to the re-setting of a broken or dislocated bone. The re-setting of a bone is excruciating at first, and is usually followed by a low-grade pain that could last for weeks or even months. But once the bone is fully healed, it is usually stronger than it ever was before it was broken. When friends confront friends, and loved ones confront loved ones for sinful and destructive patterns, it is comparable to the re-setting of a bone. But instead it is a re-setting of the heart and of the person’s character. It flows from a vision to see God restore the person’s original moral beauty to him, to heal and re-align his life to the way things are supposed to be. It is a small, tangible way to bring the peace or ‘shalom’ of heaven to the present earth.

True peace-making is done in a gentle, humble inviting spirit

Galatians 5:15 warns against our potential to “bite and devour” each other. We are warned because whenever we are offended—whenever someone fails (fails us!)—we tend to become aggressive toward the perpetrator in one of two ways. We may become active-aggressive (the fight impulse) by telling them off, asserting our rights, pointing fingers, making ourselves out to be the sole victim, beating them up with our words. Or, we may become passive-aggressive (the flight impulse) by withdrawing relationally, making the person pay with our silent snubs, gossiping about them to others, or even leaving the relationship altogether.

We must see that both forms of aggression—active and passive—are self-medicating strategies employed to soften our own pain by increasing the pain of the enemy. But the Bible calls for a different kind of confrontation—the kind that prizes the healing of the enemy and the restoration of the relationship. So we are to approach this effort in a spirit of gentleness and humility. Biblical peace-making is confrontation in a sinner-safe environment. The goal is two-fold. First, we must do everything in our power to ensure the person feels safe with us and not condemned (because we are just as capable of the sin). Second, we must do everything in our power to ensure that the person is rescued from patterns that are harmful to him and/or to others.

Peace-making requires a heart that is saturated with the Gospel

The only way to gain the emotional wealth needed to respond to an offense with gentleness and humility instead of active or passive aggression, is if our hearts and identity are secure in the gospel. To the degree that we are experiencing freedom from condemnation in God’s eyes through our union with Christ, we will not fear rejection from the person we confront. If we understand that we are fully loved and secure in our relationship with God as Father—that God loves us as much as he loves Jesus, all the time—we will envision even our enemies flourishing in the gospel. We will view ourselves as partners with God, on a mission not to put offensive people in their place but, as JI Packer says, to make people great by calling them to a more beautiful, Christ-like heart and character.

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Scott Sauls, a graduate of Furman University and Covenant Seminary, is foremost a son of God and the husband of one beautiful wife (Patti), the father of two fabulous daughters (Abby and Ellie), and the primary source of love and affection for a small dog (Lulu). Professionally, Scott serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor, as well as the writer of small group studies, for Redeemer Presbyterian of New York City. His first book Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides releases March 1. Twitter: @scottsauls.

Originally posted at www.scottsauls.com. Used with permission.

Guilt Isn’t Just a “Religious” Problem

I’m pretty sure everyone’s had one of those conversations where days or months afterwards you think to yourself, “Man, that’s what I should have said to So-n-so!” After analyzing the problem with the heat turned down, you end up spotting the fatal flaw, or key unquestioned assumption that was driving it in the direction it was going. Unfortunately, I have those all the time, both because I overthink things, and because I’m not always as quick on my feet as I’d like to be. One such conversation arose in one of my philosophy classes in my undergrad. We were talking about the ethics of belief, the sub-section of philosophy that deals with when it’s okay to believe something. Questions such as: Can you believe something just because you want to? Is evidence always necessary for every belief you hold? Is it ever okay to believe something you can’t prove? That kind of thing.

Well, we were discussing Pascal’s famous (and widely misunderstood) argument The Wager. Pascal was writing in Catholic France at a time when philosophical skepticism had made a comeback and the classic arguments for the existence of God were in doubt. As part of a broader apologetic, he proposed a little thought-experiment to show that even without evidence skepticism still wasn’t your best option.  

The gist of it is this: you’ve got two things at stake when it comes to belief in God, the truth of the matter and your happiness in this life. What’s more, you’ve got two faculties you use to come to your belief, your reason and your will. He says, “Well, say the odds for and against the existence of God are 50/50—there are good arguments both ways, and so your reason can’t settle the issue and the truth is unverifiable. Then what? Well, you shouldn’t consider the issue settled. You still have your will and your happiness to think about.” In Pascal’s view, it makes sense that you should still go for belief in God because that’s the only way to achieve the joy of meaning, purpose, and so forth that comes with belief in God. For the purposes of the story we don’t need to go further. For a better explanation, consult Peter Kreeft’s excellent summary and retooling of the Wager.

Here’s the payout for the story. Pascal argued that believing in God had benefits and joys for this life like meaning, purpose, virtue, and so forth. As we discussed this, my professor—let’s call him Professor Jones—said something I’ll never forget. He asked, gently, but with a hint of sarcasm, “Oh, you mean the joy of going around feeling guilty all the time for your sins?” In Professor Jones’ mind, the corollary of belief in God is an overwhelming and unrelievable sense of guilt for violating his rules. This clearly didn’t seem like a step up to him.

Now, at the time, I didn’t have conversational space, or wherewithal to respond adequately, but if I had, I would have said, “Oh, but Professor Jones, you already walk around struggling with guilt over failing your god.”

Failing Your Gods

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, let me break it down in a few steps.

Everybody Has a God. The first step is understanding that everybody has a god of some sort. The world we live in tends to split people up between believers and non-believers. The Bible has a different dividing line—worshipers of the true God or worshipers of something else. See, everybody has something in their life that they treat as a functional god. Whatever you look to in order to give you a sense of self, meaning, worth, and value is a god. Martin Luther put it this way,

A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. –Large Catechism

So whether you believe intellectually, in a deity or not, you still worship something. This is because we were created by God for worship, so if we won’t worship him something else rushes in to plays that role in your life, be it money, career, status, relationships, and so forth. It’s either God, or an idol. There is no other option.

Everybody Follows and Fails that God’s Commands. Following this, every god has commands and demands worship. If you make money your god, then you are under command (compulsion) in order to do whatever it takes to acquire it. You will work as hard as you need to (become a workaholic) and sacrifice whatever you have to (relationships, kids, ethics) in order to get it. When you have it, you feel secure. You’ve achieved and obeyed so the god has blessed you. The flip-side is, if you fail it—make a bad investment, lose your cash in a housing crash—then you feel the loss of security, but also the crushing sense of guilt that comes with failing your god. Wrath descends.

With a few moment’s reflection you can see this everywhere: from the careerist who can’t forgive herself for blowing that promotion, to that bitter young scholar struggling to live up to his father’s expectations, to the mother who crushes herself because her child-god didn’t turn out picture perfect the way she needed her to. All of them struggle under the weight of the guilt brought on by their failure to please their functional gods. All of them suffer guilt and shame, even if we don’t call it that.

David Foster Wallace has a justly famous quote on the subject:

Because here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already—it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.

Only the Biblical God Offers Forgiveness and Grace.

Here’s where it all clicked for me, though. I was reading Tim Keller’s The Reason for God and I ran across this brilliant passage at the end of his chapter breaking down this idolatry dynamic:

Remember this—if you don’t live for Jesus you will live for something else. If you live for career and you don’t do well it may punish you all of your life, and you will feel like a failure. If you live for your children and they don’t turn out all right you could be absolutely in torment because you feel worthless as a person. If Jesus is your center and Lord and you fail him, he will forgive you. Your career can’t die for your sins. You might say, “If I were a Christian I’d be going around pursued by guilt all the time!” But we all are being pursued by guilt because we must have an identity and there must be some standard to live up to by which we get that identity. Whatever you base your life on—you have to live up to that. Jesus is the one Lord you can live for who died for you—who breathed his last breath for you. Does that sound oppressive?

. . . Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes “Lord of your life,” whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally.

–The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (pp. 170-171)

So to sum up: Everybody has a god. Every god has rules and everybody fails their god. Everybody walks around with guilt and shame. But only the God we find in Jesus Christ will forgive those sins so that we don’t have to walk around feeling guilty all the time. Ironically enough, believing in God isn’t the road to more guilt, but the road out from underneath the guilt you already struggle with.

This is the answer I’d wish I’d given Professor Jones.

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Derek Rishmawy is the Director of College and Young Adult ministries at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Orange County, CA. He got his B.A. in Philosophy at UCI and his M.A.T.S. (Biblical Studies) at APU. He also contributes at the Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, and Leadership Journal, as well as his own Reformedish blog.

Original posted at DerekZRishmawy.com. Used with permission.

4 Ways to Redeem Millenial Ideology

Every culture possesses true treasure. Gems of wisdom and truth that are worthy of affirmation. This is the “indigenizing” principle of Christian missionary work which affirms that the gospel is at home in every culture and every culture is at home with the gospel. Just as with every culture, the gospel is at home with Millenials. What are the specific redemptive windows of Millenial culture? Let’s explore a handful of those windows.

1. We must embrace the Millenial faith crisis as an opportunity, instead of fearing it as a danger.

David Bosch quotes Kraemer: “Strictly speaking, one ought to say that the church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it… [the church] has always needed apparent failure and suffering in order to become fully alive to its real nature and mission.”¹

As we, the Western church, acknowledge our failure to proclaim and embody an emotionally, culturally, and rationally coherent gospel, it allows us the opportunity to invite the Holy Spirit’s power into this unique moment of history. Up until now, the activity of many local churches has revolved around modern ministry methodologies and “best practices”. We have tended to plug and play rather than innovate and pray. But where we are travelling now, there are no roads.

Hand wringing about “losing this generation” accomplishes nothing to engage them. Lamenting the “hard-hearted, rebellious youth” will do nothing to instigate meaningful change. Rather than these fear-based attitudes, the Spirit invites us into a prayerful conversation of creativity about our present opportunities to participate in the Kingdom of God.

2. We can celebrate Millenials intolerance for superficial and overly simplistic reality frameworks.

We have already discussed Millenials disgust for know-it-alls, their frustration with canned answers, and their refusal to avoid life’s big questions. Young adults have recognized that life is more complex than it’s been made out to be. The arrogance of modernity’s assumed omniscience has been swept away and what seems to remain is a general attitude of teachability, humility, and curiosity. Of course, the extreme dark side of post-modern thought can bring unrelenting doubt, apathy towards truth, and agnosticism. But on the whole, these words do not seem to describe Millenials.

3. We can graciously engage a generation that is eager for honest dialogue.

Millenials aren’t looking for another sales pitch. They want an open conversation and thanks to social media and blogging, many are more used to self-sharing than many past generations. This kind of transparency can be redeemed to for the sake of conversations that really matter.

4. We can feed Millenial’s longing for exploration, experience, adventure, and discovery.

Don’t those words sound an awful lot like Jesus’ invitation to follow him? For too long, the concept of discipleship has been reduced to stuff an older guy talks about with a younger guy at Starbucks.

• Information – The “information” young adults must become acquainted with is the richness of the biblical narrative and their invitation to participate in what God is doing in the world. This is what it means to come to know Jesus intellectually. This can happen at Starbucks.
• Imitation – In a community of practice, a disciple will begin to mimic the behavior, rhythms, and practices of those who are pointing them to Jesus. There is a re-shaping of life and character that takes place in this facet of the discipleship process. This happens in living rooms, kitchens, cars, workplaces, gyms, over text, call, email, or wherever else life happens.
• Innovation – In this component of discipleship, the Holy Spirit empowers a person and/or community to creatively embody the way of the Kingdom in their context. Here mentors and teachers must partner with Millenials to unleash their biblically-informed imagination to discover what God wants to do in and around them. This kickstart can happen in Starbucks, but that’s only the beginning of the adventure.

The invitation to follow Jesus is an adventure that involves our entire personhood. It will literally take us new places in our neighborhood, our city, and our world. By feeding Millenials experiences that expose them to the way of Jesus, we can facilitate Kingdom exploration that will transform their lives. ^{1. Bosch, 2 ↩}

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Sean (@Sean_Post) lives in Maple Valley, WA with his wife and two sons and leads a one-year discipleship experience for young adults called “Adelphia”. He is completing his doctorate in Missional Leadership.

Adapted with permission from One Year Millenials, Short-Term Communities, and a Coherent Christianity. One Year explains how to cultivate community and relationship with Millenials in ways that truly benefit their faith formation. Anyone seeking to engage young adults with a coherent Christianity will appreciate the big picture research and heart-level insights that flow throughout the book.

Cue Transformative Discipleship

What will the world look like in 100 years? Or more specifically—what will Christianity look like in 100 years? In a 1,000 years? In 10,000 years?¹ This might be very hard for us to fathom. Thinking about the distant future is not something that we practice naturally. It takes intentional effort to think about the deep future. And here’s the thing about it: once we truly contemplate on what the world may or may not look like, we will recognize that the landscape in which we currently conduct our discipleship ministries will look nothing like the world inhabited by our future ancestors. Just think about the difference 50 years makes. Compare 1964 to 2014. Think about how the discipleship playing field has changed. Just think about the different strategies that Christians have implemented over the course of the past 50 years. Culture is always shifting. People are always changing. Christianity, to a degree, even changes. So how should this affect our discipleship-making? What can the Christian church do today to ensure that it leaves a lasting mark for the next generations of Christians? The Christian message might not need to evolve, but perhaps its discipleship-method does.

Cue Transformative Discipleship

Transformative Discipleship can be defined as a method of discipleship-making that is willing to change its form, appearance, and structure to effectively engage current culture with the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

What might this look like? In Center Church, Pastor Tim Keller helps us out:

Paul himself presented the gospel content in different ways — using different orders, arguments, levels of emphasis, and so on — to different cultures. And we should too. The gospel is so rich that it can be communicated in a form that fits every situation.

He goes on to expound upon this idea of gospel contextualization:

A contextualized gospel is marked by clarity and attractiveness, and yet it still challenges sinners’ self-sufficiency and calls them to repentance. It adapts and connects to the culture, yet at the same time challenges and confronts it.

Now what Keller calls gospel contextualization, I call transformative discipleship. The reason that I prefer this term is because transformative discipleship calls us to look at how discipleship-making methods have shifted throughout history. What this means is that we should be willing to look into the deep past and evaluate the positives and negatives of our ancestors’ discipleship-making methods. This would call us to analyze past mistakes and construct better present-day discipleship-making methods. Practically, here is what this model would emphasize:

1. Transformative Discipleship is historical.

Christians using the Transformative discipleship method would be willing to learn from 2,000 years of church history. The positives and negatives would be discussed openly, and gleaning wisdom from the Christian church’s past would be promoted.

2. Transformative Discipleship is culturally-centered.

Every culture places value on different things. That is why a versatile discipleship method is needed. The Transformative discipleship model challenges Christians to focus on the culture that they inhabit, engage with society, and learn how to best infiltrate the culture with the gospel message.

3. Transformative Discipleship is evolutionary.

This model emphasizes the importance of changing and molding the way current discipleship methods are being used within the church if necessary. As culture shifts and changes, the Christian church must practically “evolve” the ways that the gospel message is presented. This might seem commonsensical, but far too often the Christian church has not been willing to adapt its practices to fit its patrons. However, a flexible model is what Transformative discipleship is all about.

4. Transformative Discipleship is multi-faceted.

One of the key aspects of Transformative discipleship is its willingness to promote a vast variety of discipleship techniques. This mindset will promote to Christians the importance of going out into their surrounding communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This may look like door-to-door evangelism or perhaps simply having home groups scattered throughout the city. The transformative discipleship model is open to a number of different discipleship methods and approaches.

infiltrate culture with the gospel for the Future

If you think that there is a possibility of Christians living on this earth even for the next 500 years, than perhaps teaching the transformative discipleship method would be beneficial to implement. Instructing present-day Christians the transformative discipleship method would hopefully begin to shift our focus to how this generation and the next generations can infiltrate culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our teaching would shift from teaching “one-size-fits-all” discipleship methods, to teaching a transformative model that emphasizes molding the message of the gospel to fit the audience that one is witnessing too. This is what Keller has in mind when he specifically talks about gospel contextualization. I just am taking it one step further and calling the church to consider the distant past and even the far off future when teaching discipleship techniques to today’s next generation of Christians.

Again the gospel message does not change, but the methods in which we teach the gospel is always transforming and molding. Specifically, our gospel-proclaiming techniques shift and change to best fit the people groups that we are ministering too. This aligns very well with what the Apostle Paul taught:

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” —I Corinthians 9:19-23

I have simply introduced a few of the ideas that a transformative discipleship method would entail. There is no doubt that these ideas would benefit from being developed more thoroughly. However, at this point, it suffices to say that the transformative discipleship model is a method that I believe should be adopted by most Christians and churches simply because it teaches current believers to look into the past, live in the present, and expectantly look to the future when discussing various facets of Christian discipleship.

^{1. J.L. Schellenberg’s book, Evolutionary Religion, has influenced me a lot when writing this article. His ideas of thinking about the past, present, and future have proven extremely useful when writing about Transformative Discipleship. I am in debt to his wonderful writing. ↩}

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

Christians Can Be Terrible

Christians can be terrible. As a reader of the New Testament, this doesn’t surprise me. One of the major premises of the Christian faith is that humans are so flawed, so broken, so rebellious, and so unable to redeem themselves that the eternal Son had to incarnate himself, live, die, and rise again in order to fix them (Romans 1-8). I suppose what does shock me is that Christians are still surprised when other Christians are terrible. For instance, every time some news report comes out about a pastoral failure, or a fiasco in Evangelical culture, or abuse in the Church, it’s common to see Christians of various stripes updating and bewailing said fiasco. While that’s fine, and probably necessary to some degree, the one attitude I find myself chafing at rather regularly is the “I don’t know if I can call myself a Christian” anymore impulse.

It’s as if this person were introduced to Christianity by having them read bits of Acts, without reading Paul, the Gospels, or heck, even the rest of Acts. As if they were promised a Christianity with nice, cleaned up people, with perfectly cleaned up story arcs where all the sin is “back there” in the past, never to rear its ugly head, so that you don’t have the bear the ignominy of being associated with such foul stupidity and wickedness. Then when they meet real Christians–you know, the sinning kind–they suffer a sort of whiplash on contact.

Wickedness in the New Testament Church

Well, in order to prevent the kind of whiplash I’m talking about, I’d like to present an incomplete list of sins, wicked behaviors, or assorted troubling phenomena that the New Testament notes happening in the early years—in just 1 Corinthians alone:

• Arguments about personality cults (ch. 1-4)
• Lawsuits between believers (ch. 5)
• Incest, or sexual immorality so gross that even the pagans are shocked (ch. 5-6)
• Visiting prostitutes, or sexuality that’s basically just pagan (ch. 6)
• Bizarre confusion about the church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality (ch. 7)
• Confusion on gender issues in relation to culture (ch. 11)\
• Inequality and pride based on social and economic distinction (ch. 11)
• People getting drunk at church before communion (ch. 11)
• Gross spiritual pride related to the gifts (ch. 12-14)
• Confusion on eschatology and core theological issues like the resurrection of Christ (ch. 15)

How about some other Pauline epistles?

• Syncretism and mix and match spirituality (Col 1)
• Legalism and false ascetic restrictions (Col 2; Rom 14)
• Ethnic particularism and pride (Galatians)
• Arguments between solid, believing Christians (Phil 4)
• False teachers perverting doctrine and lying about godly pastors (2 Cor 10)
• Free-loaders who won’t work, but leach off the community (1-2 Thes)

Honestly, we could just keep going for a while here. These are the kinds of things that the authors of the New Testament, the Apostles who regularly performed miracles and such, had to warn their congregations about.

Now, there is a real sense in which these things “don’t happen” among Christians. D.A. Carson, when talking about the statement in 1 John 3:9 “no one who is born of God will continue to sin,” told a story about an old teacher he had. The teacher would say in class, “We do not chew gum here.” Now, the force of the statement is such to say that, “as a rule, gum-chewing is forbidden and we take it seriously.” Still, he wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t for the fact that people regularly tried, and occasionally did, end up chewing gum in class. In the same way, Christians do not, and should not sin in the various ways I listed above. At the same time, though, if Paul, or John, or Jesus, are warning about them, clearly they have happened in church. What’s more, apparently these are the kinds of warnings they expected might come in handy for future believers as well, otherwise they wouldn’t be in Scripture (1 Cor 10).

He Saves All Sorts

All that said, I suppose I want to say a few things.

First, yes, sin in the life of the believer is many senses shocking. It’s shocking in its flagrance. It’s shocking in its ingratitude towards the Savior. It’s shocking in its resistance to the Holy Spirit who now empowers the believer to a life of obedience. It’s shocking because sin, at core, makes no sense. Yet should it be surprising? Not to anyone who has taken the time to read the New Testament it shouldn’t be.

Second, keep in mind Jesus tends to save all sorts. He saves people from healthy family situations that predisposes them towards basic, moral, sociability that we enjoy. He also saves people out of broken social situations, drugs, prostitution. He saves them out of hyper-religious legalism. He saves them out of sexual addiction and rage. Given all the different pits Jesus manages to drag people out of, don’t be surprised to see varieties of dirt and muck still clinging to them as he sets himself to the slow task of cleaning them up again.

Finally, have a care for your own pride. As Paul says,

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

Remember where you came from. You weren’t on the spiritual a-team either. You’re still not. And yet you don’t want to be “associated” with those people because you’re name is such a big deal? Paul says to us here, “if your name is anything, it’s only because ‘in Christ’ you have gained wisdom, righteousness, and so forth. It is because holy Jesus was willing to identify himself with what is low, foolish, sinful and broken”–you know, you and I. If you have any great shame, any great disgust at the sin of your fellow believer, make sure it is because you care about his Name, not yours.

And then praise his Name when you remember he’s willing to share it with all sorts.

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Derek Rishmawy is the Director of College and Young Adult ministries at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Orange County, CA. He got his B.A. in Philosophy at UCI and his M.A.T.S. (Biblical Studies) at APU. He also contributes at the Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, and Leadership Journal, as well as his own Reformedish blog.

Original posted at DerekZRishmawy.com. Used with permission.

Resisting Social Darwinism

There are few things that make me more proud to be the pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville than CPC’s special emphasis on children with special needs. Once a year, our children’s staff has an amazing “vacation Bible school” for kids with special needs and their siblings. There is also a monthly expression of this called “Special Saturdays” which does several things. First, it pulls a community together to participate in something that Jesus is pleased with. After all, Jesus, always gave special attention to the weak and disadvantaged. Second, it affirms that every person has dignity or, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘there are no gradations in the image of God.’ Third, it reminds us that, sometimes to our surprise, people with special needs have more to teach us about the kingdom of God than we have to teach them. King David understood this. After his best friend Jonathan died in battle, his first order to his staff was to tell him if there was anyone to whom he could show favor for Jonathan’s sake.

Enters Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s orphaned son who is crippled in both feet.

Rather than saying, “On second thought . . .” or assuming a retail approach to relationships (a retail approach runs from sacrifice and prioritizes being relationship with people who are more useful than they are costly), David assures Mephibosheth that his future will be bright. David promises to restore the entire fortune of his predecessor King Saul, also Mephibosheth’s grandfather, to the young man. Second, David adopts him as his own son, assuring him that he will always have a seat at the king’s table. You can read the full story in 2 Samuel 9.

In this instance, David demonstrates what a heart that’s been transformed by the gospel is capable of—an extreme other-orientation. His first order to his staff as king sends a message. “My kingliness will not be marked by domineering. It will be marked by love and sacrifice.” David starts his reign by actively looking for an opportunity to lay down his life for someone who needs him to do this. He is actively looking, in other words, to limit his own options, to shut his own freedoms down, in order to strengthen an orphan who is weak.

Eugene Peterson says that hesed love—the word used to describe the love that David has for Jonathan and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan—sees behind or beneath whatever society designates a person to be (disabled, option limiting, costly, etc.) and instead acts to affirm a God-created identity in the person. In other words, Peterson is saying that to be human is to carry intrinsic value and dignity.

My friend Gabe Lyons wrote a beautiful essay about his son Cade, who has Down Syndrome. In the essay Gabe points out that over 92% of children in utero with Down Syndrome are aborted. Gabe offers a refreshing, counter-culture perspective from the parents of the other 8%. His essay is a celebration of Cade’s dignity, as well as the remarkable contribution Cade makes in the lives of people around him. He demonstrates an uncanny ability to live in the moment, a remarkable empathy for others, a refreshing boldness, and a commitment to complete honesty.

Gabe, along with the many parents who grace our church with the presence of their children who have special needs, are simply practicing good theology. Because the neighbor love part of the Kingdom of God is, at its core, a resistance movement against social Darwinism. Social Darwinism—‘survival of the fittest’ in the human community—tells us that it is those who are powerful, privileged, handsome, rich and wise who command our special attention, while those who are weak, physically or mentally challenged, and poor are ignorable at best, and disposable at worst.

But nobody is ignorable. And nobody is disposable. Every person, whether an expert or a child with special needs, is a carrier of an everlasting soul.

There are no gradations in the image of God.

In terms of gifting, resources, and opportunity, everyone is different. In terms of dignity and value, everyone is the same. As Francis Schaeffer once said, ‘There are no little people.”

How do we know this? Because of how Jesus chose to take on his humanity. He, the Creator of everything that is, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Seed who crushed the serpent’s head, the Beginning and the End, became weak, disabled, and disposed of.

There was nothing about him that caused us to desire him . . . he was despised and rejected by men. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him.

He chose that.

Jesus became poor so we could become rich in God. He was orphaned so we could become daughters and sons of God. He was brutally executed so we could live abundantly in his Kingdom. He was made invisible so we could be seen. He became weak so we could become strong. He became crippled in both feet…and in both hands also…so we could walk and not grow weary, so we could run and not grow faint.

If this isn’t enough to convince you that every person matters . . .

. . . what will?

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Scott Sauls, a graduate of Furman University and Covenant Seminary, is foremost a son of God and the husband of one beautiful wife (Patti), the father of two fabulous daughters (Abby and Ellie), and the primary source of love and affection for a small dog (Lulu). Professionally, Scott serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor, as well as the writer of small group studies, for Redeemer Presbyterian of New York City. Twitter: @scottsauls.

Originally posted at www.scottsauls.com. Used with permission.

Suffering Nails Truth to the Heart

It was the night before Easter Sunday (arguably the best day of the year) and I was planning to prepare my heart to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection the following day. Instead, I ended up lying in a hospital bed hooked to an IV receiving the usual cocktail the doctors give me for migraines. In the past, that would have been the opportune moment to hit play on my usual “woe is me” self-talk. But during those long hours in the emergency room, as I came in and out from the tranquilizing effects of the medications, something rather astounding happened—I began to preach the gospel to myself. The following three gospel truths particularly ministered to me that night and have become regular tracks that I play over and over as I learn to preach the gospel amidst my suffering.

Three Gospel Truths

1. I am not being punished

In the midst of pain there is a very real temptation to believe that God is punishing you. I’ve wrestled with debilitating migraines for seven years and my immediate response is to frantically search my life for some secret sin I’ve committed. I fall into the trap of believing that if I’m good I’ll be rewarded and if I’m bad I’ll be punished. In my legalism, I equate pain with God’s punishment. Yet, I’m missing an essential component in my religious equation—the gospel. The gospel tells me that I don’t simply do “bad things”; rather, apart from Christ I am bad. Scripture is clear on this point. I was “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Col. 1:21). I was “dead in the trespasses and sins” in which I once walked (Eph. 2:1-2). By my very nature I was a child “of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). I was under God’s just condemnation and there was nothing I could do to work my way out of this death sentence “for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20). Theologically speaking, if I think migraines are a just punishment for my sin then I have fully underestimated the gravity of sin. In terms of punishment, I don’t simply deserve migraines—I deserve death and hell.

But it doesn’t stop there. The gospel is good news for a reason.

God put Jesus forward as the propitiation for sin so that we might be “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). This means that though I was alienated from God he has now reconciled me to himself “in his (Christ’s) body of flesh by his death” (Col. 1:21). Though I was dead in my sins deserving of God’s punishment, he made me “alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). Do you see what Scripture is proclaiming? Christ came as our substitute and suffered the penalty of our sin so that we no longer experience the punishment of God’s wrath. Though God disciplines those he loves (Heb. 12:6), he poured out his punishment conclusively upon his Son at the cross. If you have been united with Christ, you no longer bear the punishment for your sins for “he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

You will never be punished because Jesus was punished in your place.

Therefore, pain is not punishment from God, nor is it a sign of his disapproval. In Christ you have unconditional acceptance and approval before the Father. This has significant ramifications for believers as we suffer in this lifetime. Whether it is migraines or cancer or panic attacks, we stand on the truth that God is not punishing us. Because of our union with Christ, God is for us (Rom. 8:31) and nothing (not even pain) can “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

2. I am not alone

Pain can be terribly isolating leading to feelings of loneliness and despair. I do not fully understand it nor can I rationally explain it, but when I suffer physically I inevitably suffer spiritually and emotionally. Were it not for Jesus, I think pain could result in feelings of total defeat. But the gospel reminds us that Jesus shared in our physical and emotional pain. His suffering was certainly more than that (i.e. absorbing the wrath of God), but never less. Jesus left the glories of heaven to take “the form of a servant” and be “born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). He shared in “flesh and blood” and “he himself partook of the same things” that we endure (Heb. 2:14). He was “made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2:17). Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15) because he knows what it is like to suffer in the flesh. Hebrews 5:7 says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death . . . ” Jesus understands what it’s like to cry out in agony in unmitigated pain.

How many times have you prayed “with loud cries and tears” to the Father for relief and yet your pleas seemed to ring hollow? How many times have you thought to yourself, “God is able to take this from me and he chooses not to”? How many times have you felt abandoned by God in your suffering and wondered where he was? Those subjective feelings can seem so real in the moment, but the objective truth is that God through Christ has drawn near to us. We can be sure that God hears our cries because we have an intercessor in heaven that identifies with us (Heb. 7:25).

Because of this, we are never alone in our pain. Our sufferings can be a means by which we draw nearer to Jesus, our great High Priest, as he intercedes on our behalf (Heb. 4:14-16). There seems to be a sweet closeness with Jesus for those uniquely qualified by pain. I’ve been a Christian for twelve years and have joyfully celebrated Easter every one of those years, but this year I savored Christ’s sufferings in a new way. I was richly comforted by the fact that my Lord had walked the path of pain so that he might become my merciful High Priest before the throne of God. It gave me peace to know that Jesus didn’t only suffer for me, but he also suffered with me.

Think about that—we have a God who left heaven to come alongside us and suffer among us.

3. I have the hope of the resurrection.

Pain has a way of shrinking perspective. It can cause us to fold in on ourselves. We become so obsessed with feeling better (physically or emotionally) that we lose sight of the bigger picture. The gospel reminds us that pain is not the final word for those in Christ—resurrection is! Our ultimate hope is not in this world or in finding temporary healing for our mortal bodies; it is in the re-creation of all things, including our bodies and minds. God did not create us for sickness and pain and mortality. Death and pain came through Adam’s first sin (Gen. 3) and now “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). But the gospel declares that Christ defeated Satan, sin, and death and in his resurrection we see the first-fruits of what is to come (1 Cor. 15:20, 23)—a bodily resurrection. The Bible testifies that those “in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22) on that final day when the “perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:54). Christian, this is our greatest hope.

Full redemption is coming!

This doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything within our means to relieve and alleviate severe emotional and physical pain. But to put all of our hope in temporary healing is to lose eternal perspective. There’s greater glory still to come. We must realize that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Beware of preaching a gospel that is too narrow in its scope. The gospel message isn’t simply “get saved and go to heaven when you die.” Instead, the gospel declares that in Christ God rights all wrongs. He renews all things. A new heaven and a new earth are coming. And on that new earth we will live in our fully redeemed, resurrected, and glorified bodies.

Then, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). That’s what we really desire, isn’t it? We “who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). There’s a sense in which I have come to see my migraines as my body’s way of groaning for full redemption. Chronic pain and disease and anxiety are all a part of this groaning. This isn’t the way life was supposed to be and our bodies know it. Thus, pain points us forward towards that final day when death will be swallowed up in victory and all things will be made new. In many ways, pain has taught me what it means to cry out with so many saints throughout history, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

So What Do Migraines Have to Do With the Gospel?

I find that it’s quite easy to believe these gospel truths on a “good day.” But then migraines come and render me powerless. It’s illuminating to see how insecure and anxious I become when I cannot produce. It reveals that much of my confidence comes from my performance and not from Jesus’ finished work. When I cannot physically perform I’m confronted with the dissonance between the theology I affirm and the theology I practice. Consequently, migraines have become one of the means by which God takes my good theology and drives it into my heart. It’s an opportunity, if you will, to really believe the truths that I confess. This certainly isn’t limited to migraines. Maybe you, like me, struggle with chronic physical pain. Or perhaps you have wrestled with panic attacks your whole life. Maybe you have to live with food allergies or suffer from an autoimmune disease. Or possibly you’re battling stage four cancer and all my groaning about migraines seems minor league. Pain and suffering, physical and emotional, come in all sorts of packages. Each person will suffer differently in this lifetime, but in every instance pain presents us with a unique opportunity to believe the glorious truths of the good news of Jesus Christ in a deeper way.

I have found that we can play the woe is me audio all day long (please realize I’m not diminishing the reality of suffering!), which leads to despair and discouragement. Or we can choose to rehearse the gospel to ourselves, which leads to life and godliness. It’s in those raw moments, the ones that are truly beyond our limitations, that we are provided with some of the most fertile soil to plant seeds of gospel truths in our hearts. And it is those seeds that fuel our affections for Christ and supply us with the foundation for a long life of faithfulness. I’m not saying I like migraines, but I am saying if there is anything in this world (including suffering) that can help train my obstinate head and hard heart to better understand what God did for me in Christ during that great exchange on the cross I want to welcome it with my entire being. And so, in that sterile hospital room on Easter’s eve, I chose a different path amidst my pain and preached these truths to myself. As it turns out, come Sunday morning, my heart was more prepared than ever before to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.

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Whitney Woollard has served in ministry alongside her husband Neal for over six years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and just finished her Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. She is passionate about equipping disciples to read and study God’s Word well resulting in maturing affections for Jesus and his gospel message. Neal and Whitney currently live in Portland, OR where they love serving the local church. Follow her on Twitter @whitneywoollard.

Learning Outside the Camp

During the first week of August, a pastor that I respect and admire quoted 20th century German thinker and author Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. The quote, which reads “I had to experience despair before I could experience grace,” is a beautiful sound byte that sums up the ubiquitous human illness of wanting to cling to everything and anything before we submit in brokenness to the grace of God. Everything seems sure until it isn’t there anymore—when the only thing left is God’s mercy in Christ. The only problem is that Hesse was a syncretist and about as far from what even the most ecumenical Christian—evangelical, progressive, post-liberal, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anabaptist, you name it—would consider within the boundaries of historical Christianity. And to be sure, people on Twitter let this pastor know this.

In that tweet, pastor Tullian Tchividjian set out to teach his tweeps (that’s a real term, look it up!) something about the grace of God using the writing of somebody who did not accurately understand the grace of God as articulated in Scripture. Someone who would certainly qualify as unregenerate in almost every Christian tradition. In other words, in one of those pop-psychology word association test nobody has ever shouted out “Hermann Hesse” when prompted with “orthodoxy.”

Likewise, the news of the band Gungor’s recent departure from several historically Christian positions has the evangelical internet aflutter with mourning, condemnation, and nuance. If you haven’t heard, in a blog on their website back in February Michael Gungor articulated his position on Adam and Eve, the flood, and metaphysics:

I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago. I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up. I have no more ability to believe these things than I do to believe in Santa Clause or to not believe in gravity. But I have a choice on what to do with these unbeliefs. I could either throw out those stories as lies, or I could try to find some value in them as stories. But this is what happens . . .

If you try to find some value in them as stories, there will be some people that say that you aren’t a Christian anymore because you don’t believe the Bible is true or “authoritative.” Even if you try to argue that you think there is a truth to the stories, just not in an historical sense; that doesn’t matter. To some people, you denying the “truth” of a 6,000 year old earth with naked people in a garden eating an apple being responsible for the death of dinosaurs is the same thing as you nailing Jesus to the cross. You become part of ‘them.’ The deniers of God’s Word.

In the last few weeks, World magazine and a few other publications got ahold of this and lamented Gungor’s lapse from orthodoxy. While a lot has already been said about this, both of these little case studies expose something about our hearts:

We (humans!) are often terrified to listen to and learn from people who hold to different (and sometimes contradictory) beliefs than us. In fact, our default reflex is to shun, condemn, and caricaturize.

The Bible, Orthodoxy, and Imago Dei

Ironically, the Bible is not afraid to affirm the God-implanted wisdom from those who fall outside of the perceived orthodox tribe. Most are familiar with the stories of Rahab the Canaanite prostitute who helped the Israeli scouts, the Roman gentile God-fearers who ran to Jesus, and the Greek polytheistic poets Paul quoted from memory who unwittingly proclaimed aspects the gospel. But there is often a disconnect between these Biblical examples and our on-the-ground understanding of our fellow image bearers.

Just as the seraphim called out in Isaiah 6:3:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

God has filled the earth and the people of the earth with his divine imprint. The pinnacle of God’s creation—human beings—have been given a special conscious and unconscious understanding of his ways. God  “has put eternity into man's heart” (Ecc. 3:11) and thus, has given each human being the capacity to teach every other human being something significant about the character of God.

Certainly, those of us whom God has saved, adopted, and, through the Holy Spirit, given special revelation into the character of God through Christ have a lot to offer a world groping at the shadow of God’s image. The damage of sin and rebellion has dimmed humanity’s understanding of God dramatically—and that should not be ignored.

Yet the image of God is still there in every person. Hiding in plain sight. Sitting somewhere between the doubt, confusion, and rebellion. Believers who have been illuminated to the glory of God’s grace through Christ have “everything [we] need for life and godliness” (i.e., God’s Spirit in us), including the ability to learn about the things of God from all of his creation—even those who seem to be fighting God’s revealed truth at every turn.

This process is far from complete in me—I am not the discerning, godly, thoughtful, gracious student of truth that I delude myself into thinking I am. Still, despite my weakness and foolishness God has used various people and media that fall outside of evangelicalism to teach me about the God who reveals the same orthodoxy that I love. And God has probably done the same in you.

My Story and Zossima

No fictional characters (and only a few real-life people) have ministered and instructed me in God’s love, grace, and mercy like Father Zossima in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brother’s Karamazov. Dostoevsky created the character of Zossima to be a Christ-like figure amidst a world and church institution fraught with sin and hard hearts. Zossima is not a Protestant pastor, but a Russian Orthodox monk. A system that is fraught with what I believe are major theological errors. However, the words of gospel-dependent love and tenderness that Zossima speaks in Brothers is a spiritual opus that I return to regularly.

Remember particularly that you cannot be a judge of anyone. For no one can judge a criminal until he recognises that he is just such a criminal as the man standing before him, and that he perhaps is more than all men to blame for that crime. When he understands that, he will be able to be a judge. Though that sounds absurd, it is true. If I had been righteous myself, perhaps there would have been no criminal standing before me. If you can take upon yourself the crime of the criminal your heart is judging, take it at once, suffer for him yourself, and let him go without reproach . . .

. . . Know the measure, know the times, study that. When you are left alone, pray. Love to throw yourself on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love. Love all men, love everything. Seek that rapture and ecstasy. Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears. Don't be ashamed of that ecstasy, prize it, for it is a gift of God and a great one; it is not given to many but only to the elect.

This passage—and many like it—showcase a beautiful, tender, gospel-rich love that Zossima beautifully articulated and, in the book, lived out. When I read it I am usually moved to tears. Though I don’t agree with some of his conclusions above (e.g., “if I had been righteous myself, perhaps there would have been no criminal standing before me”) I can see  and learn from Zossima’s Christ-like tenderness and love for sinners. I am moved by the tender love that Zossima articulates, and I believe that this tender love of people, God, and creation is close to what Jesus talks about in Luke 10:27. Zossima has discipled me in God’s love and grace, even though his systematics would not fly at any church I would ever join.

Back to Hesse and Gungor

So when Tulllian quotes syncretist Hermann Hesse about grace and suffering, I am free to nod and agree as I discern glimmers of God’s truth in it. To learn from Hesse’s saying, though he may not understand grace as articulated in Scripture, is to affirm his humanity and the divine imprint (common grace) on his musings. With orthodox grace-colored glasses, we can explore the world in search of God’s love. We can discern the good, affirm the truth, and love the person without harshly condemning and shunning all that is secular or not theologically airtight (because, honestly, besides Jesus, who is theologically airtight?).

We can disagree with Gungor’s steps away from an evangelical hermeneutic while still celebrating their music and whatever truth is in their statements. In fact, to love them and doubters like them, we must insist that their doubts may arise out of their honesty. As George MacDonald observes “doubts are messengers of the Living One to the honest”—they keep us humble and remind us of our humble dependence on God’s revelation to lead and guide. Though Gungor may still be in process, their doubts may be evidence of God working in their life—and like Thomas before them, Jesus will show them his wounds.

From here, we can listen to Michael Gungor’s words and hear the image of God. For example, when Gungor says,

To some people, you denying the “truth” of a 6,000 year old earth with naked people in a garden eating an apple being responsible for the death of dinosaurs is the same thing as you nailing Jesus to the cross. You become part of ‘them.’

We may at first just hear a jab at Biblical literalism, but there is much more there. He points a finger on the painfully shaming nature of much public and private discourse on doubt, grace, and orthodoxy. We (being, those who identify as more-or-less “conservative” evangelicals) should see this as a prophetic encouragement to love our enemies, bless those who persecute us (though this is not anything close to persecution), and to love our neighbor as ourself. We can say, “Thank God for these comments! Thank God for Michael Gungor!” Thank God that he used Gungor to articulate the pain that doubters often feel amongst those with less paradigm-shifting doubts.

Grace

At the heart of all charity and discernment is grace. The more we realize that we have been given amazing, free grace, the more we will desire to extend that grace. As our condition becomes clear, we’ll have more sympathy on other ignorant blasphemers. Our rejection of God and our reflected imaging of God is as instinctive

I remember teaching Sunday School with my wife, trying to get an adorable three-year-old to sing songs with us.

“Don’t you want to sing songs to Jesus with us?” I asked, as he sat in the corner of the classroom.

“No” he declared, as astutely as a three-year-old can

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like Jesus”

Nobody taught him to say that. Nor does anyone need to teach us to deny God’s truth, doubt God’s promises, or disobey God’s statutes.

When this little boy told me that he didn’t like Jesus, I didn’t shun him. Neither does God when we daily, repeatedly declare that we don’t like Jesus! That is the beauty of grace. The patient, one-sided love of God that has blessed us with divine wisdom amidst our rebellion. This grace is patient with us, and so we can be patient with others. This grace sees the good in us, when we are a complete stinking mess. This grace teaches us when we don’t want to learn—as Newton reminds us, “t’was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.”

And this is the same kid that will come up to you with innocent affection, give you a high five, and tell you all about Super Mario with a glimmer of passion in his eye. Just your typical God-imagining blasphemer.

This grace can be extended to others as it has been extended to us only as we see ourselves in need of it and the grace of God’s image in others. And hopefully, in doing so we can, like Paul in Acts 17, see God’s fingerprint on the un-orthodox and lead the un-orthodox to a more beautiful, robust understanding of God than they could’ve ever imagined—all the while as we are learning from them.

Learning from un-believers sounds dangerous. It sounds like capitulation of our ideals and our morals. But the cross of Christ assures us that we can dangerously extend grace because grace has been permanently, legally, imputed to us. In our exploration of God’s world, we are securely tethered, inseparably united to Jesus who promised to be with us always. So, in light of that Christian, search for truth and explore grace—even when it comes from those who also do not fully understand grace. And may God lead you in his Truth and his Grace.

What a beautiful grace it is!

—

Nick Rynerson lives in the west suburbs of Chicago with his groovy wife, Jenna. He is a staff writer for Christ and Pop Culture and a marketing coordinator at Crossway. Connect with him on Twitter @nick_rynerson or via email.

Changing the Dating Culture

Let's get right to it on this topic. The way young people date today pretty much reflects how married people relate to each other. Young people spend lots of time together alone; they awaken desire prematurely; they mess around, often times ending in intercourse; and they are just as affectionate as a husband and wife should be within the sacred confines of marriage. Most of the time, the only thing that separates a dating relationship from a marriage relationship is the ring that is parked on the left hand. Vodie Baucham says, as stated above, that dating as it is currently done is “glorified divorce practice.” So, it’s not hidden—I am a huge enemy toward the way we currently practice dating. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian when it comes to relationships should be monumental. For the Christian, the lens through which we view relationships must be Scripture. For the non-Christian, the lens through which they view relationships is often the current cultural approach. This approach is found in the saying, “You don’t know if the shoe fits until you try it on.” Men and women live with each other, fulfill their sexual desires, hop around from dating partner to dating partner, and treat each other as husband and wife—all without any form of commitment. Again, it is not uncommon to find confessing Christians living together before marriage either. If they are not living together it seems that they spend all of their time together in intimate environments where there is no accountability, and they have no one walking beside them as they pursue the biggest journey of their life.

What’s the Difference?

The dating relationships of Christians must be different than those of non-Christians. Men, what does it say about you when you do not protect your girlfriend physically, emotionally, or mentally? Do you use the words, “I love you,” without thinking twice about it as if love is really an emotion, and then when you aren’t “feeling it” anymore you can just use the “it’s not you, it’s me” line? Oh man, there is nothing worse than a guy who uses a girl and then moves on to the next after he’s gotten his fix! Do you often put yourselves in situations where temptation can be sparked? Have you awakened desire and intimacy before it is ready? If you can answer yes to any of these questions then you need to repent of your stupidity, and really begin to think about how you are forever hurting your sisters in Christ. Believe me guys; I’ve been there. I have done the things mentioned above, and thankfully God has shown grace upon me through his Son Jesus where I have had to repent of sin and become intentional about how I treat my sisters in Christ.

The way young people currently practice dating is killing not only their spiritual lives but it is killing the vitality of the church. This must change in our generation! Scripture does not necessarily say, “This is how you are supposed to date,” but it does give us insights and wisdom into how men and women outside of marriage should relate to one another. Let’s begin in Genesis 2. Genesis 2:24-25 says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

The Bible does not say that a man shall leave his fa- ther and mother and hold fast to his girlfriend. Let me be clear men, we don’t join with our fiancées either. We join together with our wives. This is what is known as leaving and cleaving. Men, we leave our mother and father and we cleave to our wives. And obviously, we don’t get naked with our girlfriends either. Do you ever wonder why you feel ashamed when you do?

So, if marriage is the end goal then what are the steps to getting there? Here’s what I think, and honestly, it’s this simple:

1. If you find yourself being sexually tempted then it’s time to begin to prepare yourself for marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1-3).

I realize that many people will disagree with me on this point, but that’s okay, often times the ones who disagree with this are the ones who are justifying their actions of finding sexual pleasures outside of marriage—whether it’s through sexual relationships or pornography. It has been said somewhere that 98% of men lust after women; the other 2% who say they don’t lust after women are liars.

2. Young guys, you must have someone walk with you through the dating/courtship process (Titus 2:1-10).

I often tell young guys who ask me about courtship that it is simply the season of life when you are preparing yourself for marriage. If we are modeling discipleship/mentorship biblically then we should have an old- er man who is teaching and walking beside younger men as they make decisions. This includes their dating/courtship decisions.

3. Keep your dating/courtship/engagement time short (Song of Solomon 2:8; 8:4).

Please don’t date for five years before you get married. Seriously, is there any biblical wisdom in this? Let me tell you what will hap- pen if you don’t know already. You will be putting yourselves in five years of sexual temptation, desire, and struggle. Desire and love will awaken before its time. Also, when it comes to the engagement process then keep it as SHORT as possible. Believe me, this is the absolute WORST time for guys.

4. Begin to read books on marriage and not books on dating.

Why would you want to read a how-to-guide on dating if you’re only going to date for 6-8 months when you’re going to be married for the rest of your life? Prepare yourselves to be husbands and wives, not boyfriends and girlfriends. Believe me, six to eight months is enough time for you to know if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. You don’t need a year to figure out if you want to see them naked or not, if you are like-minded, and if he or she loves Jesus. In all honesty, these are the only three requirements you must have to be compatible as husband and wife: 1) Do they love Jesus? 2) Are you attracted to them physically? 3) Are you like-minded in life, family, children, church affiliation, goals, etc.?

With that said, I implore you to begin to rethink your current dating situation if you are indeed in one that I have spoken of above. Let us be men who take the Bible seriously. Let us see the culture through the lens of Scripture—not vice-versa. I challenge you to be courageous in your dating, engagement process, and marriage.

Men, we must step up! —

Greg Gibson is married to Grace and is the father of Cora and Iver. He serves as an elder and family ministries pastor at Foothills Church in Knoxville, TN overseeing birth through college and marriages. He is the author of Reformational Manhood: Creating a Culture of Gospel-Centered Warriors and serves as the lead editor for CBMW’s Manual. Greg also writes often at ggib.me. Follow him on Twitter: @gregrgibson

Excerpt taken from Greg Gibson, Reformational Manhood, BorderStone Press, ©2014. Used by permission. http://borderstonepress.com