Attempts at Honesty

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The softening of the Gospel

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Softening the waxListening to a Podcast on the way to work this week, I heard Tim Keller use an illustration that I found helpful. He used a wax seal to illustrate the impact of Biblical law upon the heart of a man (or woman).

To seal a letter, some wax is melted onto the letter and then a seal is pressed into the wax to show the identity of the one who sealed the letter. To do this properly, the wax had to be softened to take the impression of the seal.

Without softening, the seal would have difficulty in making an imprint upon the wax. Either the seal would leave a superficial impression on the hard wax, or the seal would crush the wax into pieces.

Without the Gospel, the Biblical law will have a superficial impression on a man or it will crush him. If a man does not operate under the good news of the Gospel, if he does not acknowledge his moral failure and helplessness to change, the law will either crush him or make him proud.

The result of a superficial application of the law is spiritual pride and intolerance. I saw an example of this recently when a well known comedian applied the ten commandments to his life in such a way as to prove that he keeps the Ten Commandments even though he doesn’t believe in God. To make his proof he had to offer a very superficial understanding and application of the commands. The result was that this comedian comes off as a bit condescending to those who have a different understanding of those commandments.

But non-believers are not the only ones who experience a superficial application of the law. Some who claim to believe the Gospel have also demonstrated this. They may even make every effort to live up to their understanding of the law and may genuinely believe that they are pleasing God by what they do and that they are in the right for the way that they live. The most extreme example of this can be found by following the misguided activities of the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Their antics display the shallowest impression of the law upon their hearts and a law devoid of any Gospel.

On the other hand, if the law is applied without the softening of the Gospel, a man may be crushed by it. A proper understanding of the law will lead to the correct conclusion that no man can or will completely live up to the standard presented in the law. Any attempt to do so will end in disappointment or despair. If you doubt this, just think about how far into January the average person makes it with his New Year’s resolutions.

Prior to his understanding of righteousness coming as a result of faith, Martin Luther was a man that was crushed by the law. The best example of this is a line from the movie Luther, where Martin says to his superior, “I am too full of sin to be a priest.” Martin understood how far short of the Biblical standard he fell and was overwhelmed by that understanding until he discovered the Gospel.

When Christianity is presented as simply a moral code or philosophy of living, it is not good news, there is no Gospel in such a presentation. The only result will be pride or despair.

But, with a proper understanding of the Gospel, and how much we are loved by God, then the law becomes a tutor (NASB) or guide (ESV) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). When we understand that Jesus has satisfied the law on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) we are no longer bound by the standard of perfect law keeping. Jesus kept the law for us.

Because Jesus has done this for us, we have no basis for pride or condemnation of others. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

Also, when we understand how much we are loved, we will not be crushed by the law. Jesus loved you and I so much that he was willing to endure the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that we might be in relationship with him. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much God loves us and how far he has gone to bring us into relationship with himself.

Under the Gospel, our hearts experience the softening that allows for a proper understanding of the role of the law (Tweet this).

My guess is that each of us, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will gravitate toward one or the other of these superficial applications of the law. Either we will be drawn toward pride over our law-keeping or we will be overwhelmed by our inability to live up to the standards in Scripture.  Personally, I am easily sucked into the vortex of the latter.

The antidote to both reactions is a proper understanding of the Gospel, which I like to summarize in two lines (this is a quote/paraphrase from Tim Keller). The Gospel tells me:

I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to believe
I am more deeply loved than I ever thought possible

That is indeed good news.

MacLaren on being a saint

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SaintRecently, I was coaxed by my daughter into going to a thrift store for a “half off” sale. I did it to spend time with her, not thinking that I would find anything that would interest me. It turns out that they had a large book section with many books worth adding to my library, some of which I purchased.

Among the books I purchased was a partial set of Alexander MacLaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture at the half off price of $1.50 per volume. This morning I started reading the volume on Ephesians and thought this paragraph worth sharing:

“[I]n God’s church there is no aristocracy of sanctity, nor does the name of saint belong only to those who live high above the ordinary tumults of life and the secularities of daily duty. You may be as true a saint in a factory – ay! and far truer one – than in a hermitage. You do not need to cultivate a mediaeval . . . type of ascetic piety in order to be called saints. You do not need to be amongst the select few to whom it is given here upon earth, but not given without their own effort, to rise to the highest summits of holy conformity with the divine will. But down amongst all the troubles and difficulties and engrossing occupations of our secular work, you may be living saintly lives; for the one condition of being holy is that we should know whose we are and whom we serve, and we can carry the consciousness of belonging to Him into every corner of the poorest, most crowded and most distracted life, recognising His presence and seeking to do His will. The saint is the man who says, ‘O Lord, truly I am Thy servant: Thou hast loosed my bonds.’ Because He has loosed my bonds, the bonds that held me to my sins, He has therein fastened me with far more stringent bonds of love to the sweet and free service of His redeeming love. All His children are His saints.”

I like the line “we should know whose we are and whom we serve” which I have highlighted in bold in the quoted paragraph above.

Lately, I have been increasingly aware of the disconnect between my intellectual knowledge and my emotional responses. Or, to put it another way, there is a separation between my head and my heart.

I have a suspicion that a greater awareness of whose I am and whom I serve will go a long way toward bridging that gap.

An Easter Meditation for 2016

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EasterIt appears to me that God is stripping away any illusion of security that we might have as Americans at the beginning of the 21st Century.

  • We have dysfunction in our political process where both of the major political parties are more concerned about conserving their power than they are about doing the right thing. In this election year we are bombarded by attack ads or insipid campaign slogans that are nearly devoid of the power to resolve the issues facing us.
  • We have an ever growing threat of Islamic terrorists who think that by blowing themselves up with innocent people around them they will achieve distinction in the afterlife.
  • We have dysfunction in our corporate leaders who think that it is acceptable to earn millions of dollars in bonus for destroying the earning ability of hard working men and women by announcing a “restructuring” which eliminates their jobs.
  • We have “Christian” leaders who repackage the pop psychology in a “Christian” wrapper. They make millions of dollars selling books and giving conferences that offer superficial help but no lasting change. They are like doctors who put bandaids on a cancer.
  • We have racial tension that is causing upheaval throughout our country. We should be long past judging a man or women based on the color of their skin but we are not.

I’m not arguing that times are worse than they have ever been. Even a casual reading of the prophets in the Old Testament provides ample evidence that the Nation of Israel faced many of the same issues.

Into similar social, political and moral chaos, God spoke these words through Isaiah:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6–7, ESV)

The answer does not lie within political reform or building a wall around our country or religious reform or tolerance training. The answer lies in the one who came to fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy. The answer lies in Jesus of Nazareth.

It is Easter Sunday, 2016, the day when Christians around the world celebrate The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

About The Resurrection, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). The Resurrection validates that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that he is the one who will one day set this world right.

The Resurrection tells me that it is safe to find my security in Jesus, even when everything around me is messed up.

The Resurrection tells me that God has the power to accomplish what he purposes.

The Resurrection is like a down payment which holds our destiny in lay-a-way until Jesus comes back to complete the deal.

If ever I felt the need to appreciate and appropriate the meaning and the power of The Resurrection, it is today. I thought that perhaps you would also benefit from this meditation as we consider the empty tomb.

May we move forward with the encouragement that the empty tomb demonstrates that the evil and chaos will not win out.

The Resurrected Jesus will return and fix the mess we’ve made.

He is Risen!

The sufficiency of natural revelation

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Heavens DeclareThe title of this post is a shameless play on words. It is not uncommon in theological circles to speak of the in-sufficiency of Scripture, but I dropped the “in” to make a point. Scripture is sufficient to make known God as creator.

Some would argue that nature points to the possibility that God might exist but does not provide conclusive proof. Yet Scripture seems to go against this statement. For example, the Apostle Paul writes:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18–20, ESV)

Paul tells us that those who reject God are without excuse. They cannot argue that God did not give them sufficient proof. The problem is not the absence of evidence, the problem is the suppression of the evidence that is given to all men. Creation is sufficient to reveal the character and perfections of the God of the Bible.

While nature does not provide exhaustive knowledge of God, it does provide enough information to show us that God exists and to challenge us to seek him.

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