Tag Archives: gospel - Page 2

Sin is God-ward

Posted by on July 15, 2010 3 comments

a short musing on sin.

It’s easy for perfectionist-types to conceive of their sin as being frustrating lapses in their attempts to attain a perfect standard (which they delude themselves about actually being able to keep). Sin for perfectionists is against an impersonal standard, and against their better ability to achieve it. Repeated sin perpetuates the perfectionist’s prideful frustration.

It’s easy for self-pitying types to conceive of their sin as being yet another pitiful lapse, in keeping with all their other pitiful lapses to be a better person. Sin confirms them in their mindset that ‘the only thing keeping you from achieving your dreams is your negative attitude’. Sin for self-pitying types is also against an impersonal standard, and against their chronic inability to achieve it. Repeated sin perpetuates the self-pitier’s self-ward misery.

In both cases, there’s a terrible delusion at work – not that a perfect standard of morality doesn’t exist, but that it’s (supposed to be) achievable by us apart from Jesus achieving it for us.

But there’s also the key delusion that sin is merely against a standard rather than against a person. In actual fact, our sin is grievous not because it reflects our lack of self-betterment, but because it’s an expression of our rebellion against God. There’s a Person on the other end of our sin who is personally grieved by it.

If the perfectionist or the self-pitier would see their sin as being against a person, they would have the right biblical and relational motivation and empowerment to fight it – because not only does that Person care deeply about hating and fighting sin, He alone is able (and willing) to empower this fight to enable consistent victory. No longer then will the impersonal standard mock the hapless sinner, because the aggrieved Person doesn’t stop at being grieved, but offers the repentant sinner grace – grace to see and hate their sin rightly, and grace to overcome it.

It might be scarier to acknowledge that we sin against a Person rather than a standard, but it’s infinitely better for us. Because what an incredible God we serve (and sin against! :S) – who not only knows and grieves our weakness but is faithful and just (and unbelievably gracious) to forgive us our sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and to renew our very hearts and desires to love and obey Him.

Excuse me, but your fly’s undone

Posted by on June 20, 2010 Comments Off

Sometimes we say things that are unpopular, or embarrassing, or not politically correct. Telling someone their fly is undone or they’ve got parsley in their teeth is embarrassing – for them and you. But the idea is that you both suffer some mild embarrassment now for the sake of minimising the other person’s possibly severe embarrassment later.

Sometimes saying something unpopular or politically incorrect is like this. Like when Christians repeat things Jesus said that were most definitely unpopular and un-PC. Like when Christians talk about sin or hell or judgement like they’re real, and refuse to pretend that God is so ‘loving’ He arbitrarily accepts all people in heaven.

Several weeks ago, we displayed a series of 4 signs on our church signboard that were probably both unpopular and un-PC to most onlookers.

School violence, racism, GFC
- do society’s problems run
deeper than our solutions?
—
Does a solution exist
that runs as deeply
as the problem?
—
GK Chesterton said -
‘the problem is I’.
Will anyone else agree?!
—
Biblical Christianity offers
both diagnosis and solution -
Sinners need a Saviour.
Hardly politically correct,
but worth investigating?

But we were trying to be carefully confronting, because what good is being popular, palatable, and PC, if it also means being deceptive? If Jesus presented his Father in words that were comfortable to his hearers but not actually true, what good would that do them when they came to meet God in judgement? So as Jesus showed integrity to his mission by being ruthlessly true to his message, we believe as Christians we have to show integrity to Jesus by not mincing our words either.*

So back to our church signs. In one sense we are sorry if they caused offence. We don’t want to turn people off or away from Jesus and his message, because he said that it’s only through trusting in him that we can have forgiveness and Life. But we acknowledge these can be difficult ideas to swallow. Heck, many of us in this church found this to be the case and wrestled hard against them before being won over by them.

Ultimately that’s our hope (and prayer) for you if you’ve come across our signs or this blog post and find yourself offended by biblical Christianity. Could we humbly, respectfully, sincerely ask you to not just dismiss Jesus’ claims, but to wrestle with them?

Because we truly don’t like being unpopular in presenting them to you; we don’t enjoy the feeling of causing offence! But we’re bound by the spirit of integrity to risk our mutual embarrassment now, for the sake of minimising some awful repercussions later.

Because Jesus said -

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

—

*Contrary to popular opinion, this doesn’t equate with being judgemental. Judgementalism has to do with standing above another person by showing personal disrespect or disdain to them or their beliefs. However, respectfully disagreeing with another is simply that (unfortunately seen as intolerant and unpopular when Christians do it, but acceptable practice otherwise!).

Key to the Bible – quote of the week

Posted by on May 13, 2010 Comments Off

From C.J. Mahaney’s “Living the Cross Centred Life” (pp.69-70)

“If you were searching for a single sentence in Scripture to best capture the story line and theme of the entire Bible, what would you choose? Where would you look?

Many of us would no doubt go right to the beloved and familiar words of John 3:16, with good reason. But let me suggest we search no further than… the opening pages of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Fix your thoughts on this sentence:

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 2:5-6).

J.I. Packer says it isn’t too much to describe these verses as “the key, not merely to the New Testament, but to the whole Bible, for they crystalize into a phrase the sum and substance of its message.”

In this one sentence, Paul succinctly captures the main theme and essence of the entirety of holy Scripture – as well as answering the desperate cry we heard from Job for someone to arbitrate between God and man. Yes, Paul declares, there is a mediator! There’s someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand on us both and remove the rod of God’s wrath so His terror frightens us no more. There’s a unique intermediary between God and man: the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. The Bible’s complete message hinges on this one point.”

C.J. then gives two more quotes from some of my spiritual heroes:

R.C. Sproul: ”The glory of the gospel is this: The One from whom we need to be saved is the One who has saved us.”

John Stott: ”Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.”

And a suitable conclusion:

“If there’s anything in life we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others; I mean passionate in thinking about the gospel, reflecting upon it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to colour the way we look at the world and all of life.” (p.15)

Amen!

Jesus

Posted by on January 31, 2010 Comments Off

There’s someone we know who keeps having to deal with rather nasty people. I know this is a bold description, but from their behaviour they don’t seem to be terribly kind, thoughtful, generous, or other-centred. The nastiness involves things like bosses clearly exploiting their employees, rude clients, and ‘friends’ scavenging off and even stealing from mates. It makes me so frustrated to hear about it. Why? Obviously because it’s downright awful and we hate seeing our friend go through it, but also because our friend isn’t a Christian. He doesn’t get to experience the blessing of relating with people (other than family members) who consistently seek to do him good and not evil.

So in my upset-ness for him last night as I was pondering the situation again, I wished he could meet some great Christian men. I so much want for him to meet some genuine Christian guys – faithful, solid, loyal, true in word and character, generous, loving, sacrificial.

And then it hit me (silly me) – all this describes Jesus.

It’s so much easier for us mere mortals to look for exemplary behaviour in other mere mortals. It might be our lack of familiarity with the four gospels, it might be that we emphasise Jesus’ transcendence to the detriment of his imminence, or his divinity to the detriment of his humanity. It might be that I’m female so I’m not practised at looking to Jesus for an example of what (hu)manhood should look like. Whatever it is, I’m slow to see Jesus as the perfect man, the perfect human. It’s like (I suppose – haven’t seen it!) watching Avatar without the 3D glasses – we know Jesus was incarnated so he could die and rise for our sins, but we don’t fully appreciate or savour the added dimension of his earthy human-ness – in all its raw, full perfection.

So I still hope and pray that our friend meets some great Christian guys, but now I realise I’ve got to attach that description more solidly to the man Jesus. I hope those Christian guys are ‘great’ because they know and copy Jesus really well, and I hope that makes our friend want to get to know Jesus himself – so he can see what an incredible man Jesus was – and come to know that life can be lived better – not least because of his exemplary humanity.

How to change the world

Posted by on January 13, 2010 Comments Off

2 Sundays ago, Steve preached on Paul’s letter to Philemon and called his sermon ‘How to change the world’. The idea behind such a big call of a title is that when God’s people consistently act with His amazing grace within our relationships, this impacts the world. It sure had the potential to impact Onesimus.

Steve finished the sermon with a list of definitions helping us understand what forgiveness is and isn’t. We thought it would be useful to reproduce it here (see next post) but I also wanted to add a couple of extra thoughts from our personal experience…

We had to carefully think through forgiveness about a year ago when we were in danger of practising the opposite – unforgiveness. I believe God gave me a breakthrough of understanding one night just before bed as I was mulling over the issues. By His Spirit He worked in my thoughts to help me understand that forgiveness is ‘giving up my right to hold this against you’ (whoever the ‘you’ may be).

Because the truth is, the need to forgive only arises if someone has sinned against you. It’s therefore ok and appropriate to feel exactly that – sinned against – to feel hurt, grieved, perhaps betrayed. But the thing about forgiveness is that it doesn’t end there. Because God has shown us incredible forgiveness in Christ – exchanging Jesus’ righteousness for our sin if we trust in him – He commands us to show this kind of forgiveness to others. He effectively says – because I’ve given up my right to hold your sin against you, you must do this for others.

Now simply because He’s done it for us and He commands it – we should. But in God’s condescending grace He illuminated for me a further principle. We can forgive others not only because of what He’s done for us in the past, but also because of what He’ll do in the future.

As Steve pointed out, our forgiving others doesn’t necessarily mean reconciliation of relationship will occur. This is hard. It’s terribly tough forgiving someone who doesn’t care about how they’ve hurt you – but we are called to do our part, and the reason we can go ahead and do this is because God will also do His part.

In Romans 12:19, Paul says: Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. (Read verses 17-21 too – it’s all amazing stuff)

God is a just God, and He promises throughout His word that He will bring justice to and for His people on a great and dreadful day (when Jesus returns). He will make all people pay for their wrongs – either by themselves, or Jesus will declare that he’s already done it on their behalf. Justice will certainly be done – and it’s on the basis of this future hope that we can also freely forgive others now - even when they don’t ‘deserve’ it. Instead of being vengeful and bitter and unforgiving, we are to trust God to bring about justice in His timing and His way, and in the meantime we are to return good for evil, to overcome evil with good.

Extraordinary isn’t it?! It’s extraordinary what standard God calls us to, but also extraordinary that He makes it possible by giving us His Spirit. But can you also see what extraordinary things are possible if we only obey? If we take this call seriously? Slaves can be restored to the masters they’ve wronged. Evil itself can be overcome. The world can be changed. We can be called sons of God. And Jesus will be made to look like the awesome Saviour and Lord that he is.

quote of the week

Posted by on December 6, 2009 Comments Off

From Pastor CJ Mahaney’s wise and sobering blog post titled ‘Hunting Tiger Woods‘ -

The Bible in general, and the book of Proverbs in particular, reveals an unbreakable connection between our character, our conduct, and the consequences of our actions. These three are inseparable and woven by God into His created order.

But if you think CJ’s post is all about how bad Tiger Wood’s sin is, it’s not. The quote above is an incisive pastoral summary just introducing some of the issues raised by Tiger Wood’s ‘indiscretions’.

Please do click on the link above to read the entire post – it is gracious and points both us and Tiger Woods towards grace – because all of us need this great gift found in Jesus.

Nineteen Minutes

Posted by on June 5, 2009 Comments Off

After owning it for more than a year, I’ve just started reading Nineteen Minutes, one of Jodi Picoult’s many novels.   For me it’s the kind of book you have to be in a certain mood to read, simply because the issues dealt with can be so emotive and thought-provoking.  I haven’t been disappointed so far although I’m only a sixth of the way in.
nineteen minutes
As usual, Picoult weaves her plot and characters finely together in a realistic and engrossing way. It seems she will deliver what I hoped for – a detailed and ‘human’ examination of the background and motives behind a 17 year-old American boy’s school shooting.

Part 1, Section II opens with this:

Nobody wants to admit to this, but bad things will keep on happening.  Maybe that’s because it’s all a chain, and a long time ago someone did the first bad thing, and that led someone else to do another bad thing, and so on.  You know, like that game where you whisper a sentence into someone’s ear, and that person whispers it to someone else, and it all comes out wrong in the end.

But then again, maybe bad things happen because it’s the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like.

I’d posit that the first reason is the more accurate one, and it certainly gells with the Bible’s explanation for why bad things happen.  It bears itself out on both a macro (Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and the rest of humanity’s being infected by the same disease) and a micro (chain reactions of bad things  / behaviours / patterns being passed down from one person or generation to the next) level.

I’m looking forward to getting into the meat of the novel and seeing how the characters are further pictured and developed.  But I’m thankful that when I reach the end of it (as well as episodes of Criminal Minds for that matter) I don’t need to wallow in the hopelessness of all the ‘bad things’.  The Bible shows me both a convincing explanation for them and a convincing solution.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t say this tritely.  Bad things are awful – I can’t overstate that.  But Jesus Christ offers us his death on our behalf as the all-time solution for bad things – as God punishes Jesus in our place as if HE had been the perpetrator of all bad things ever done – so that none of us need to be punished for the bad things we actually have done.

And he doesn’t stop there, but gives everyone who trusts in his saving death ability and incentive to change – power to do fewer ‘bad things’ and desire to do good things instead.  This is definitely what Steve’s and my experience has been and what we pray more people in our community and city will come to know.  In Jesus our past ‘bad things’ (done by us or done to us) don’t need to govern our present and our future.  If anyone is in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come.