The Opportunity of Doubt
It is human, all too human, to doubt. When we share our faith with our non-Christian friends, we are often skirting the tension between finite understanding and infinite understanding—between the materially possible and the spiritually necessary. Doubt and faith have nothing to say to each other, and yet in this world, they often appear inseparable. For this reason (and by God’s grace), I have felt the Spirit prompting me at times to share my doubts with the folks I disciple. My prayer is that what follows is both a guide to the stormy waters of doubt as well as a clear pointer to the light of Christ shining above the troubled seas of our lives. One Hundred and One Fun Things to do with Doubt
Last football season, I had an extra ticket to a game, and I invited my friend along. We stopped by the grocery store for some beers and sunscreen before heading to the tailgate party. Which is to say, I wasn’t really brooding about Existence right then, but my friend was. As we waited in the check-out line, he started talking about the end of the world: how humans have polluted the land, air, and water; how we’re continuing to do it; how we’re actually increasing our efforts.
Zoom out. We were waiting in line in a noisy, crowded store, and my friend was speaking to one of my most complex, unending despairs. Here’s how the doubt runs in my mind: both the Bible and science indicate that the future isn’t exactly rosy for the earth, and yet one of God’s initial commands was for humans to be stewards of His creation. I can’t help but feel deeply ashamed of the ways my actions contribute to the destruction of the environment.
This doubt stems from a cognitive dissonance: Take care of the Earth versus the Earth will be destroyed. This dissonance is partly responsible for the heated political rhetoric surrounding the environment and sustainability. At any rate, this is what I told my friend. I explained how deep my despair is about this subject, and I didn’t sugarcoat it with some platitude about my beliefs. I was honest. I told him that I have to pray about the Earth every morning. I have to give it back to God. On a cosmic-scale, it’s almost hilarious just how much global climate change is out of my hands, and yet I cannot help but feel responsible.
The beauty is that God doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He doesn’t have to. He knows this planet—He even knows me—far better than I do. By placing my faith in Christ, I align myself not with unthinking religiosity, but with the greatest thinker in the universe. As a result, I am free to act (and sometimes even fail) in pursuing environmental stewardship.
Zoom back in. My friend and I are standing in line to buy junk from the local mega-corporation. (There’s those cognitive dissonances playing out in real life.) But I don’t have to despair. Yes, I think the gospel calls us to help in renewing all creation, but do I always trust that knowledge? No. That’s what I told my friend. The gospel frees me from judgment and empowers me to act (Romans 6:1-2), but I am still compelled to get down on my knees and pray for strength to accept that freedom everyday.
We can open up to our friends about doubt, if we will see past our feelings of despair into our forgiveness in Christ. This frees our witness from both crippling defeatism and self-satisfied legalism. It can season our speech with the salt of critical thought (Colossians 4:6). In other words, the doubts aren’t the key. The key is the compassion found in Christ—that he understands our doubts and still loves us.
With this freedom, my friend and I climbed into my car and drove to our national distraction. Because I followed the Spirit’s promptings to be transparent about doubt, I gained an opportunity to talk about my faith. Honesty about doubt led to a deeper conversation about faith.
Doubts and the Doubting Doubters who Doubt Them
In Christ, there is no real reason for doubt. In Christ, we claim forgiveness, grace, and peace. Through faith in Christ, we possess the power to move mountains. The problem is one of unbelief. Our brokenness, our every sin stems from something we do not fully believe about God, but if we are to share our faith in a genuine way, we must share how God answers our unbelief, how our wayward minds are redeemed in Christ, how our troubled souls find rest and overflowing grace in the Holy Spirit.
When sharing a doubt with your friends, avoid the language of ownership (if possible). More importantly avoid self-pity about the despair attached to the doubt. Avoid smugness about your faith. The hope is that in disclosing a doubt we can open up a discussion of faith and offer loving words about how God answers our unbelief with grace and courage.
For example, many of my non-Christian friends feel the doubt voiced by logical positivist philosophers like A.J. Ayers. In so many words, they’ll explain that religious language is nonsense because it’s scientifically/empirically unverifiable. While this isn’t my particular brand of doubt, it is certainly one to which many non-Christians cling. But in speaking to them about this doubt, I have not found it helpful to rationally discourse about this philosophical stance. The conversation then caves in on the limits of its own reasonability, resulting at best in a series of metaphysical chess problems.
Rather, when I’m attentive to the Spirit, I’ve learned to take a step back and remember my own feelings of doubt—how they create such pointless sorrow and anxiety—and I speak to that. In other words, when we’re in tune with the Spirit, we speak from the heart to the heart (not necessarily from the mind to the mind).
The Division of the Individual
That’s all good and fine for sitting at the café chatting with our friends. What do we do when doubt gets personal? For example, what of the militant doubts that point out the uncounted atrocities that have been committed in the name of religious belief?
Again, take a step back and pray. Remember, this is the despair and anguish of unbelief talking. We are not equipped to answer these charges. Fortunately, Christ is. In this example, it may not be a good idea to air your own feelings of unbelief and doubt, but rather speak directly to the pain of the individual with the healing and love you have found in Christ Jesus.
Here’s the funny thing about faith. We all have it. It takes a certain amount of faith simply to be convinced that my “self” or anyone else exists. Interestingly, folks don’t typically assign this aspect of faith any religious meaning. It’s simply “who we are.” But, in the total absence of faith, who are we really? There are statistics that speak to those who lose this last hold-out of faith, and they aren’t pleasant. Without some small amount of faith, we would begin to doubt the very substance of our being.
This is the critical juncture of how broken we really are. Except for faith, our humanity is literally falling apart. In John’s Gospel, Christ says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5). This is kinda scary stuff for a non-Christian to hear, but God is bigger than those fears. God is bigger than the horrifying things that have been done by ignorant and deceived and broken people in his name. How do I know this? Is it simply wishful thinking? Is God loving only because I say so? No. Christ says that’s all sorts of backwards and upside down.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. - John 15:9-12
In other words, when addressing—for example—despair over the atrocities committed in the name of religion, leave everything else and follow Christ. Remind your self and your friend that—according to scripture—nothing has been done in Christ’s true unutterable name that wasn’t also done in love. If an act of “religious belief” was done without love, it was done without Christ, and if it was done without Christ, then it was done without faith. In the absence of faith, all that remains is—not just doubt—but the void, the total dissolution of the God-breathed life inside us.
The critical distinction we must make as disciples of Christ is that our identity and agency do not arise from the formless void gnawing at the base of individual identity. By grace, we are learning to see that the very prospect of this construction of individual self is impossible from its foundation up, hence the terror and pain of those feelings of doubt. But when we take ownership of faith in Christ, then from him flows a new communal identity and a powerful fellowship of agency—the foundation of which is the very center, the unshakable core of all Creation.
Identity Restored
My true identity is in Christ not in myself. In Christ, we stand united with the true meaning of our lives, with our renewed humanity. But for a person hearing this truth for the first time, all this sounds pretty weird. The loss of individual identity? Being united with what? This is when—if I’m in tune with the Spirit—I often hear that still small voice saying, “Share those same doubts you once had… now share how Christ offers so much more.”
Christ is the hinge on which the entire universe turns. Christ is the door that opens to the infinite glory of God. Likewise, the gospel is the key that unlocks our restore identity. The good news is Christ understands our doubts. In Luke’s Gospel, Christ dispels the disciples’ doubts just before his ascension, offering questions that convict me even now: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see.” (Luke 24:38-39)
My prayer today is to lay my doubts before Christ. To meditate on the wounds he suffered for my sake and find in his cuts and bruises the fullness of grace poured out for my sake. What doubt can withstand this flood of mercy? May the Holy Spirit guide the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts toward healing the sickness and pain of unbelief in ourselves and in those we disciple!—that we might sing of the peace and restoration found only in our redeemer Christ Jesus.
---
Ben Roberts is the Managing Editor of Gospel Centered Discipleship, a member of Austin City Life, and a follower of Christ. He lives in an amazingly ugly house with his wife (Jessica), son (Solomon), dog (Charles Bronson II), and two very angry chickens. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, he is currently working on a novel. Twitter @GCDiscipleship
---
For more on sharing the gospel authentically, check out Jonathan Dodson's Unbelievable Gospel.
Domain of Influence
Those who have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ have the same mission. Jesus gave it to us. He gave us his gospel, his Holy Spirit, and his commission to make disciple-making disciples of all peoples. We are called to take the gospel of Jesus into our neighborhoods and into the nations. However, one’s specific involvement in that mission is unique with regards to one’s role and one’s reach. You have a specific task or role to play in this mission. The Holy Spirit has equipped you for that role. It might be preaching and teaching, or pastoring, or administration, or mercy, or hospitality, but God intends you to use that gift, faithfully carrying out your role in the mission to make disciple-making disciples.
You also have a reach in this mission, a context that we might call your “domain of influence.” Your domain of influence is the sphere in which your ministry role is carried out. Some domains of influence are broader in scope; they are far reaching. Some people are given smaller spheres with a localized influence. This is fairly obvious to us. Some people pastor large influential churches and are invited to preach before great crowds, while others live in obscurity, faithfully pastoring small churches. The role of pastor is the same, but the reach one has in carrying out that role is different. Two pastors may have a similar calling, but different God-given capacities that bring with them differing spheres of influence and impact.
We see this principle of domain throughout the Scripture. One example is found in 1Corinthians 12. When Paul addresses the Corinthians about spiritual gifts, he highlights not only the variety of the gifts but also the differing impact that each person has in the exercise of his or her gift.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. - 1 Corinthians 12:4–6
But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:13–14
We see this same principle in Jesus’ parable of the talents. A master goes on a journey and entrust differing amounts of his possessions to his servants. To one he entrust ten talents. To another he entrusts five talents. To the third, he entrusts one talent. Jesus tells us that each was given an amount according to his ability. Each was entrusted with an amount that was in keeping with that person’s potential for functioning at a certain level. In other words, each would have a differing domain of influence and varying degrees of accomplishment with what they were entrusted because each had different capacities.
The Temptations of Domain
There are two great temptations in ministry with regard to domain. First, it is possible that we can under-reach our domain out of fear, sloth, or lack of faith. God may very well desire to expand our influence and reach, but our own timidity or laziness can keep us from moving into God’s intentions. This may be what Timothy struggled with. He was appointed and given a platform of great influence in Ephesus. As we read through Paul’s letters to Timothy, it is clear that he struggles with insecurity, timidity, and possibly even a lack of faith. In 2Timothy 4:5 Paul tells him to fulfill his ministry, to be faithful to his domain.
There are some that are not dreaming enough. God has greatly gifted them, but they are not reaching for what God has for them due to insecurity, fear, or sloth. But I believe the bigger temptation that most in ministry face is that of over-reaching for a domain out of pride, envy, or comparison. When we see the ministry success of others, we can enviously aspire for a similar platform and the visibility that comes along with it. John the Baptist provides a good case study for this temptation.
John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).
Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him. - John 3:23–26
If I am John, I am immediately faced with the temptation to comparison and envy. “All are going to him...” John has been at this longer and yet, Jesus shows up on the scene - endorsed by John at that - and John is losing his following. There is a constant temptation in ministry to ask, “How am I measuring up? Am I keeping up? Am I standing out? Is my church growing at a similar or quicker pace than others?” But notice how John responds.
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” - John 3:27–30
John understands that God sovereignly appoints his role and sets boundaries on his domain (v27). His ministry is received, given to him from God, and he cannot add even one thing to what God has appointed for him. John knows his role is the forerunner. He is not the groom but friend of the groom. John gladly accepts his shrinking platform. His only real concern is that Jesus increases, which means his domain must now decrease. John is not trying to over-reach his domain here; he is submitting to his God-given role and reach.
I often meet pastors and leaders who are over-reaching and trying to operate in a way that is not in keeping with how God has gifted them and that is not in step with the sovereign boundaries he has put on their reach of influence. For example, they see Driscoll, Chandler, or Piper preach hour long sermons, so they preach for an hour. But they do not have the capacity to hold an audience for an hour. Many assume that they should be doing multi-site because other pastors are doing it. It is not a decision grounded in inspiration from God but imitation of another church. These over-reaching pastors feel the pressure to keep up with other churches. But if they are honest, they know God has not given them the leading, discipling, and preaching capacities for a broader domain than one healthy, local church. I recently had a conversation with a pastor struggling for years to move his church beyond the 40 or so people who were attending. He said he had a vision to plant more congregations all over his city out of that congregation. What if God does not intend his domain to go beyond one healthy congregation. Pastor, God might be calling you to plant a church and get it healthy and lead it well, and that might be the reach that heaven sets for you. And if so, that is OK. Remember the parable of the talents. Each servant is given a measure of responsibility in keeping with his ability and the commendation comes in response to his faithfulness to their role, not the expanse of their reach.
Faithfulness to Your Domain
If you are going to be faithful to your role and reach, you need first and foremost a passion for Jesus. John was content with growing obscurity because Jesus was increasing. As long as Christ is trusted and treasured, we can be content. Second, we need a Gospel-Identity. John sees himself as a friend of the bridegroom - a person in a privileged position. When we know who we are as those privileged by the gospel, loved by God, adopted into his family, set aside for his purposes, then we begin to break free from trying to establish an identity through achievement. Third, we need self-awareness. By self-awareness, I simply mean knowing how God has gifted you and wired you. John knows who he is and who he isn’t, and he does not try to be someone the Lord has not made him to be. Self-awareness comes from the Lord by means - assessment tools, giftings, passions, fruitfulness, and the affirmation of other leaders. Through these means, the Lord often reveals the reach of our domains. In this sense, domains seem to me to be an unfolding awareness - more of a discovery than an announcement. It is not about reaching for what you want to do, but discovering what God has gifted you to do and then being faithful with it as he reveals it. And, as we are faithful over a little, he makes us faithful over much.
I’m afraid that we may have bred in the hearts of pastors today a desire for greater platforms instead of greater faithfulness. Humbly accepting our domains of influence and being faithful to them is the key to being content in the ministry God gives us.
---
JR Vassar is the founding and lead pastor of Apostles Church. He and his wife Ginger have three children and make their home in NYC's Upper East Side. Twitter: @jrvassar
Discipleship is for Young Parents Too
(Editor's Note: This article is reposted from a series at Domestic Kingdom and appears here with the author's permission.) As a mom of young children, I feel like I’m going, going, going all the time.
On a typical day, I have devotions to be done, breakfast to make, chores to supervise, reading to do, games to play, school to teach, lunch to make, diapers to change, dishes to clean, training to do, gospel conversations to have, naps to enforce, peace to keep, dinner to prepare, family bonding to facilitate, laundry to fold, and so on and so on.
Where in that long list of important activities can I find time or energy to disciple younger women? How much should helping other Christians grow factor into my daily plans? What could this discipleship look like?
Discipleship looks different in different seasons, and as a Christian parent who desires to see the gospel magnified, being a part of the growth of other Christians is a privilege and a necessity. When Christ came, he died for broken people. At the end of time, Christ will present his bride, the church, radiant and blameless to himself (Ephesians 5). There is no such thing as Lone Ranger Christianity!
Especially in a season of parenthood with young children (which itself can tend to be isolating and lonely) involvement in another believer’s life can refreshingly lift our gaze from the mundane tasks of the day to the bigger reality of what the Lord is doing to make a people for himself.
What do young parents have to offer to younger believers?
Because stay-at-home parents get the privilege of serving little ones day in and day out, often with little self-initiated appreciation, we get the opportunity to live out the gospel before watching eyes. As Christ came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28), our dying to self to serve our children displays Christlikeness. As believers we are all being made more and more into the image of Christ by the grace of God.
Parenthood in the young years lends a unique crucible into which our selfish natures are refined to be more holy. That should be shared with others!
In the area of biblical womanhood, the "younger me" would have benefited hugely from a true picture of what young motherhood looked like. I loved children and wanted a family. But I think a realistic idea of the work involved in raising children and keeping the home would have informed some of the choices I made. I had an inflated view of what I could accomplish in my waking hours. I thought I could be a doctor, a pastor’s wife, and mom-extraordinaire all-in-one.
I spent a great deal of time shadowing doctors, but I didn’t initiate much to spend time with a mom. I think if I had, her life would have offered much wisdom to me as I considered what kind of degree I achieved, what career I pursued, or how much I financially invested in my education. Seeing a real-life picture of biblical womanhood and having realistic role models would have challenged my proud thoughts of being able to do all and have all and be all.
Discipleship should be happening in all seasons of life: dating, beginning a marriage, parenting young children, parenting teenagers, growing old, retiring. Each season brings its own freedoms and limitations. Because of the unique needs of young motherhood, discipleship will probably not look like formally sitting down with a younger woman and digging into the depths of Scripture for hours.
More likely this discipleship will happen in intentional conversations and pictures of gospel application facilitated by opportunities to correct children or pick up toys. You can pray for one another and lift each other before the Lord even with your two-year old wiggling in your lap. Being a young parent is not an excuse to not disciple younger believers, it is a reason to do so.
What are some reasons we don’t disciple as young parents? How does the gospel challenge these objections?
Objection #1: I don’t have the time or energy. Discipling younger believers is not convenient.
The other day I was trying to figure out how to make something. And my son said to me, “Just use your computer and search for it.” Ta-da. Instant information with the push of a button. No need go to the library to find a book or call an expert for advice. All I had to do was push a button.
We live in a culture of convenience. Things come easily and often instantly. In some ways, this ease of life cuts against the very grain of Christianity, which calls us to deny ourselves and live for Someone greater.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
Christ loved sinners to the point of death on a cross! If we have received that sacrifice, how can we not also sacrifice to love others by investing in their lives? If we are in Christ how can we not also be energized by his strength?
Christ has redeemed that young believer in your church. He means to sanctify us all and make us more like Christ.
If our lives can be used by God in his work of sanctification, we would be wise to consider whether this objection of inconvenience and lack of energy is legitimate or not.
It’s true: life only gets busier with children.
As young parents, we are responsible to train up our children in the fear of the Lord, and they should be one of our main priorities. It does require much of our best time and energy. But are we making the best use of the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16)?
If I examine my own life truthfully, I admit that I find myself checking email or browsing Facebook more than necessary. That’s just one example of how I waste time. Sometimes I want to selfishly get away from my kids for a moment. Sometimes it’s to legitimately relax or do work.
But for all those times where I am wasting my time, how much more fruitful would it be to read a good book, a gospel-centered article, or meditate on some truth of Scripture? How much more fruitful would it be if I gathered those wasted minutes and do that with another believer? The truth is that I am lazy and selfish. I want to do what is easy. And it is pathetically easier for me to be temporarily satisfied knowing the latest status of all my friends, rather than in thinking about how I might access grace through the powerful Word or thinking about how I might benefit another spiritually.
Nothing about Christ dying on the cross was convenient for him.
It wasn’t an easy task that took no effort. Likewise, we shouldn’t expect imitating Christ to be easy. He suffered and gave his life for His people. Why should we expect to do any less?
As we look forward to the privilege of being God’s instruments for sanctification in the lives of other believers, we should embrace the price associated with it and rejoice in Jesus’ provision of everything we need.
Objection #2: I’m not one to be emulated. My children aren’t obedient enough. I’m not fill-in-the-blank enough.
It’s true. I’m not. They’re not. And I’ll never be. But praise God that we “can boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon [us]” (2 Corinthians 12:9). To disciple a young believer doesn’t mean you have to be the perfect parent and your children have to be perfect.
As one author put it:
I love my fellow-Christians not simply because of the gospel, but I love them best when I am loving them with the gospel! And I do this not merely by speaking gospel words to them, but also by living before them and generously relating to them in a gospel manner. Imparting my life to them in this way, I thereby contribute to their experience of the power, the Spirit, and the full assurance of the gospel. - Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians, page 22
When I invite a young woman into my life and she sees my failings and my sin, I have the opportunity to show what kind of people Christ came to die for: sinful, blemished people.
I have the occasion to communicate that apart from Christ’s gracious work in my life I would be a much meaner, more selfish mom. I can show this younger woman how to rejoice in the fact that Christ came to heal the sick and needy, not the healthy and perfect.
I also have the gospel reapplied to me when I realize that my example may actually benefit the younger woman by showing them what NOT to do or be. Ouch! What a humbling reality! As my pride balks at this idea I am made aware of my need for even more grace!
Yet I can rejoice as even my insufficiencies are helping this younger believer know Christ more and grow in him. I can thank God for the opportunity to know my own limitations and boast in Christ! As I seize the sufficiency of Christ for my motherhood on any day– smoothly-running or Twilight Zone– this younger believer gets to experience a dose of reality.
Objection #3: My children are my priority. I can’t divide my time.
Precisely because they are learning about life by watching, don’t we want our children to see us caring for and investing in other people? We want them to know that our relationship with our spouse is a priority because God prioritizes marriage in his Word.
Likewise, when I have a younger lady into my home – when my children see us discussing a book, opening Scripture or praying together or talking about Jesus while we cut veggies - what a marvelous opportunity it is to show them that the body of Christ is intimately involved in each other’s life.
This is another priority God places on the church: the fellowship of believers. My children get to learn that Mommy talks to lots of people about Jesus. She talks to me and she talks to Auntie Jessica. And Auntie Kate. Lord willing, in their minds, it is a normal and important thing for Jesus to be a part of every day conversations. It is a normal and important thing for people from church to be coming to their home and involved in Mommy’s life.
My bubble-loving two-year-old has surprised me on more than one occasion. As I get ready to pray with a lady, I will ask the kids to play quietly so we can pray. More than once, she has toddled over to me and said, “I pay too.” And she’ll climb up in my lap and ceremonially cover her eyes, sit still, and wait quietly while we pray.
Our children are watching and learning more than we know. Modeling discipleship to your children in this way is not forsaking them as your priority.
Father God, I pray You would use these moments to show my children the implications of the gospel lived out. I pray that my kids will catch a vision for how following Christ involves my giving my attention to other people for the sake of gospel growth. I pray they will see the body of Christ building itself up in love (Ephesians 4:16).
Wisdom in all things
There is no doubt that young parenthood is a tiring, if not exhausting, season of life. We need God’s wisdom to decide how to spend our waking moments.
And sometimes wisdom requires us to say “No” to an extra relationship at this time. But let us also not excuse ourselves from ministering to the saints because of the busyness of this season. Let us rather run this race with others and rejoice that we can fall into bed exhausted each night because we have given ourselves for others, emulating our Savior in how he has given himself for us.
Bradbury's Dystopia and the Biblical Future
In the world of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, firemen start fires not stop them. They burn books and houses that contain books. Bradbury writes:
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history…while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house.
The blazing glory of burning books. This is what the book's hero, Montag, lives for. But more than books are consumed in the dystopian future of Fahrenheit 451. Montag's country is physically intact, despite the fact that it survived two atomic wars. Culturally, however, his world is crackling in flames. The reading of books is no longer permitted. Deep thought is discouraged. Instead, everyone watches TVs the size of their living room wall. In the words of Neil Postman, they have “entertained themselves to death.” The world is in gross cultural decline and, as a result, people are in decline. People no longer know how to have meaningful conversation. Everything is superficial. People don’t ask questions of one another; they just talk at one another. Humanity has become a shell of life, a corpse of entertainment, with very little truth, beauty, or virtue left. This is the future of Fahrenheit 451.
What is the Biblical Future?
The world of Fahrenheit 451 is physically, culturally, and humanly broken. Creation, culture, and humanity are in need of renewal. This dystopian vision is the opposite of the biblical vision of the future. In Revelation 21-22 we see a very different world:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
The biblical view is a new heaven and a new earth, devoid of destruction, corruption, darkness, and decline. It is a place of remarkable beauty, crystal-bright rivers, and trees of life. A place of physical renewal. It is also a place of personal healing - by the very leaves of the tree of life - a metaphor for the power of the new environment. It is also a place of personal renewal. As the rest of Revelation and Isaiah the prophet describe, the new creation is a place of human flourishing, of great creative output where the finest of human culture is joyfully produced in worship of our great God and King (Rev 21:22-27). Even cultural renewal exists. The biblical vision of New Creation is altogether different from the future of Fahrenheit 451. New Creation is physical, cultural, and personal renewal not decline!
Now, perhaps you are thinking to yourself: "Wait a minute, where’s the doom and gloom of the apocalypse? What about Left Behind? I thought the Christian vision was a vision of destruction and the annihilation of the world." Turn or burn, right?
While Revelation and 2 Peter do depict a kind of purification of the present world, they do not present total annihilation. We are told that “heaven and earth pass away” and a new heaven and earth will appear, but this language does not imply complete consumption. In the Greek, the word "pass away" simply means to leave or depart, to remove from present existence. The word is used of Jesus leaving the presence of the Pharisees. When Jesus left, he didn’t dissolve; he just left. You might say that the current form of creation leaves the building…but it comes back for an encore with a new outfit. The word “new” used in Revelation means new in “nature or quality.” John does not select the word that means new in “origin or time.”
Biblical vision of the future is a renewed world not a consumed world. Creation is restored not replaced.
It is not like the world of The Matrix, an artificial replacement of a scorched heavens and earth. God doesn’t promise a reboot, to plug us into a fantasy after we die. It’s not even a changing of the light bulb of the universe. That's replacement. Rather, the Creator is wholly committed to a renewed heavens and earth! After all, it is the world he created and called good. It was made in, through, and for him. He delights in it. He loves his creation, so much that he is willing to die to rescue it. The biblical future is New Creation, and New Creation is physical, cultural, and personal renewal.
Why Do We Need New Creation?
So how do we fit in? Why should we want New Creation? What kind of world, what kind of future would you create if you could? A place of physical beauty, cultural splendor, and human flourishing? A place of justice, peace, and joy, where there is no sorrow or suffering, where there is equal distribution of wealth, a clean environment, never-ending joy? The world God has prepared is the world we all really want, the world that, deep down, we really long for.
How do we get in on this renewal? It starts with being honest about our age, squaring up with how old we are. We’re a lot older than we want to admit, and by old I'm not referring to age per se but to state. We’re in slower, crankier, meaner, and much less attractive state than we'd like to admit. We’ve got to stop airbrushing ourselves. Living to impress others, trying to trick others that we’re actually not that old, we’re not that mean, we’re not that broken. Deep down we know we’re bent, but we’ve been trying to cover it up. We act like we’re young, not old, like we are full of innocence and life, not guilt and death. We’re quick to defend ourselves.
Last night I was merging onto the highway where two roads converged. Little did I know that there was a car speeding up behind me to try to get ahead. She comes flying up right next to me, trying to force me out, an inch at a time. Stop start, stop start. Finally, I looked over at her with disdain, an imploring kind of look like, “Come on, are you kidding me?”
She started motioning angrily, and I kind of just laughed and let her go ahead. I wanted to make excuses for laughing at her. I wanted to defend the pride and anger that swelled up in my heart, but were pushed down by superficial laughter. I wanted to act like I was innocent, had it together, unflappable, virtuous, “Christian.” I wanted to act as if I was new, renewed, full of love and kindness but I wasn’t. I was actually quite old on the inside, easily bothered, cranky, selfish, and mean. Certainly much less attractive than I’d like to admit. The string of excuses that came to mind were my airbrush. I was ready to put the best foot forward, while hiding the ugly one behind my back. See, there’s a part of us, no matter what our age, that is very, very old. Very grumpy. Very mean-spirited. Very selfish. Very, well, sinful. We are out of sorts with who God wants us to be. The problem is that many of us try to close the gap by airbrush, by make-up, by working out. We try so desperately to impress God and others, but he sees right through us. He knows how old and broken we are, and how desperately we need to be renewed, forgiven, transformed.
Why do we need New Creation? Because we are old creation, old men and women living out our sinful oldness. In theological terms, we are fallen, with Adam and Eve and the whole human race, with human culture and all creation. Our world is shot through with its age, with the Fall. We are broken people living in a broken world. The earth groans under the weight of pollution, global warming and natural disaster. Two-thirds of the world lives on less than a dollar a day. Burma, North Africa, Afghanistan ravaged by war. Thousands live below the poverty line in our very own city. Culturally, we celebrate what is evil, false, and ugly instead of celebrating what is good, true and beautiful. Not always but often. The Cannes Film Festival praised The Anti-Christ, a film about rape; doctors perform millions of abortions a year; the government imprisoned innocent people at Guantanamo, and the list goes on.
But the evil, my friends, is not just “out there.” It is in here. In us.
We are more broken and bent that we dare admit, more sinful and at odds with our good Creator than we can imagine. We have trivialized him and his goodness, truth, and beauty. And because of this, we are under his judgment. We are in desperate need of his saving, renewing power. We all need forgiveness before a holy God. We cannot - no matter how many good deeds - make ourselves new. We are better off being honest about our old, decrepit, sinful nature.
Is the Biblical Future Just Another Utopia?
The biblical vision of the future is compelling, but how is it any different that a utopian novel? Isn't is just a positive reading of the future? Well, one of the unique things about the biblical vision is that it contains both dystopian and utopian visions in the same future. Dystopian novels and films point to a judgment at the end of time, an apocalyptic fall out—Terminator, The Road, Oryx and Crake, Fahrenheit 451, and Revelation 20.
The dystopian judgments occur at the end of history. The utopian paradise is also at the end of history—THX 1138, Brave New World, The Island, and Revelation. Judgment and salvation, dystopia and utopia happen at the end of history, the end of time. But when it comes to the Bible, there's a twist on the timing of dystopia and utopia. Unlike any other worldview, film or novel, the biblical dystopia and utopia converge in the present, not just in the future. How? In Christianity, Judgment Day is rolled back into history at the Cross, where a terrible, future judgment falls in the present--the suffering and death of God. Unexpectedly, the judgment falls on the undeserving God, not on deserving sinners. Jesus Christ enters the middle of history and dies our death, bears our sin, endures our punishment, and receives our judgment.
The gospels tell us that when God’s judgment fell on Jesus, the earth shook, the sky grew black, and rocks split open, the temple curtain was ripped, and Jesus died, crucified for us. When does judgment happen in the biblical story? For those who cling to Christ by faith, it happens in the middle of history, it happens to Jesus not us so that we can be set free. What about new creation? When does that happen? Contrary to the utopias, in Christianity, not only is Judgment Day rolled back to the present but Resurrection Day is rolled back into the middle of history, at the empty tomb. Jesus arises from the grave defeating sin, death and evil in order to make all things new. New Creation of the future breaks into the present, not to deserving but to the undeserving. Those who believe the future now become new creation in Christ, a new humanity.
The authors of the New Testament repeatedly tell us that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5) and that those who confess their sin, are honest about their age, and trust Jesus for their salvation are spiritually raised from the dead. In Christ, New Creation is now. How do we get it? Jesus said:
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this? Resurrection is now and not yet by faith in Christ. Paul writes:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
In the gospel, dystopia and utopia converge in the middle of history on Jesus, who dies our death and gives us his life. The guilty are forgiven. The old become new. At the end of Fahrenheit 451, the city is bombed into oblivion. Montag, a former book-burning fireman, has joined a clan of book-reading rebels. They are silent because there is everything to think about and much to remember. Montag begins to search his mind for a word of hope gathered from his newfound reading. He lands on this: “on either side of the river there was a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” He hopes in New Creation.
The grand news of the gospel, of New Creation, is that we don’t have to wait until the end of history. By faith in Jesus, the endtime Judgment and Resurrection are rolled back to the middle of history and fall on Jesus so that we do not have to die his death but get to live his life. The healing of the nations is now for those who hope in Jesus.
---
Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson
What to Do With Prayerlessness
Prayer. Often the word triggers guilt. For some, it sparks warmth, and for others, nothing. No warmth, no guilt. Flat. It’s a vaporous word that appears and vanishes without meaning. Guilty Prayer
Prayer is one of the most prominent themes in Scripture (occurring several hundred times), yet it is one of the most neglected practices in the church. Why the chasm between prominence and practice?
Well, if guilt springs to mind when we think of prayer, why should we let prayer come to mind? Keep the guilt at bay. Fend it off. We respond to guilt in two main ways: Action, to assuage our conscience, or inaction, to deny guilt’s entry into our conscience. Make up for the guilt or try to make off without it.
We might guiltily pray, filling journals and prayers with endless words. Or we might try to ignore it. If we’re prone to making up for failure to pray, our reasoning might go something like: “I’d like to pray (not true), but I’ve got so much to do today.” We ignore prayer (inaction), in order to focus on something that doesn’t produce guilt—like work or service (action)—in hope that guilt will go away. I’ve tried both.
I used to feel guilty when I didn’t pray. If I didn’t make it through my prayer list or spend half an hour in solitary prayer, I’d feel guilty for not praying more.
There is a guilt that's from God and a guilt that isn’t. Guilt 1 is associated with shame. Shame defines you by your guilt. You're an utter failure, a spiritual sloth. Guilt 2 is associated with conviction. Conviction defines you by your relationship with Christ. It calls you to be who you truly are in Christ. It appeals to the deep longings of the Spirit, who stirs us to pray (1 Cor 2; Rom 8; Jude 1). Guilt 1 presses us down. Guilt 2 lifts us up. Guilt 1 says you'll never pray enough. Guilt 2 says Christ is praying for you right now, join him! Shame drives us into a corner; conviction drives us to Christ.
Somewhere along the way, I was liberated from prayer-by-shame. Part of this liberty came when I realized that God doesn’t relate to me based on guilt but based on grace. Grace reminds me that when I was guilty of deep distrust in God and his promises, Christ died and kept God’s promises to absorb my guilt, so now I have every reason to trust. Grace reminds me that God relates to me based on what Jesus has done, not on what I have not done.
Why Did Jesus Pray?
Jesus prayed—a lot. This is weird when you consider the fact that he is God, until we begin to understand prayer. When prayer becomes more concrete, we become more prayerful.
Why did Jesus pray? Jesus prayed for God to rescue people: disciples, enemies, and sinners. He taught his disciples to do the same (Luke 6:28; 10:2). Jesus also prayed because he was incredibly dependent on the Father: “The Son can do nothing on his own accord” (John 5:19). “I can do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (John 8:28). In the words of Paul Miller, “Jesus was the most dependent human that ever lived.” Jesus prayed because he knew how dependent he was - and how dependent we are - on the grace of our heavenly Father. Why should we pray? Because we are incredibly dependent on the Father and because we want God to rescue people.
Dependence-driven prayer isn’t a sign of weakness, per se, but a sign of love. Jesus prayed because he loved his creation and his Father. When I read Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17, I can feel the warmth licking off the page. Jesus didn’t address him as “God” but as “Father.” Prayer wasn’t an exercise in guilt removal; it was a communication of warmth. If you read John 17, you can feel Jesus’ longing to be with his Father “in glory” once again.
Because Jesus loves the Father, he does God's will by sharing the words of eternal life with his disciples. Sensing the profound satisfaction that eternal life will bring them, Jesus says: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (11). Jesus prays that we would join in his oneness with the Father, that we would know their love and warmth. He elaborates (was this necessary?): “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (23). Jesus prayed because he loved being with the Father, and he prays for us because he wants us to enjoy being with the Father. Prayer is an expression of love for the Father and for one another.
Drawing Near to God
In the words of James, prayer is “drawing near to God” (4:8). Abraham Kuyper clarifies love for God as drawing near to God when he writes: “To have love for God is a different and a much weaker thing than to be able to say:’ I love God.’” Many of us “have love for God” but have trouble saying, with sincere conviction, “I love God.” We live with what we love. If we love God, we will live with him in prayer. If we love entertainment, we will live with it in prayerlessness. May I be so bold as to say that our mornings and evenings are marked by what we love? If we lay down to Netflix and rise up to Internet, could it be that we love distraction more than we love God? Perhaps, in an unconscious way, we drift to entertainment because it distracts us from guilt. Guilt will drive you into a corner, but it will not drive you to Christ.
Prayer is about love not about lists. It is about drawing near to God, not about impressing God. It is about enjoying his grace not enduring guilt. In fact, our genuine guilt for loving something altogether more than we love the Father is gone in Christ. God so loved us that he sent his only Son to be cut off in death so that we might be wonderfully united with him in life. Prayer is a response to the Father and the Son; it is a warm reaction to what they have together done for us. Prayer is communion with God, a cementing of souls together in a common delight, in this case, a delight in God and his grace towards us in Christ. It begins and continues with honest words about our loveless lives, our guilt-ridden approaches to prayer, and a shameless embrace of God’s reckless love and grace.
Respond to his love, even now. Turn and receive his grace. Don’t let your guilt drive you into a corner but to Christ. As you receive his love and grace, respond by saying: “I love you God.” Then, you have prayed.
---
Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson
Gospel Centered Leadership - Transparency
There’s a scene in the movie, We Were Soldiers where Mel Gibson’s character assures the men he is leading into battle that he will be the first person off their helicopter and the last man to step back on when they leave the battlefield. He's upfront and transparent with his men. Good leaders are transparent. When leaders aren't transparent, when their behavior doesn't model what they say, people find it very difficult to follow them. Few mistakes shine brighter in an organization than when a leader violates the principles, traditions and ethical standards that shape the culture of that organization.
Gather people to your vision and show them what it looks like to walk through life in pursuit of that vision. This is true in both normative and catalytic seasons within your organization. Change brings uncertainty and resistance. No amount of instruction will pry people away from the golden myth of the past as effectively as a leader who models what it looks like to live out a new rhythm of life.
This goes deeper than the hard work of crystallizing what matters most to you into pithy statements or a set of bullet points that you post on your office wall like an alternate set of ten commandments. For example, it’s one thing to capture a conviction about a life shaped by God’s calling to community and mission. And while we never want to minimize the beauty of a life that’s built around other people as we declare and display the greatness and glory and goodness and grace of God in everyday life, there’s something else at work in the lives of leaders who change the way other people think and live and love.
We don’t grow into a family of missionaries - ultimately - through the collective adoption of best practices. What changes the people God has given us to lead is not merely their observation of our hospitality or incarnational posture. It’s quite possible that they’ll watch you live out this new way of life, provide the occasional word of encouragement, or offer of help - yet never embrace any of it as their own. This can be particularly problematic in established churches or Christianized cultures where the work of community and mission remains the sole work of professional ministers.
If we intend people to become part of a family of missionaries in our cities, we must lead with a transparency that is far more foundational and pervasive than missional convictions and communal methodology. I’ve spent this year meditating on the book of Colossians and this morning I was back at the beginning of the letter, greeted with a reminder that grace has been given and peace has been secured on my behalf. On one hand, this means that I am loved - lavishly - with an affection that is settled and steadfast. There is much that is uncertain in my world, but the love of my heavenly Father is not in question. On the other hand, this love that has rewoven everything that could possibly unravel my relationship with God is a tapestry of grace. It is love that is undeserved, even as it is freely and abundantly given. The very concept of grace is a reminder that while there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God, it is a love given in lieu of the actual content of my life.
Grace creates transparent leaders in two particular ways: it convinces us that we are loved with unbreakable and unyielding affection; and it compels us to own up to the manifold ways we reject such love. Beyond our principles and practices, Gospel-centered leadership models a life of repentance and faith. The call to community and mission protects this from discombobulating into a life of flaccid passivity. Yet in a culture that threatens to careen into a hyper-active obsession with all things communal and missional, here in the simple language of grace and peace is a patient and persistent reminder that the life we are called to is a life that never disconnects from undeserved yet unwavering love.
---
Matt Adair is the lead pastor of Christ Community Church in Athens and area director for Acts 29 in the state of Georgia. Twitter @mattadair
How to Respond to Religious Pluralism
Is Jesus the only way to God? I'm often asked this question. If the answer is, “Yes, Jesus is the only way to God,” a line is drawn where we would sometimes rather things remain fuzzy. Why would we prefer this particular claim to remain fuzzy? In many cities there are arrays of religious beliefs: Mysticism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, to name a few. The presence of so many different religions in cities leads people (Christians included) to conclude that all religious paths lead to God. Why does this happen in cities? In urban areas, we are more likely to develop relationships with people from various religions. When we realize that they are kind and sincere because of their religious beliefs, it seems arrogant to insist their beliefs are wrong. After all, their religion appears to have made them very likable, respectable people. I have met secularists and Buddhists who are more generous and sacrificial than many Christians I know. How, then, should we respond to this array of religions with the claim that Jesus offers the one, true way to God?
Answering the Question Socially
When people of other faiths rival Christian character, we face a tendency to affirm all religions as valid ways to God. We make a theological decision based on social experience. Rather than investigate the answer to one of the most important questions, we prefer to glaze the question with inch-deep reflections upon the character of people we meet. Understandable but not wise.
What if we became known for not only posing great questions but also grappling deeply and sincerely with great answers? Many Christians claim that belief in Jesus is the only way to God. Others insist there are many ways to God, a view popularly called religious pluralism (academic religious pluralism advocates inter religious dialog not that all religions lead to the same God. Here we will deal with religious pluralism in its popular form). Let’s examine the claims of religious pluralism.
Over the past five years in Austin, Texas (a case study city for Harvard’s Pluralism Project), I have had the opportunity to meet, know, and talk with both Christian and non-Christian pluralists. As I have reflected on these conversations, it seems that there are at least three reasons people embrace religious pluralism. They believe it to be more enlightened, humble, and tolerant. Let’s examine each of these reasons more closely.
Is Religious Pluralism Enlightened?
Is the belief that all religious paths lead to the same God more enlightened or educated? Comparatively, each religion teaches very different things about who God is and how humans reach the divine. In fact, there is a lot of disagreement between the religions regarding the nature of God. Buddhism, for example, doesn’t believe in God. Islam teaches an impersonal monotheism, Allah. The Koran states that God reveals His will, but not His person. Christianity teaches a personal trinitarianism, where God is three persons in relationship, Father-Son-Spirit that can be known and enjoyed. Hinduism varies on this question, ranging from polytheism to atheism. This is due to the absence of definitive revelation to clarify Hindu “theology.” Instead, Hinduism has multiple sources of revelation (Upanishads, Vedas, etc.) Contrary to Islam, Hinduism has no presuppositions about the nature of God. In short, religious views of God differ. If so, it would seem far from “enlightened” to claim that all religions lead to the same God, when their views of God are, in fact, radically different. This claim of religious pluralism contradicts the tenants of the religions themselves.
Religions not only teach different things about who God is but also how we “reach him.” Buddhism suggests the 8-fold Noble Path, Islam the 5 Pillars (Shahadah, Prayer, Fasting, Charity, Pilgrimage) and Christianity the gospel of Jesus. Therefore, to say that all religions lead to God is not only unenlightened it is inaccurate. This is the thesis of Stephen Prothero, Boston College professor, in his book God is not One. He writes:
And it is comforting to pretend that the great religions make up one big, happy family. But this sentiment, however well-intentioned, is neither accurate nor ethically responsible. God is not one.
Prothero goes on to point out that just as God is not one, so also all religions are not one. They are distinct and make very different claims about God and how to reach him. In light of what we have observed regarding what religions teach about the nature of God and how to reach him, religious pluralism must be reconsidered. Subscribing to religious pluralism because it is more enlightened or a more “educated” view of world religions is not only unenlightened but also inaccurate.
Is Religious Pluralism More Humble?
Despite very clear differences on the nature of God and human access to the divine, religious pluralists continue to insist that there are many ways to God. Why would educated people persist in an inaccurate view of other religions? One major reason is because they believe it to be an act of humility and love. Very often I hear people say: “Who am I to judge someone else’s religion, to tell them that they are wrong?” This implies, of course, that maintaining Jesus is the only way to God is arrogant. I’ll be the first to admit there are arrogant Christians who rudely insist that Jesus is the only way to God. I’d like to apologize for those kinds of Christians. Arrogant insistence on your beliefs actually runs counter to the life and teachings of Jesus. However, just because someone is arrogant doesn’t make him or her wrong.
People are arrogantly right about all kinds of things—Math, Science, Religion. You probably work with someone like this. (Dwight Schrute?) The arrogantly right person always talk down to others with an air of arrogance because they have the right answer. It might not be nice, but it doesn’t mean they are wrong.
For all the Christians who are arrogant about Jesus’ exclusive claims, there are many more who have ardently searched religions, compared their claims, and humbly come the conclusion that Jesus was telling the truth, that personal faith in the Messiah is the only way to God. This doesn’t make them arrogant; it makes them authentic. They are willing to stand by what they discovered to be true. Insisting on what is true doesn’t automatically make you arrogant. There are both humble and arrogant ways to insist on Jesus’ claim that he is the only way to God. After all, it is Jesus who said it, and Jesus was quintessentially humble, especially if he is who he said he was. By contrast, religious pluralism exclusively insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings.
When religious pluralism claims that there are many ways to God, it is not humble. It actually carries an air of arrogance about it. How? Religious pluralism insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings. Religious pluralism dogmatically insists on its exclusive claim, namely that all roads lead to God. The problem, as we have seen, is that this claim directly contradicts many religions like Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. The claim of the religious pluralist is arrogant because it enforces its own belief on others. It says to other religions: “You must believe what I believe, not what you believe. Your way isn’t right, in fact all of your ways are wrong and my way is right. There isn’t just one way to God (insert your religion); there are many ways. You are wrong and I am right.” This can be incredibly arrogant, particularly if the person saying this hasn’t studied all the world religions in depth and makes a blind assertion. Upon what basis can the religious pluralist make this exclusive claim? Where is the proof that this is true? To what ancient Scriptures, traditions, and careful reasoning can they point? The lack of historical and rational support for religious pluralism makes it a highly untenable view of the world and its religions.
Is Religious Pluralism Truly Tolerant?
Very often people hold to religious pluralism because they think it is more tolerant than Christianity. I’ll be the first to say that we need tolerance, but what does it mean to be tolerant? To be tolerant is to accommodate differences, which can be very noble. I believe that Christians should be some of the most accommodating kinds of people, giving everyone the dignity to believe whatever they want and not enforcing their beliefs on others. We should winsomely tolerate different beliefs. Interestingly, religious pluralism doesn’t really allow for this kind of tolerance. Instead of accommodating spiritual differences, religious pluralism blunts them. Let me explain.
The claim that all paths lead to the same God actually minimizes other religions by asserting a new religious claim. When someone says all paths lead to the same God, they blunt the distinctions between religions, throwing them all in one pot, saying: “See, they all get us to God so the differences don’t really matter.” This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play. When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach the divine in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop. The Eightfold Noble Path, the 5 Pillars of Islam, and the Gospel of Christ are not tolerated but told they must submit to a new religious claim–religious pluralism–despite the fact that this isn’t what those religions teach. When it does this, religious pluralism places itself on top of all other religions.
The Religion of Religious Pluralism
People spend years studying and practicing their religious distinctions. To say they don’t really matter is highly intolerant! The very notion of religious tolerance assumes there are differences to tolerate, but pluralism is intolerant of those very differences! In this sense, religious pluralism is a religion of its own. It has its own religious absolute—all paths lead to the same God—and requires people of other faiths to embrace this absolute, without any religious backing at all. This is highly evangelistic. Religious pluralism is preachy but under the guise of tolerance. In the end, it is a step of faith to say there are many paths to God. Says who? The idea that all paths lead to the same God is not a self-evident fact; it is a leap of faith. It isn’t even an educated leap, nor is it as humble and tolerant as it might appear.
Here is Stephen Prothero’s response to this tenant of religious pluralism:
Faith in the unity of religions is just that—faith (perhaps even a kind of fundamentalism). And the leap that gets us there is an act of the hyperactive imagination.
As it turns out, each of the reasons for subscribing to religious pluralism—enlightenment, humility, and tolerance—all backfire. They don’t carry through. Religious pluralism isn’t enlightened, it’s inaccurate; it isn’t humble, it’s fiercely dogmatic; and it isn’t really all that tolerant because it intolerantly blunts religious distinctions. In the end, religious pluralism is a religion, a leap of faith, based on contradiction and is highly untenable. Christianity, on the other hand, respects and honors the various distinctions of other religions, comparing them, and honoring their differing principles–Karma (Hinduism), Enlightenment (Buddhism), Submission (Islam), and Grace (Christianity). As we conclude, let’s explore Jesus’ exclusive claim that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life as well as the charge that his teachings in Christianity are arrogant, unenlightened, and intolerant. In particular, we will examine the unique principle of grace.
Christ Teaches Us Humility
First, Jesus is the Way. What does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus is our trailblazer, clearing the other religious options aside so we can hike our way to heaven through spiritual or moral improvement. If I keep the Ten Commandments, if I serve the poor and love my neighbor, if I pray and read the Bible enough, then God will accept me. No. As the way, Jesus doesn’t create a path for us to hike. We can never make it—do enough spiritual, moral, or social good to impress God. Much less love him with all our soul, mind, and strength. We can’t make it up the path. We all fail to love and serve the infinitely admirable and lovable God. In fact, we love other things more, that’s a crime of infinite proportions. It’s against an infinite God. The sentence for our crime must be carried out.
When Jesus takes the arduous hike for us he goes down into the valley where the criminals die. He hikes down into our sin, our rebellion, our failures and he heaps them all on his back and climbs on a cross, where he is punished for our crime, a bloody gruesome death. The innocent punished for the guilty. If he doesn’t take our punishment, then we must endure it—forever separation from God. If you reject Jesus, then you will pay the infinite consequences. However, if you embrace Jesus in his sin-absorbing death you get forgiveness, and Jesus hikes not only through the valley but up the mountain to carry your forgiveness to God, where he pleads our innocence (Hebrews 10). This is what it means for Jesus to be the way. He hikes into the valley of our just punishment and up the mountain for our forgiveness. He is the redemptive way. He takes our place. This understanding of Jesus as the way should make us incredibly humble not arrogant. We realize how undeserving we are and how much mercy we have been shown.
Christ Enlightens Us
Jesus is also the Truth. What does that mean? In John chapter 1, we are told that God became flesh and was full of grace and truth in Jesus. The truth is that God is Jesus. Christianity is the only religion where God is born as a man, becomes fully human. This is the height of enlightenment. All other religions teach that humans must work their way toward divinity. The truth is Jesus. The truth is a person who dies in our place, for our crimes, and in turn gives us his life. The truth is that God works his way down to humanity and dies for us. That’s grace. See, the truth isn’t a special prayer or code word we say at the pearly gates. In Christianity, the truth is essentially revealed in a Person, Jesus, full of grace and humility. All other religions God is impersonal, but in Christianity we meet God in Jesus. The truth is a Person who dies for us. Wonderfully enlightened, moving.
Christ Guides Us to Persuasive Tolerance
Finally, Jesus is the Life. As if it wasn’t enough to be our way, incredibly humbling, and the truth, truly enlightening, Jesus caps it off by offering us not just his death but his life. What life? Later on in John, Jesus says he is the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believes in him, though he die yet he will live (11:25). He goes down into the valley to take our death, and rises up from the dead to up the other side of the valley where he prepares a new place for us to enjoy life with him forever. The hope of Christ’s life should break into the lives of Christians today, making us persuasively tolerant. We tolerantly extend people the dignity of their own beliefs. We don’t minimize the differences between religions. We honor them. The life of Christ produces in us true humility. But it also produces in us true enlightenment. We’ve come to grasp grace, that God works his way down to us, dies for our moral and religious failures, and offers us life. If this is true, we must lovingly, humbly try to persuade others to believe in Jesus—who alone offers the wonderful promise of the way to God, the truth of God, and life of God.
In the end, it doesn’t matter how nice or moral a person is because there is not enough niceness or morality to pay for our rejection of God. Either we must be rejected or we turn to Jesus who was rejected for us. This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus lays down his own life for those who reject him, for his enemies, for those who don’t believe in him, and offers them forgiveness. Why would we reject such a man?—such a God? Jesus’ claims are better than the claims of religious pluralism. Christianity delivers where pluralism cannot. Instead of being unenlightened, Jesus is truly enlightening. He is God—full of grace and truth. Instead of being arrogant, Jesus should make us incredibly humble. He created the way to God for us at the expense of his own death. Finally, instead of being intolerant, Jesus should make us persuasively tolerant, granting people the dignity of unbelief but pleading with them to accept true life!
We all have a choice—where to place our faith. Will we place it in unenlightened, dogmatic, and intolerant pluralism? Or will we place it in Jesus, who is the incredibly humbling way, the enlightening truth, and the persuasively tolerant life? Both require faith. In The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Leslie Newbigin wrote: “Doubt is not autonomous.” We can’t rely on doubt alone. We can’t doubt one thing without placing our faith in another. We can doubt Jesus and trust pluralism, or we can trust Jesus and doubt pluralism. We cannot say, “I believe Jesus is the only way,” and also say, “I believe all religions lead to God.” Ask yourself, will you place faith in Jesus who is the way, truth, and life? Or, will you place your faith in religious pluralism?
Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. You can find him on Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson.
The Call To Discipleship
There is a growing recognition in churches today about the need for discipleship. In what follows I would like to describe, from the Gospel of Luke, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Luke has some helpful insights about discipleship. The first eight chapters are focused on “who is Jesus?” But there’s a shift in chapter 9, where Peter with the help of the Holy Spirit realizes that Jesus is not one more in a succession of prophets and teachers. Peter says, “You are the Christ of God” - you are the Messiah, the one who is bringing the ruling power of God back into the world to heal and repair all the brokenness—whether it’s spiritual, psychological, social, or physical.
From the time Jesus’ identity is revealed, he begins to say, “Follow me.” If he is who he says he is, what does it mean to follow him? Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means setting a new priority, finding a new identity, and living a new mercy. All three are critical; they all fit together. Let’s look at them.
Setting a New Priority
Being a disciple means setting a new priority. In Luke 9:57–62 Jesus meets three eager men, all willing to follow him. Jesus’ responses to them are surprisingly blunt.
The first man says, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus says, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “There’s nothing wrong with what you just said, but I discern a wrong attitude underneath your statement. Do you know what kind of Savior I am? I’m not the kind that rallies constituents, pulls together armies, and then triumphs. I am a Savior who saves through being condemned, through dying, through giving my heart to be broken. Let’s apply this to one area of your life: I see that you have a home, a nice standard of living. Are you willing to put me before that? Are you willing to lose those things for me?”
Then Jesus addresses two other men, similarly concerned with their families. One says, “I’d love to come with you, but first I have to bury my father.” The other says, “First let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” There is nothing wrong with having a funeral for your father or going back to see your family, but behind these requests Jesus sees a wrong attitude of heart. He’s saying, “I know you. For you specifically to go to your father’s funeral—or back home—would be a bad idea. I must come first.” Notice their language. In both cases they say, “Lord, first, let me do this.” Jesus says there can’t be any but first. “I must be your first priority.” That’s what he means when he says: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Anyone who plows a field must be completely focused on plowing. And following Jesus is no different, “My disciple has to be utterly focused on me.” By the way, “fit for the kingdom” is an unfortunate translation; the word there means “useful.” You might think he’s saying, “Unless you’re totally committed, you don’t qualify for my kingdom.” Of course no one qualifies for Jesus’ kingdom. It’s all by grace. He’s saying: Unless delighting Jesus, resembling him, serving him, and knowing him is your highest priority, the healing power of the kingdom of God will not be flowing through you. You will not be a useful vehicle for it.
The second and more cryptic line is, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” Obviously physically dead people can’t dig graves, so the first noun must refer to the spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means to be as blind and insensitive to spiritual reality as a physical body is to physical reality. You may be saying, “Well, I believe in Jesus, but I can’t put him first right now. I’ve got my career; I’ve got to wait till my parents die, because they would be unhappy if I became a Christian . . . I see who he is and what he’s done, but I’m not going to put him first just yet. Someday I will.” When someone says, “I understand Christianity. I’m just not ready to put it at the central place in my life,” then that person really doesn’t understand it yet! Jesus says: Putting anything before me reveals spiritual deadness. Let the dead bury their dead. If you put your father before me, there’s a spiritual deadness in your life.
Talking this harshly is not my style, but I’m afraid to mute the smelling–salts-ness of Jesus’ message: Let the dead bury the dead! No one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God! Foxes have holes, birds have nests . . . But “I have to be the first priority in your life, or you’re not a disciple; if you don’t put me first in your life, it’s not that you’re just uncommitted or lazy, disorganized or undisciplined. No, you just don’t get it! You don’t really see who I am and what I’ve done; you don’t understand the meaning of my life and work. You need to wake up!”
Let me illustrate. In 1971 I heard a talk—two illustrations—that changed my life. The woman who gave the talk, named Barbara Boyd, said, “If somebody says to me, ‘Come on in, Barbara, but stay out, Boyd,’ it’s a bit of a problem, because I can’t separate them. It’s not like the top half of me is Barbara, and the bottom half of me is Boyd. So if you won’t have Boyd, you can’t get Barbara. If you’re going to keep the Boyd out, I can’t come in at all!” She continued: “To say, ‘Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sins, answer my prayers; do this for me, do that for me—but don’t be the absolute master of my life; Jesus, Savior, come in; but Lord, stay out,’ how can he come in at all? Because he’s all Savior, and he’s all Lord. He’s Lord because he’s Savior. He’s Savior because he’s Lord.”
I remember her second illustration: “If the distance between the Earth and the sun, which is 92 million miles, was the thickness of a piece of paper, the diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high. And our galaxy is less than a speck of dust in the part of the universe that we can see. And that part of the universe might just be a speck of dust compared to all the universe. And if Jesus is the Son of God who holds all this together with the power of his word, is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your personal assistant?” Then she asked us all to go outside and for one hour say nothing. “Just think about what this means to you.”
She was expanding on Jesus’ message: If you intellectually assent, “Yes, I think Jesus is probably the Son of God; I think he probably died for our sins,” but he is not the center of your life, then you may think you understand, but you really don’t. It’s not just a matter of commitment or lack of discipline, there’s spiritual deadness; you don’t really see it, understand it, get it. Wake yourself up!
Finding a New Identity
Discipleship is not just a matter of bending your will to Jesus’ will; it’s melting your heart into a whole new shape. A disciple is not someone who simply sets a new priority; a disciple finds a new identity. We see this in Luke 9:23–25. At first sight verse 23 looks like it’s just another way of saying set a new priority: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” But there’s more to it than that. In Semitic literature, the second and third sentences often restate the first. And here the second and third sentences say, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will save it.” The word life is not the word for physical life. There’s a good Greek word for that: bios, from which we get our word biology. The Greek word that’s translated “life” here is psyche, meaning “self.” He’s talking—pretty radically—about the psychological, inner life. “Your old way of having an identity, of gaining a sense of self, has got to end. In a sense you have to die to it. And I can give you a whole new identity. You’ll get a whole new true self.”
Let’s look at this more closely. Verses 24 and 25 show what he’s not saying. He’s not taking the typical Eastern or Western approach to identity. In Buddhism the deepest consciousness of enlightenment is losing all sense that you are an individual self. The boundaries between you and the rest of reality disappear. The Eastern way to humility, to peace, is to actually lose the sense of an individual self.
But Jesus doesn’t stop at, “I want you to lose yourself.” He says, “Lose yourself to find yourself,” which means, “I want you to die to your old approach to identity, and get a new sense of individual self.” He’s not going the Eastern way. But he’s sure not going the Western way either.
W. H. Auden wrote a work called The Age of Anxiety in which he satirizes the modern Western obsession with “finding yourself.” In it there’s a great line that reads: “Miserable wicked me, / How interesting I am.” Others have also noted our obsession with finding and fulfilling your deepest desires as the main thing you’re supposed to do in life. It almost seems that Jesus has us in mind when he says, “You’re never going to find out who you really are by trying to find out who you really are. You’re going to have to lose yourself in serving me.” Some things happen only as a byproduct, and identity is one of them.
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world?” (9:25). Gaining things from the world is the normal way we try to get a self. In fact, the three men at the end of Luke 9 are examples of this. Some people say you’re nobody unless you have a lucrative career. People in more traditional cultures say you’re nobody unless you have a family. But Jesus is saying, “If you get the whole world, it cannot give you a stable self.” He says, “If you lose yourself for me . . .” In other words, “Instead of trying to gain a self by gaining things, build everything in your life on me, on who I am, on what I have done, then finally you’ll have a true self that is stable, because you were built to know me.”
A disciple is not only someone who has set a new priority, but someone whose entire identity has been reshaped and forged. But how is that possible?
Living a New Mercy
The key to setting a new priority and finding a new identity is in living a new mercy. And this is also evident in Luke 9. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and, it says in verse 52, “He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” They rejected him. “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’”
Let’s try to understand them. Remember that there was a prophet, named Elijah, who called down fire upon some soldiers who were seeking to arrest him. And on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus had appeared—to James and John—with Elijah and Moses. The message of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28–36) was that Jesus was even greater than Moses and Elijah.
So think of the logic of the disciples: You’re greater than Elijah. These people have rejected you, and that’s even worse than rejecting Elijah. That adds even more effrontery to the godhead. Shall we not bring down fire and destroy them?
This would be the kind of prophet the world can relate to. But Jesus Christ doesn’t rebuke the unbelieving Samaritans; he rebukes the disciples! He is the absolute un-Elijah. Can you imagine their continued perplexity if they still believe he’s greater than Elijah? The soldiers come after Jesus to kill him—in the Garden—and what does he do? He heals an ear that was cut during a skirmish. Later on, the soldiers are pounding nails into his hands, and what does he say? Father, forgive them; they really don’t understand what they’re doing.
Why doesn’t fire come down on the Samaritans? On the soldiers? The answer comes in Luke 12, where Jesus says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” That’s very interesting for two reasons. One is that fire, in biblical imagery, always means the judgment of God. Second, he says he comes to bring fire on the earth! This is perplexing because, after all, he has just rejected Elijah’s fiery approach. Ah! Semitic literature: the second sentence is a restatement of the first; this is what he actually says, in Luke 12:49–50: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” He’s already been baptized with water, so he’s clearly talking about something else. “I’ve come to bring fire. How constrained I am until it’s completed. I have come to undergo a baptism, how crushed I am until it’s over.” Why didn’t the fire come down on the Samaritans or later on the soldiers? Because the fire came down on him. He was baptized. He was the one immersed in the judgment of God. He got what we deserved. This is the answer to all the riddles.
Look back over the years, and you will see that when people want to atone for their sins and be forgiven, they put a sacrifice on the altar and burn it with fire. There’s something inside us that intuitively says, “That can’t be enough to put away sins.” That’s right. All those fires were pointing to this fire. It didn’t come down on the Samaritans or the soldiers, because it came down on Jesus Christ. He came to take it. He came to bear it. Luke 9:22 says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected . . . and on the third day be raised to life.” They rejected him; shouldn’t they be rejected? He’s rejected for them. The Son of Man came to be rejected and to be killed. This is the secret to the change of identity. You have to be melted and amazed and astounded that he took the fire, the punishment, for you. And that’s the key to everything else.
Here’s the reason: You cannot change your identity without a radical experience of mercy; without a radical experience of grace; without a radical experience of love.
I’ve heard people say, “You’re right. I probably should change my identity, build my identity on God.” But you can’t change your identity by just deciding. It’s not an act of the will. A person can’t just say, “You know, I’m having a problem in my life because I built my identity on my parents’ expectations. I think I’ll build my identity on my career and accomplishments.” You can’t do that! That’s not transformation; that’s acting. Your heart is not a computer in which you can just install a program. There’s only one way that the root of your personality can be changed, and that is by an experience of love. Only when your heart experiences love from a new source beyond anything it’s ever known before will your heart start to move toward that source, and begin to be deeply changed.
Thomas Chalmers, the well-known Scottish preacher, in his famous sermon, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” says it all: Seldom do any of our habits or flaws disappear by a process of extinction through reasoning or “by the mere force of mental determination.” Reason and willpower are not enough. “But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed... The only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.” A young man, for example, may “cease to idolize pleasure, but it is only because the idol of wealth has become the stronger and gotten the ascendancy,” and is enabling him to discipline himself for prosperous business. “Even the love of money ceases to have the mastery over the heart” if it’s drawn into another world of ideology and politics, “and he is now lorded over by the love of power.” But “there is not one of these [identity] transformations in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one particular object may be conquered, but . . . its desire for having some one object” of absolute love “is unconquerable.” It is only when admitted “into the number of God’s children through the faith that is in Jesus Christ [that] the spirit of adoption is poured out upon us. It is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominate affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, in the only way that deliverance is possible.” So it isn’t enough to hold out a “mirror of its imperfections” to your soul. It’s not enough to lecture your conscience. Rather, you must “try every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for the love of him who is greater than the world.”
Until you’re melted by the amazing sight, knowledge, and sense of Jesus taking the fire for you, you can’t have that transformation of identity. You can’t just decide, “I think I’m going to change my identity.” It can’t be done. It has to be an experience of love.
Jesus is saying that your career can’t buy it for you. Even the best parents can’t give it to you. “Don’t give the title deed of your heart to anyone but me. Don’t have any other master but me, because I’m the only one that will never leave you, and if you fail me, will forgive you.”
So you have to have all three. There must be an experience of this new, radical mercy, which leads you to find a new identity, which in turn helps you set a new priority.
Being a Disciple
Notice three practical things about being a disciple. First, discipleship is not an option. Jesus says that if anyone would come after me, he must follow me. If you want to come after me—it’s a general term—if you want to have any experience of me, any relationship with me, you have to be a disciple. There are not two kinds of Christians: regular Christians and people who are really disciples. There’s only one: to be a Christian is to be a disciple. To have anything to do with me is to follow me in the way I define it: setting a new priority, finding a new identity, experiencing living out of a new mercy.
Second, having said that it’s not an option—on the other hand, it is a journey. It’s rhetorically brilliant of Luke to note this. In verse 51 Jesus sets out on a journey toward Jerusalem. It’s Jesus’ journey of discipleship, “He sets his face to go to Jerusalem.” And it’s from the moment he begins his journey toward the cross that he begins all his teaching about discipleship. All the next nine chapters, all the teaching on discipleship, comes as he’s going on a journey. This is Luke’s way of saying that discipleship is a journey. In other words, on the one hand, there is a decisive point. You have to leave. Have you left? To go on the journey means saying, “I take my hands off my life.” To go on the journey means saying, “I give up my right to self-determination.” To go on the journey means saying, “I will obey you, Lord, and I’ll get rid of all the if’s. Not “I’ll obey you if,” but obey. Period. I drop my conditions. I drop the if’s; they’re gone!” Not until you say that have you begun the journey. However, after your decisive beginning, the fact remains that it’s a journey. It’s a process that takes time. You’re not going to have it all together. It’s very important to keep that in mind, because if you think that discipleship is the way you’re saved—that by being committed and focused and giving Jesus the priority you’re going to please God and that will get you saved—you’re missing the point. Look at the order. He doesn’t say, “If you follow me, I’ll go to the cross for you.” He says, “I’m going to the cross for you, so follow me.” You’re not saved because you’re a disciple; you’re a disciple if and only if you understand what he has done to save you.
There is one last thing. The sign of true, growing, gospel disciples is their gentleness. What really amazes me about the heart of this passage is that the disciples say, “We’re going to show you how intensely committed we are to you. Look at those people rejecting you. Don’t you want us to bring fire down on them?!” And what does Jesus say? “You don’t get it.” And here’s why.
My experience is that committed disciples of any religion, philosophy, or political cause are hard on themselves and on other people too. They’re committed to the cause, so why aren’t you committed to the cause? You should all be committed to the cause; what’s the matter with you? But the gospel is utterly different. The harder you are on yourself and the gospel, the easier you are on other people. Jesus Christ is saying: My disciples are not terrorists. My disciples know they’re saved by grace, so when they look at people who aren’t doing it right, they don’t say, “Why aren’t you as good as we are? Why aren’t you as committed as we are?” They don’t call fire down from heaven. Jesus says to his disciples: You don’t understand yet. You haven’t had the transformation of identity, because you don’t yet understand my mercy. You don’t know what I’ve done for you, because as yet you can’t, but someday you will. These disciples are probably racist; notice this: they’re calling down fire on the half-breed Samaritans. A lot of Israelites have done a lot of things to reject Jesus, but this is the first time any of his followers wanted fire to come down. Perhaps there’s racism; there’s definitely self-righteousness. Superiority, bigotry, stridency, harshness—they go away, the more you become a disciple. They go away as you become aware that Jesus took the fire for you, as it becomes more central in your heart. And that’s a sign that you’re not just trying to save yourself, not just being religious.
Are you becoming more gentle? More tolerant? More gracious with people around you? More kind? Follow Jesus. He’ll give you what you need. He’s a wonderful counselor. One guy comes and says, “I’m ready to follow you wherever you go.” Jesus says, “Go home and think about it.” Another guy says, “I want to go home and think about it.” Jesus says, “Follow me.” Why? Because he’s the perfect counselor. All other counseling theories look flat next to his, because he never gives you a template. He gives you exactly what you need. Follow him, and he will love you singularly. He will love the real you, and love you into a whole new identity. He will give you exactly what you need.
_
Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons. For over twenty years he has led a diverse congregation of young professionals that has grown to a weekly attendance of over 5,000. Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages.
[This is adapted from a sermon by Timothy Keller given February 9, 2003 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. Edited and transcribed by the C.S. Lewis Institute. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with permission.]
Gospel Diagnostic Questions
Preaching the gospel to ourselves and to others is an art all of us must grow in if we seek real, lasting change in our lives. It is often assumed that the gospel is only for those who have not yet trusted Christ. This is a faulty view of the gospel and limits its work to a personal salvation experience rather than the explosive power and catalytic dynamic for renewal in our hearts on a continuous basis.
To sum up, the life of the Christian is one of continual repentance and belief, without which we slip into a boss/employee, earn/wage, work/rights relationship with our God.
It then becomes the loving responsibility for each of us to run gospel diagnostics to determine whether or not what motivates our heart and lives is “in step” with the gospel (Gal. 2:14).
Here are twenty gospel questions to ask ourselves:
(1) What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about most?
(2) What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live? What keeps me going?
(3) What do I rely on to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?
(4) What do I think about most easily? Where does my mind go to when I am free? What pre-occupies me?
(5) What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?
(6) What makes me feel the most self-worth? What am I the proudest of?
( 7) What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?
(8) What position of authority do I desire to give me a sense of power?
( 9) Whose opinion of me do I hold so dear that if lost I would be undone?
(10) What type of financial loss or gain would change my sense of security?
(11) What one criticism would cause me to respond in anger (wife, children, work, ministry, family, friends, etc.)? What am I most touchy about when brought to my attention?
(12) If I had ______________, then I’d be truly happy and feel as if my life has meaning and value.
( 13) If I lost ______________, I would be undone.
(14) I’m impatient because I’m ____________.
(15) I’m critical because I’m _____________.
(16) I’m angry because I’m _____________.
(17) I’m unhappy because I’m ____________.
(18) I’m in despair because I’m ____________.
(19) I have hope because I’m ___________.
(20) I feel worthy because I’m ___________.
These are only a few questions to help us be truthful with ourselves about the gospel. There is no benefit answering these questions with the “right” answers at the expense of the “true” answers (how we really feel and think).
It is only when the “true” answers come to light that the “right” answers will have any power.
We must spend time excavating our idols by asking these questions. When we sin, we do so because some idol has promised us power, prestige, influence, joy, peace, satisfaction, security, pleasure, etc. - that is far more attractive than Christ at the moment. We don’t sin with a gun held to our heads. We sin willingly because it is overwhelmingly appealing.
We need to discover why sins are so appealing by asking these questions and then remind ourselves that idols:
- are weak - can’t deliver when you succeed
- can only raise the bar
- can’t forgive when you fail
- will only condemn you
- are harmful to you and to others
- hurt you spiritually, emotionally, and physically
- hurt others by undermining your ability to love
- are grievous to God
By pursuing this idol you are saying to God, “Jesus is not enough. I also need ______ to be happy.”
Our daily struggle is to realign ourselves with the truth of the gospel, to discover new ways to surrender our trust to Christ and grow.
---
David Fairchild was the co-founder and preaching elder of Kaleo Church in San Diego and now serves as the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill West Seattle as well as a founding member of The GCM Collective. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Grace, and their two children, Michael and Madison.
Against Transactional Sanctification
I meet with a lot of people – that comes with the calling to be a pastor. So I spend a good amount of time in coffee shops and restaurants, talking about the gospel and how it interfaces with our lives. As I meet with folks, I tend to find myself having the same conversation a lot. Multiple times a week. It’s not the exact same conversation - the names and details are different - but the bottom line doesn't change. The thing they struggle with is really familiar because it’s the same thing I struggle with every single day. (And I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe you do too…) Here it is: I tend to view my relationship with God as a series of transactions. We could call this “Transactional Sanctification.”
Think about the last time you went shopping - for groceries, batteries for the remote, a sweet iPhone that just got replaced with an even sweeter one… whatever. It probably went down something like this: You drove to the store, found the items you wanted, walked up to the counter, and the salesperson rang them up. After getting your total, you pulled out your card/cash/checkbook, transferred money from your account to theirs, they gave you part of their inventory, and you went home. (Unless you didn’t have enough cash or your card was declined - in which case you went home empty-handed and embarrassed.) Repeat as needed.
It’s amazing how much we tend to view God like that. I do things for God, God does things for me. I don’t do the right things for God, God doesn’t do things for me. Now, most of us wouldn’t say it anything like that – but it’s at the core of how we think. If we’ve been around church long enough, we’ve learned to use the language of grace, but most of us are still trying to figure out how to dance to its rhythm.
Let me give you an example. Awhile back, I was meeting with a guy from our church over breakfast. We talked about how he was feeling distant from his wife and how things have been pretty chaotic in his business. Immediately, he follows up by explaining he hasn’t been praying very much, not to mention the fact that he drank a little too much on a fishing trip last weekend. After thinking for a minute, he looks at me and says, “I guess it makes sense.”
You see the formula there, right? Life – consistent prayer + getting drunk = God not giving me peace at work or at home. Now, of course obedience and prayer are important, but could it be that work is crazy just because it is? Could it be that his wife is just going through a lot at her own job, and when you combine his work stress and hers it makes for a pretty rough stretch at home?
Let’s try another example – this one is for all of us pastors. I was reading about a church recently that has experienced unbelievable numeric growth over the past few years. The church is only a couple years old and has several thousand people attending worship. In a recent conversation about this particular church, I listened to two other pastors talking about why this church has grown so quickly. The answer given? ”I’ve heard that (Name of Pastor from Growing Church) spends a ridiculous amount of time in prayer. That guy is with Jesus A LOT, and Jesus shows up in their church.”
Now, I have no doubt that this particular pastor loves Jesus with all his heart and spends tons of time with him. But did you catch the formula? Pastor who loves Jesus + spends lots of time in prayer = God blesses their church with tons of people attending. You do something for God, then God does stuff for you.
Here’s the problem – it doesn’t work that way. Think about all the pastors whose churches aren’t exploding with attendance growth. What do they hear in the above conversation? ”I guess if I just pray more maybe my church will grow too. Maybe the reason we’re not seeing similar results is because I haven’t been committed enough to Jesus. Maybe I need to REALLY get serious about prayer – maybe then God will bless our church.” (I won’t tell you how many times I’ve had that very conversation with myself – in my head and in my journal.)
Transactional sanctification always leads to despair – when you don’t see the results you want, it’s obviously because you didn’t pay a high enough price. If you would only try harder, not screw up so much, and have more faith like all those other people who it seems to be working for, then maybe God would bless you.
As I meet with people, I remind them (and myself) that we are completely loved, accepted, and perfect in Jesus. God is a transactional God, but the transaction has already been completed – at the cost of the very life of Jesus. There is nothing more I can add to it or take away from it. My standing with God is secure – regardless of the “success” of my ministry, family, or career. Can you imagine the freedom and peace that would come if we could truly live out this belief?
---
Bill Streger serves as the Lead Pastor of Kaleo Church, an Acts 29 Network church in Houston, TX. Born and raised in Houston, he attended Houston Baptist University and is currently pursuing his M.Div. from Reformed Baptist Seminary. Bill is a husband to Shannon, daddy to Mirabelle and Levi, and a life-long Houston Rockets fan. Twitter @billstreger
For The City
A Gospel-Saturated Church
A gospel-saturated church is a church that soaks in the Scriptures and is saturated with the gospel. The gospel message penetrates down deep into the church, like a marinade that flavors and tenderizes a piece of meat. A gospel-saturated church then takes the gospel into its culture.
A gospel-saturated congregation proclaims that Jesus is Lord. The fundamental claim of Christianity is summed up by Paul in Romans 11:36. “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Of course, the “him” is Jesus, and the radical nature of such a statement cannot be overemphasized. As Alan Hirsch says well, proclaiming that Jesus is comprehensively Lord, the one who reigns over every area of everything, touches “the epicenter of the biblical consciousness of God to which we must return if we are to renew the church in our day.”
A gospel-saturated congregation distills Christian life to a simple form: Jesus is Lord over every area of individual and corporate life. In other words, there is no safe haven from the scandalous invasion of Christ on any and every other claim to a Christian’s loyalty. Not only does the radical claim of Jesus’ lordship shape the theology, life, and practice of the church, but its simplicity makes it easy to pass on.
A gospel-saturated congregation knows itself, and therefore it knows how to enter into culture without losing its Christian distinctiveness. By telling, retelling, and rehearsing the true story of human longing and fulfillment found only in the gospel, followers of Jesus know their true identity in Christ and are able to interpret the prevailing cultural ethic, ideas, philosophies, art, and stories in light of the gospel. Therefore, modern-day missionaries maintain appropriate moral boundaries within culture because they view prevailing cultural values with healthy skepticism. Good missionaries see how cultural values serve merely to point people toward the ultimate fulfillment and purpose that is only found in Christ.
A gospel-saturated congregation knows its neighborhood. It knows how the people they are trying to reach define “good news.” They ask questions like:
- What are the dominant values of this neighborhood and how does the gospel redeem or reject these values?
- What are the “third places” in my neighborhood where people gather for community and conversation?
- What are the unique political, zoning, educational, and commercial concerns of the people in my neighborhood?
A gospel-saturated church is a church that exists not for itself but for its city, neighborhood, and block. In fact, the whole point of contextualization is to determine how the folks in a given context might most naturally understand and receive the gospel. Contextualization is an inherently “other-centered” exercise because it forces a missionary to consider those outside the church in order to provide a welcoming environment for them inside the church. A church for its city must continuously assess whether it is accounting for the uniqueness and eccentricities of its neighborhoods as it seeks to minister to it.
A church for its city contextualizes the gospel to those they want to reach, even if the target group is not yet represented within the congregation. It’s what I call the “Field of Dreams Principle:” If you preach it, they will come.” In other words, if you preach as if there are non-Christians in your seats, soon there will be. If you preach as if there are artists or jocks or young parents or movie buffs in your church, there soon will be. This is the beauty of preaching the pure gospel. It is always for the benefit of believers and nonbelievers. If Christians are to grow, they need to hear and apply the gospel. If those far from God are to be brought near, they need to hear and apply the gospel.
Churches must return, again and again, to the heart of the gospel for renewal and for empowerment in order to proclaim it confidently to the culture. A gospel-saturated church seeking the good of its city will continually return to these five principles. This is a continuous process, not simply a one-time event. A church that fails to reflect on these key questions will eventually move away from the gospel and begin following a cultural agenda or the personal agenda of its leaders. Either way, they will have lost the heart of God’s agenda—gospel truth delivered to the culture through the church, in a way that leads to transformation and renewal.
This is an excerpt adapted from Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick’s book, For The City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel.
---
Matt Carter is the senior pastor of Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, one of the fastest growing churches in America. Matt currently lives in Austin with his wife, Jennifer, and his three children, John Daniel, Annie, and Samuel.
Darrin Patrick is lead pastor of Journey Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which he planted in 2002 and currently has over three thousand people and five campuses. He is also the vice president of Acts 29, a missional church-planting network. He has been married to his wife, Amie, since 1993 and has four children, Glory, Gracie, Drew, and Delainey.
Gospel Transformation vs. Moral Reformation
Kaleo Church has recently joined the historical and universal church by plunging into the great book of Acts. As we’ve looked week after week at the vast release of energy that empowered the early church I purposely chose a word, which to me, seems to best describe what we’re attempting here in San Diego. We’ve been using the word 'transformission' regularly over these last few weeks. I want to describe what we’re thinking.
1. Gospel transformation is different from moral reformation. It is absolutely possible, and even common, for newer and older Christians to assume that to believe the gospel means you’ve become a moral/pious person. I’m certainly not suggesting that moral piety does not result from gospel transformation, but moral piety doesn’t need gospel transformation to occur, nor does it ensure that a deep heart transformation has taken place.
I know quite a few ‘moral’ atheists, Mormons, Jews, and a others who outwardly make Christians appear immoral. Moral reformation is not ultimately the goal of the Christian. The goal of the Christian is a love for God, which can only come from a transformed heart by grace. When moral reformation is the fuel and goal, the heart will seize like an engine without oil. The human heart is made to run on grace not legalism.
Gospel transformation both creates and causes obedience from the heart. The gospel works from the inside-out. Moral reformation creates insecurity and hypocritical criticism of others in part because we're attempting to win God’s favor through performance. Moral reformation works from the outside-in.
Moral reformation says “believe in Christ, obey God’s law, have favor with God,” but gospel transformation says “believe in Christ, have favor with God, and obey out of gratitude.” Never the twain shall meet. These two are not simply different forms of the same religion, but different religions entirely. God’s infinite worth and favor are not easily bought by finite, self-righteous deeds. The only hope for a changed life is a changed heart - one that learns to beat in the rhythm of grace.
Moral reformation brings death and decay whereas gospel transformation brings life and health.
2. Gospel transformation is not a cul-de-sac. There is a tendency for us to become morbidly introspective when we begin to look at the functional messiahs and idols of our heart. As we learn how to preach the gospel to ourselves and to one another, it becomes obvious that this deep introspection can immobilize us with analysis paralysis. We begin to question every deed we do, every word we say, every thought we think, and soon realize that we have very few pure motives and even fewer altruistic deeds. Without the gospel bringing us up the slope of faith (to see that our failures must lead us to faith in Christ who did not fail), we end up in deep repentance, which does not turn into renewed faith. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. To turn from sin means we’re now turning to something else in faith. It does not mean that you see the sin and repent of your motives or deeds only to stay stuck in inactivity for the sake of true repentance. True repentance is the turning of our hearts and minds away from what displeases God to what pleases Him, namely Christ our Lord.
Without the joy of looking to Christ in faith, we have not truly experienced the joy repentance brings.
My main concern is that gospel transformation - without leading us to joy in Christ and the desire for others to delight in Christ - is not true transformation. Why does God forgive us of our sins? - is it so we can stay isolated and alone? No, God forgives us so we can live as Kingdom citizens giving a preview to the world of what it looks like to be a child of the Father living with a new identity. We are freed from our sin to have communion with God - to be sent into the world. If communion with God does not cause our hearts to break for those He’s made, we are only using God as a currency to purchase things we want (peace, security, hope, joy, mended relationships, etc.). This is not what God has planned for our world. God sent His Son into this world on a mission to reclaim all things for Himself. He desires to redeem all marred, lost, and broken souls. We are, after all, created in His image, and we need to be about our Father’s business - not our own. This means we must seek after that which brings God pleasure and is aligned with His will. Every day God allows the clock to tick on in patience as He delays consummation for the purpose of bringing in the full number of His own. God’s loving patience gives us another day to seek after the lost on His behalf.
If gospel transformation does not cause us to be courageously freed on mission, we are missing something in the gospel. The gospel is “good news” not good advice, not good deeds shown by good people. Of course the gospel must be shown in deed, and of course the gospel informs our lives, but it is news to be spoken, taught, declared, and proclaimed. This can happen in a variety of ways, but it means that the good news must keep moving in and through us, empowering change in the lives of others.
Gospel transformation should really be called gospel “transformission” because it is the heart changed by grace and set loose into the world for the sake of the lost on behalf of our God. We must be the church in the world for the world. If not, the gospel has been relegated to a personal “get out of hell free” card as the rest of God’s creation groans under the burden and agony of sin. Gospel transformission shows us that the gospel is not finished with us but is moving. It is dynamic and not static. It is public and powerful. Not private and impotent.
So, when thinking through what it means to be changed by the gospel, it’s important that we have our eyes on God and the ways He's working through us to redeem the world. This will orient our thoughts, feels, and acts. Transformissional living keeps all three flowing in an interdependent way. Without a gospel that transforms our hearts to be loosed on mission, we are missing out on the joy of living God’s story, which is the only story we should seek.
---
David Fairchild was the co-founder and preaching elder of Kaleo Church in San Diego and now serves as the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill West Seattle as well as a founding member of The GCM Collective. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Grace, and their two children, Michael and Madison.
Rethinking Baptism
I have always been a believer of credobaptism, or believer’s baptism, specifically that baptism is administered only to those who repent and profess faith in Jesus - His sinless life, His perfect death, and powerful resurrection. Still, this article will not discuss divisions between the paedo (child) and credo (belief) baptism crowds. Instead, we will consider the reasons why someone should be baptized and the importance of it. When growing up and seeking to understand Christianity, I was told many things about baptism and why we administer it within the church. Some of these reasons include:
- It’s a public proclamation of one’s faith.
- It’s an outer sign of an inner change.
- It was performed by Christ, and He commanded that we follow his example.
- It brings a believer into the Christian community.
In the following, we will question some of these concepts and then add something I believe has often been missing from our thoughts on baptism.
Baptism as Public Proclamation Many believe that all baptisms should be performed in public, but it's rarely the general public they desire. Rather, the baptism happens within the church walls where very few non-believers are likely to witness it. What we see more consistently in the Scriptures is not that baptism occurred in public but that it happened immediately after a new believer's repentance and profession of faith. We aren't sure if Scripture is referring to public places or the influence of witnesses (e.g., various believers in households, the eunuch by his chariot, Lydia by the river with other women). The evidence seems to point more to the immediacy of baptism, not the place or those present. So, while baptism may be a proclamation (as are many other things we do), I’m not sure this expresses the full "why" of baptism.
Baptism as an Outer Sign of an Inner Change Although baptism may be an outer sign, or picture, of salvation, there isn’t a great deal of Scriptural support. We can try and connect some dots between the baptism in water and the baptism of the Spirit shown in Romans 6. But the evidence for an outer sign being the reason for water baptism seems to be lacking. I believe the outer and inner aspects of baptism are interconnected, but as we will see, they are connected in a way that shows baptism as more than a mere outer sign.
Because Jesus Baptized and Commanded Us I don’t believe this is good enough. As we speak to a postmodern world, the people we seek to disciple won’t believe this is good enough either. Our parents may have conditioned us to do things because they said so, but this isn’t how God usually operates. Our God explains things to us instead of answering, “Because I said so.” There may be times when we do things God calls us to without fully knowing why. However, most of the time God operates as a Father who desires for His children to know the reason why He has a command, not merely, “Do what I say and deal with it.” Because of this, we should ask why Jesus baptized and why he commanded it.
To Bring Someone into the Christian Community I agree with this statement, but I believe baptism to be much fuller than this. If we believe that people should be baptized so they can be in a new community, we're avoiding the argument for why someone should desire this. If we are dealing with God and His ways, baptism has to be larger than a particular culture or time. In this day and age, many believers don’t feel they have to be baptized to be in a community. Most understand, within Protestant circles, that baptism is not an act of salvation. If this is the reason why we are baptized, few will be persuaded. Many may show you the Christian community that they are in without having been baptized. Although they might be kept from some membership rosters, few will care and many might actually be glad that they aren’t considered members - it gets them out of business meetings. Not only that, the eunuch in Acts 8 didn’t return with Philip. He continued in the life and occupation that God had given him. So, maybe this is deeper than a physical community
Why Get Baptized? Let’s look to the source of Jesus’ command, found in Matthew 28:18-21:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus' grand commission involves these elements: seeking His power and presence; going (literally “as one goes along in life”); making disciples; baptizing and teaching.
When questioning baptism and why we are called to do it, we should look directly at this passage and also at Jesus’ baptism found in the gospels.
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 3:16-4:1)
To those who say, “We get baptized because Jesus did it,” we must ask, “Why was Jesus baptized and how does it relate to our baptism?”
To Show Our New Identity Jesus, from what we gather in the Scriptures, was known as Joseph’s son or the carpenter’s son. Few knew Him to be the coming Messiah or God’s Son (see Matt. 13:55; Mk. 6:3; Lk. 2:25-34). When Jesus came out of the water, God spoke:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.
This speaks to a new, revealed identity. I am not saying Jesus wasn’t God’s Son prior to this event, but this is the moment when He is identified as such. This is the fulfillment of Scriptures that spoke of the coming Messiah.
I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (Psalm 2:7)
Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)
In a similar way, our baptism makes us new creatures with new identities. Instead of being sons and daughters of Adam, we have become sons and daughters of God. Instead of being servants of this world, we have become servants of the risen King. Instead of being filled with the power of our flesh, being sent to fulfill the kingdom of the world, we are filled with the Spirit and sent to work for the Kingdom of God.
We see this reality as Jesus gives us a new name in Matthew 28. We have a new Father. We have a new King, who is the Son of God. And we now have a new spirit - the Spirit of God whose power abides within us. We are now disciples of Jesus. We are now sons and daughters, servants and sent ones. Baptism reveals this new identity.
Commissioned to Make Disciples with a New Power Notice what else happens at Jesus’ baptism. The Spirit of God descends upon Him. We know that Jesus wasn’t “saved” at this point, nor was Jesus now officially deified (see Jn. 1). But why did the Spirit descend upon Jesus? We should note what happened immediately after this moment. The Spirit led Him to the wilderness. Jesus’ public ministry started. He was now commissioned to make disciples. It was important for Jesus to start by resisting temptation (although He had been doing this in all the years leading up to this point as well), because He wasn’t making disciples of others but of Himself. Part of His ministry was perfection for our sake. He is our perfect high priest. After being led into the wilderness, Luke says this of Christ:
And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.
And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21)
You could say He let the cat out of the bag. Luke starts this passage with, “in the power of the Spirit…” After Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended and His ministry of making disciples started.
This is what I believe we’ve been missing in our understanding of baptism. When we repent and believe and then are baptized, something miraculous happens. It is not that we are saved, because upon profession of belief we are sealed inwardly by the Spirit (Romans 6; Eph 1:13; 4:10). In baptism, the commission of making disciples under a new name and with a new power is established. Notice the two bookends of Jesus' commission to his disciples: 1) Jesus' authority (Matt. 28:18); 2) Jesus' presence (Matt. 28:20).
Some might ask, “But I know many who make disciples without their being baptized. What are the consequences?” I’m not sure that we’ll ever know the consequences of not understanding this commissioning aspect of baptism. Sometimes these questions cannot reveal the consequences. But it might be better understood if we ask what would happen if the command and deeper truth was realized in that person’s life. What would bring you greater satisfaction: looking at beautiful pictures of Hawaii or stepping foot on the beaches?
Simply put, I believe we should baptize new followers of Jesus because:
- We are commanded.
- Jesus did it.
- It is a proclamation of our new identity.
But I also believe there is a deep connection to the Spirit’s power (because of the authority of Christ) for baptism to commission us to make disciples for our King.
This speaks clearly to why we see every instance of baptism of new disciples happening so quickly after they repent and believe. Those who repent and believe, those who are now followers of Jesus, given a new name, should be baptized to receive the enormous gift given through baptism because in it we are given a new power and a new purpose.
So, yes, we are to be baptized because Jesus was, but if we miss why Jesus was baptized, we miss out on the fullness of following in the ways and purposes of our Redeemer.
---
Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife and father of two boys. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc. Today, he’s a missional community leader, City Church leader and coach with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington. In his down time, he likes to watch football, cook BBQ, host pancake ebelskiver breakfasts at his home and many other neighborhood events in his hometown of Maple Valley, Washington.
Gospel Centered Parenting
Gospel centered parenting is filled with complexities, mysteries, and endless situations that call for practical advice. As parents, we often get so bogged down in questions of what to do that we lose sight of why we’re doing what we do and how we should do it. My aim here is to take a big picture view of parenting. I will not answer all the questions, but I want to offer a way of thinking about parenting that will help with specific difficulties. The big picture of parenting is the big picture of the Bible because parenting is a depiction of the gospel. Consider the language Scripture uses to describe our relationship to God: Conversion is called being “born again” (John 3:3); our salvation is called an “inheritance” (1 Peter 1:3-4); God disciplines those He loves (Proverbs 3:11-12); we are called “children of God” (John 1:12, 3:1). Our father/child relationship to God is so significant that Sinclair Ferguson says, “This is the fundamental way for the Christian to think about himself: ‘I am a child of God and his people are my brothers and sisters.’” Parenting is a picture of the gospel: to us, to our kids, and to the world around us.
On one hand, this sounds like good news because it roots the everyday, non-stop work of parenting in something big and meaningful. On the other hand, this could be discouraging because we all know that we are imperfect reflections of the gospel. This is an appropriate tension because the gospel is both bad and good news. We are simultaneously doing really well and really poor in our parenting, depending on the day and subject matter. That is our inescapable reality, and nothing speaks to that reality more effectively than the gospel.
THE GOAL OF GOSPEL CENTERED PARENTING
Much of our parenting struggles are about not having the right goal. Every parent wants to raise a good kid, but what is a “good kid”? What shapes our understanding of the stuff that makes a child good … what other people think of them, how well they do in school, how much they obey, how athletic or smart they are? These are all normal desires that parents have for their kids, but to the extent that any of these govern our parenting, they become idols. We bow down to goals of image, performance, control, and the like. We must subject our goals in parenting to God’s goal for parenting. There are probably a number of ways to describe what God desires for our children. I will take my cue from the book of Proverbs: The goal of parenting is to glorify God by raising wise sons and daughters.
“Wisdom” in the Bible characterizes one who loves God and knows how to live life according the priorities and purposes of God. As John Piper counseled the congregation of Bethlehem Baptist, wisdom refers to “practical knowledge of how to attain true and lasting happiness.” The wise person is characterized by humility (Proverbs 11:12) and obedience to God’s commands (Deuteronomy 4:5-6). Piper also insists that wisdom results in a “sensitive, mature judgment or discernment of how the fear of the Lord should work itself out in all the circumstances not specifically dealt with in the Bible.” A good kid, then, is one who is maturing in wisdom, learning to live in submission to God and to His will. This captures what we really want for our children.
The gospel starts with God; so we want to start from a God-centered view of parenting, not a kid-centered or culture-centered view. The primary issue is not how well a kid stacks up to other kids or even to our expectations. God is the issue. Are our children oriented toward God? Do they honor Him? That is the starting point. Everything else follows. Dan Allender writes in How Children Raise Parents: “A parent has only one core task: to reveal God.” How do we do that? Well, God reveals Himself to us in the gospel story of creation, fall, and redemption. Let’s consider how the gospel gives us a framework for parenting.
CREATION: Identity and Purpose
In creation, the man and woman are set apart in distinction above everything else because they are made in the likeness of God. People are created in the image of God, which means we are made to live in unhindered fellowship with God and others, representing and pointing to the glory of God in all we do. We have a hard time imagining how great we are made to be. In Created in God’s Image Anthony Hoekema makes this startling statement: “What we see and hear in Christ is what God intended for us.”
Not only does God create us with this unique identity (image-bearer), He also infuses our lives with purpose by giving us the task of subduing and ruling. God put Adam and Eve in the garden and told them to “work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). The story of creation is the story of God preparing the Earth to become His kingdom, and raising kids is at the center of His plan.
In creation, God reveals Himself as Creator and Ruler, and in Him we understand our identity and purpose. The critical point is that we should have a high view of our children. They bear the image of God and are meant to live on the mission of God. So if the core task of a parent is to reveal God, then we must instill in our children a sense of identity and purpose that befits the children of God.
As a point of practical application: How do you talk about your kids? Do you talk as though their identity is based on their performance or failure? Do you convey that they are a burden, as if their purpose was simply to accommodate your lifestyle? Everyone instills some kind of identity and purpose in their children: a child-centered identity or a child-honoring identity, a life lived for self or for the kingdom of God.
A logical question at this point would be: “If my kids are created in the image of God, then why do they disobey so much?” Well, they disobey so much for the same reason we disobey so much. They are corrupted by sin, which is the next part of the story.
FALL: Leaky Vessels
Before the fall, Adam and Eve knew who they were and what they were made for. There was no doubt or insecurity about these matters. It was not until sin entered the world that they began to fear and doubt. After the fall, they began to feel shame about who they were and experience struggle in their work. Their world unraveled, and all the certainties about God and life were clouded by sin.
Our children are born outside of Eden, and from birth onward they are looking for an identity and purpose. A brief survey of parenting wisdom confirms these core needs. Dan Allender suggests that children are asking two questions: “Am I loved?” and “Can I get my own way?” The first question is obviously tied to identity. The second question – though less obvious – is connected to purpose. Children are leaky vessels that need to be constantly filled-up with the answer to these questions. In Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel identifies our children’s three basic needs as security, significance, and strength. We will explore these basic questions and needs in a moment, but first I want to emphasize that the effects of sin in our children are not merely behavioral. These effects are profoundly linked to identity and purpose.
Through a variety of means, Satan attacks our children at the level of their identity and purpose. If he can get them to believe that they are nothing more than a sinner (a message propagated through much of the evangelical church), then he can render them useless in the mission of God. The modern view of the world and humanity belittles both our identity and purpose. The world is so vast. What importance could we possibly have if all we are is a blip on this little planet, which is nothing more than a spec in the vast universe? The modern view is that we are insignificant. If a child sees his or herself as “just a sinner,” then they probably won’t sense much ownership in the mission of God to establish His kingdom on the Earth. But if our children understand themselves to be God’s children and ambassadors, then they will come alive to the mission of God and have a deep sense of fealty to the king and stewardship of His mission.
Sin has also affected our parenting. We demonstrate our tendencies toward legalism and licentiousness, not only in the way we relate to God, but also in the ways we relate to our children. Regarding licentiousness, Tim Kimmel points out that even Christian parents “erase clear moral boundaries” with their children. He adds, “It’s actually quite easy to become a bit desensitized by the boundary-less culture that we were raised in.” Equally dangerous is legalistic parenting, which moves the boundaries in far tighter than they need be. The following chart outlines some of the errors in legalism and license:
|
Expectations
|
Legalism requires external “obedience” but not transformation of the heart | License “loves” a child so much as she is that it doesn’t require behavioral change |
|
Communication
|
Legalism talks a lot about what a child should or should not be doing, but does not adequately addressing a child’s identity | License talk a lot about identity and is concerned with self-esteem, but does not adequately speak of the actions that flow from one’s identity. |
|
Motivation |
Legalism fosters a culture of performance and seeks to motivate children by fear of consequences | License promotes a culture of permissiveness and seeks to motivate children by self-gratification |
Another way of thinking about the ways sin has affected our parenting is to contrast functional and formative parenting. Functional parenting is what we do in spite of what we say we believe. It has a short-term focus of doing what works and getting through the day, whereas formative parenting has long-term goal of raising wise children. In the day-to-day, we settle for much less than the glory of God: we abuse our authority; we value the wrong things; and we don’t adequately address the inner world of our children. All of this is functional parenting.
| Functional Parenting | Formative Parenting |
| Focuses on behavior (external) | Focuses on the heart (internal) |
| The goal is to get a child to act a certain way (behavior modification) | Aims to raise a child who wants to act that way (wisdom) |
| Parental authority becomes an end in itself (tends toward legalism or license based on which one will secure proper behavior) | Parental authority is a means toward the end of harnessing a child’s will and imparting wisdom through instruction and discipline |
| Children earn a parents acceptance through behavior or performance | Acceptance is unconditional and is the basis of a child’s behavior (not the goal of it). |
| Disobedience is the problem, and it must be disciplined. | Disobedience is a manifestation of the problem, and must be disciplined as a means of getting to the root of sin |
When you read the Bible you see God’s law (behaviors and actions that He wants us to exemplify), but a closer look at the Bible shows us that God’s goal encompasses more than that. It’s not merely external conformity that God wants. He wants His children to become the kind of people who naturally live in accordance to His law. God’s goal for us is that we experience transformation in our mind, heart, and will, which then expresses itself in our behavior.
If we want to raise wise sons and daughters, we must have a long-term vision for forming the internal world of our children (heart, mind, emotions) as the wellspring of their behavior. This is the aim of the next part of the gospel story.
REDEMPTION: The Power of Grace
In redemption, God is renewing all things according to His original plan. God sent Jesus to re-establish the beachhead of His kingdom expansion and to redeem a people through whom He would expand His kingdom on Earth. In Christ, we are adopted into the family of God, wherein we regain our sense of identity as His children. In Christ, we are commissioned to disciple the nations, wherein we regain our sense of purpose. The gospel restores us to the life we were made to live – fellowship with God and work in His kingdom.
Just as God meets our deepest needs in the gospel, we must answer our children’s deepest questions of identity and purpose by embodying the gospel of grace in their lives. To do this, we must experience God’s grace ourselves. God loves us unconditionally. He demonstrates His love by rescuing us even though we are proud and arrogant. He reconciles us even though we are His enemies and grants us ongoing access to His presence even though we continue to struggle with sin. Our experience of grace leads us to ask: Do I show my children unconditional love by moving toward them in their disobedience, embracing them in their sin, and inviting them into relationship with me regardless of their condition?
God restores us to live the life we were meant to live. He prepares good works for us to walk in, gifts us accordingly, and supplies the strength to exercise those gifts. Again, we must ask: Do I empower my children by helping them gain a sense of their gifts and place in this world and even by involving them in my work? Gospel-centered parenting is not legalistic. It begins with love and acceptance. It is not licentious because that love compels us to action. Just as Tim Kimmel has written, “grace does not exclude obedience, respect, boundaries, or discipline, but does determine the climate in which these important parts of parenting are carried out.”
With our restored identity in mind, we provide our children a sense of secure love by accepting them as they are, giving them a sense of belonging in our family, and lavishing our affection on them. With our restored purpose in mind, we provide our children with significance by inviting them into the mission of God, affirming their strengths and gifts, and empowering them to take risks.
Gospel-centered parenting begins with understanding what it means to be a child of God. As we experience His grace toward us in Christ, we reveal God to our children.
---
After six years as a missionary to college students at the University of Texas and four years as an associate pastor at Coram Deo church in Omaha, NE, Will Walker followed God’s call to plant Providence Church in the fall of 2010. He currently writes for World Harvest Mission and New Growth Press. Will and his wife, Debbie, are the parents of two boys, Ethan and Holden.
---
For more resources on applying the gospel to parenting, check out A Beginner's Guide to Family Worship by Winfield Bevins.
For more free articles on gospel-centered parenting, read: Gospel-Saturated Family Discipleship by Mathew Sims, A Child's Gospel by Ben Connelly, and Discipleship is for Young Parents Too by Melanie Yong
The Gospel for Sinners
I'm a big fan of the gospel-centered movement sweeping America. We're reclaiming the gospel from the hands of legalism. We're denouncing the lie that obedience can earn you God's favor. But we must not accidentally make obedience the unofficial enemy of the gospel. I don't want us to find ourselves explaining away verses that tell us to flee unrighteousness on pain of death. I don't want to wave around the gospel like it's a trump card, offering a free pass from any eternal consequences of sin. The Bible speaks about our salvation as if it’s inextricably linked with our obedience.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
Jesus talks about obedience as a condition of salvation, but don’t panic. Christianity is a worldview with tons of conditions, and God meets both sides of the conditions. I’m not talking about a works-based view of the gospel. I’m talking about a gospel-based view of works.
The Seriousness of Sin Don't think me a legalist. I have nothing to gain by elevating obedience. Honestly, I have a lot to lose. I’m probably the most disobedient, hypocritical Christian I know. I hang out in the pig pen most of the day. Jesus comes and picks me up, and as soon as I’m clean, I return to the pen.
But I believe the Word of God, even the parts that are inconvenient and don’t fit with my worldview, even the parts that seemingly condemn me. In the Bible it's clear that sin is a big deal to God. As we disciple one another, we must create a culture where sin is a big deal.
How does the seriousness of sin emphasize (rather than diminish) the grace of the gospel?
The Destructiveness of Sin In the last year, the part of Texas where I live has been ravaged by fires. As a result, our firefighters go nuts if there's even a hint of flames. A fire the size of my hand will be surrounded by 18 fire trucks dousing it with water. People in Texas right now understand that fire kills - whether it’s 3 feet or 3 miles wide.
If you want to create a gospel-centered culture of fighting sin through discipleship, then you have to accept that the potential destructiveness of sin is not determined by its size. Often we think the fight with sin is a fight to keep it under control. We think that as long as we keep our lustful thoughts to ourselves and don’t let them burst out into adultery, we're doing okay, but according to Jesus, lust in our minds is just as deadly as outward adultery. Both can kill just as easily.
We can’t fight the sin inside our hearts, and we certainly can’t help the person we're discipling if we don’t acknowledge that Jesus isn't kidding when he says that thoughts are as deadly as actions. The secret and acceptable sins are terrifyingly deadly. Like a gas leak, they can be killing us slowly and silently while we carry on with our days.
What would change if we believed that all sin was equally deadly? What would be different in our lives if we viewed a lustful thought in the same way as adultery? How would this impact our discipleship conversations?
The Success of Repentance There are days when I wake up and stretch and, for 15 glorious seconds, I forget about all the sin in my past. For 15 wonderful seconds, I forget that every inch of my being is covered with burns. Then I’ll feel the twinge of an old injury, or the sting of a fresh scar, and I’ll remember who I am. I am the worst of sinners.
In my moments of insecurity, that realization makes me afraid. But when I’m truly gospel-centered, it fills me with worship. God defines success and failure a little differently than we do.
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31-32)
Jesus prayed that Peter's faith would not fail. Then Peter walked out the door and denied him. What happened? Did Jesus’ prayer not work?
Both Judas and Peter turned their backs on Jesus at critical moments, but only one of them truly failed. Jesus prayed for Peter’s faith not to falter, and no matter what it looks like to us – Peter’s faith won the day. Repentance is the fruit of Jesus’s prayer for Peter. Repentance is success.
The failure we should fear most is not the failure of external sin, but the failure of an unrepentant heart. The thing we should fear most is not our sin, but our inability to repent for our sin. Our merciful God is willing to do what it takes to lead us to repentance so that our faith will not fail.
The Gospel for Sinners When I first started working for a church, I believed that I had finally 'arrived.' I never would have said it, but a part of me thought I was finally a 'good Christian,' and now I could lead all those other folks who were still struggling. In His great grace, God ordained that my first months in ministry be dedicated to showing me how tremendously sinful I am. I ran smack into sin that shocked me to my core, but God saved me through that sin.
I remember nights of literally lying on the floor face down. I had no strength to stand. There was nothing left in me to give me any hope. I had trashed my righteous resume. In those moments, the gospel came alive. I realized just how desperately I needed Christ's resume. I needed the good news of the gospel. Not the kind of good news that makes us smile. The kind of good news that enables us to breathe and sob and dance and dream and live. The kind of good news that leads us to true repentance.
God saved me through my sin. In John Owen’s book, Overcoming Sin and Temptation he says this: "Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost."
God ordains that we walk through sin in our lives because He's not willing to let our faith fail. He lets our sin lead us to true success: repentance.
Why is it hard for us to believe that sin might be a means of perseverance? If you believed that success was repentance, what would change in the way you worked through sin with yourself and those you disciple?
Disciples Need a Savior Our sin goes deeper than we can imagine. Maturity in a believer isn’t having less sin; it’s seeing our sin more clearly. The more we mature in Christ, the more we can see our sin, and the more we can understand our need for a Savior. The gospel was made for sinners. The blood of Christ is made to heal the scars of our failures - not just past injuries but also the present.
The people who love the blood of Jesus are those disciples who know how desperately they need it. Jesus is our only hope. When we judge the sins of others, it's because we don't have eyes to recognize the target demographic for the gospel. Jesus came for the sick.
We cover our self-righteousness with proclamations of gratitude. We praise God that He hasn’t made us screw-ups all the while missing the glaringly obvious fact that we are worse than screw-ups.
Jesus told this story: two men went to church. One thanked God that he wasn't an adulterer or a thief like those 'big' sinners. The other couldn't even lift up his head to heaven. He just said to God, 'be merciful to me, a sinner.' Only one of the two was justified by the blood of Jesus.
May God in His great grace reveal our own sin to us that we may better see the power of the gospel.
---
Fabienne Harford lives in Austin, Texas, where she serves on staff at The Austin Stone Community Church. You can find more thoughts from Fabs at fabsharford.com
Replacing the Center of Youth Ministry
To truly disciple is to realign our affections - and those of the person we're discipling - to a greater Person. Unfortunately, many youth ministries do not focus on making disciples or the heart change of their young people. Instead, behavior modification, moral change, or intellectual assent are often emphasized. This method of enacting change will never bring about true, joy-filled change. It will merely adhere to dutiful rules and regulations. Our hearts and minds must desire something of greater worth. We need something that moves beyond and replaces the previous holder of our affections - something of supreme meaning and power. Thomas Chalmers puts it this way in The Expulsive Power of a New Affection: "We must address to the eye of his mind another object, with charm powerful enough to dispossess the first of its influence, and to engage him in some other prosecution as full of interest, and hope and congenial activity, as the former." (Emphasis mine) In other words, the Christ of gospel must replace the thing that holds the place of highest esteem and honor in the hearts, minds, and the eyes of those who we disciple.
Replacing Our Affections If we do not replace these objects of highest affection with the Gospel, Chalmers says, we're in essence putting our young disciples through torture. We're removing their greatest joy and pleasure, their deepest happiness - the very thing that makes them who they are. We're stripping them of their identity and replacing it with a new “nothingness.” It’s no wonder our disciples struggle. The Jesus we preach is not worth replacing any of the desires of our hearers' hearts. The Jesus we preach is more like a guidance counselor than a Savior; more like a baseball coach than their Lord; more like a friend than a conquering King.
The Jesus we preach is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus we preach may be great for saving us from the fires of hell, but He most defiantly will cause us to live a hell here on earth because He is not something that can fill our affections. This is not to say that the true Jesus cannot fill these voids, it’s that the Jesus we preach of cannot fill these voids. The Jesus we preach is a moralistic therapeutic Jesus. He is a Jesus for the future not for the present. He is not a Jesus that cares about our lives, our parent’s divorce, our grades, or our basketball team. All He worries about is how good we are, or if we're looking the part. It’s no wonder students don’t want to follow this Jesus.
Securing Our Affections We must not point our youth toward empty religion but to a love-filled cross, a beaten and battered Savior, a King who defeated His foe, a risen Lord who rescues our hearts. To the one who beckons us, “Come, rest, and be accepted not because of what you have done but because I love you.” The cross secures our affections to the one who was placed on it. All other affections will fail us. The cross and resurrection are not only the focal point of all of human history, they're the only lasting thing that can eternally hold our affections. Because of this, the cross is the one and only place where we can point our young disciples that will replace their highest wordly affections. Only a true view of what Jesus has done will cause a student to, in the words of Paul, “Count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3.8). Because of His life, His death, and His resurrection, we can turn our eyes toward ultimate worth.
Ultimate Truths For too many of us we simply do not have a big enough view of what Jesus can - and has - done. Because of this disbelief in the power of the Gospel we have moved away from pointing our hearers to Jesus, the Gospel and a big God. Youth need to know three ultimate truths are central to affection-stirring discipleship:
1. Jesus The Jesus we teach, preach, and worship matters. Sadly, we teach a Jesus who is more concerned about our happiness than his glory - a Jesus who wants you to have your best life here and now. This thinking and teaching is not true. Yes, Jesus did come to give us joy and hope. He even came to guide us, much like a guidance-counselor. But many times what Jesus has called us to do is the exact opposite of what is comfortable, easy, or fun in our own eyes.
2. The Gospel Once we understand Jesus, our view of the Gospel needs an overhaul. We have relegated the central truth of the Scriptures to “a one and done” deal and removed the power from the Gospel by preaching it merely as the mechanism for salvation. The Gospel calls us to more then just intellectual knowledge that Jesus died in our place. It calls for allegiance to the King. An allegiance that brings about change in the world through the power of the Gospel (Rom. 1.16; Col.1.6).
Once students grasp the centrality of the Gospel to Christian life, they will no longer be tossed to and fro by every movement, thought, or idea that is thrown at them. No, they will have affections that are firmly rooted in the only place that can bring them lasting joy. This is something worth living for.
3. Big God A clearer understanding of Jesus and his Gospel leads us to a clearer understanding of God. We must teach students about our BIG GOD - a God who is bigger then their parents' divorce, their friends' suicide, their failed relationships, or the wars in the world. We need to teach a sovereign, all powerful God. A theologically correct view of God, who is all-powerful and all-knowing. This God is worthy of our very best. He gave His very best, Jesus His only son. When the God that we teach is better, more powerful, more glorious than what they see here on earth, then and only then can they endure the trials and sufferings of this world. When they lose what they have here on earth, they have only lost something of temporal joy and pleasure that pales in comparison to their God.
We must set our hope on Jesus who will lead us to denounce all other things upon which we have, or could, place value. Is the Jesus you're pointing your disciples to worth giving one’s life for? Or are you calling them to an empty hope, events, or moral change? Nothing truly changes until the object of our affections have been replaced with a big God, in the person of Jesus, through the hope of the gospel.
---
Josh Cousineau was a youth pastor for over 5 years and is now the lead pastor of Redemption Hill Community, which launched in Auburn ME in 2012. Josh is married to his high school sweetheart, Anna. They have 3 amazing children (2 boys and 1 girl). Their daughter was adopted from Uganda in 2011. Josh blogs at http://joshcousineau.com
The Gospel Frees Us to Be Ourselves (&Free Stuff)
Gospel-Centered Discipleship is a mix of gospel theology, personal story, and discipleship practice…and I think it works! My wife has been making fun of me all week because I’ve been sitting around the house reading my own book (making noises while I read). Weird, I know, but there really is something to stepping back from a staggered, creative process and taking in the whole for the very first time.
Jesus Frees Us to Be Ourselves
The gospel frees me to enjoy reading my own book, provided I don’t enjoy it inordinately. It frees all of us to be authentic ourselves in Jesus (a theme I discuss in chapter 3). Upon conversion, Jesus does not replace us with an otherworldly version of ourselves. Instead, he renews our existing self, which is why all Christians should not look the same. Jesus didn’t die to make hyper-religious versions of our former selves. Rather, he rose to renew our existing selves with resurrection life. Jesus wakes us up from the dead, so to speak, so that we can truly live the way he made us to be. The gospel injects our personality and gifting with steroid-like grace. The more we take it in, the more our true selves are liberated to live a whole life wholly under the reign of Jesus.
Integrating Divided Things in Discipleship
Living a whole life wholly by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord is integrated discipleship (chapter 1). When the gospel is central in life, it integrates things that we typically keep divided in Christianity. Holiness and mission, worship and vocation, church and craft come together when our faith is in Jesus Christ as Lord. (This does not mean that everything should be explicitly Christian.) As Lord, Jesus reigns over every sphere of life, calling disciples to honor him with everything, not just “spiritual” things. As Christ, he forgives us for our every failure in any sphere of life, and calls us to press on in a very public obedience. The gospel does not permit an inauthentic division between “work” life and “church” life because it reminds us that Jesus is Lord over all of life.
This means that things like writing, music making, art, business, mothering, crafting, sports, teaching, technology, and product creation can take on a more meaningful role in our discipleship. Faith in Jesus does not mean we should abandon the things we love to do. As disciples, we don’t have to make excuses for the things we love; rather, we get to run them through grace in the service of God. We learn how to worship with them not without them (nor should we worship them). The gospel also teaches us to take our faith out of what we love, and from our faith in his love, use what we love for Him. This should not translate into cheap, Christian art or proselytizing instead of working. Rather, it should motivate art and work that stands out, reminiscent of the excellence and beauty of Christ.
If it is true that Jesus is Lord of all creation, and that he has made us for a very public obedience and devotion in every sphere of life, then disciples should be among some of the most vibrant, creative, excelling, joyful people in the world.
FREE Gospel-Centered Discipleship Stuff
- Check out the Table of Contents and preview book
- Download free Holy Spirit chapter
- GCD Book Discussion Guide
---
Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. Dodson has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.