GospelDrivenLife

Would you dare say this?

The word of God often surprises me, but none so much as last week when I was studying 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12.   Clearly a passage about sanctification (the word and its lexical friends occurs all through the passage) -- Paul begins it in a way that was -- well, shocking, outrageous.  I think he actually undermines his whole argument -- but I imagine Paul, under the inspiration of God, knows better what he is talking about than I.

How new is the new? a great quote on grace by Michael Horton

How amazing is grace?  Here is a great word from Michael Horton.

There's always been a suspicion that grace is a little too comforting. That the news is too good, it's a little dangerous to tell people that it's all of God, all of grace. Unleashed in its full force such preaching would surely undermine all sense of moral earnestness. The fear of punishment and hope of rewards is the only thing that can really get us off the dime, even though on our deathbed we may be told that Christ is enough after all. A lot of Christians today can tell similar stories, when they became a Christian they were told that Christ died for their sins past, present, and future, and promised eternal life to all who believe. But then, after their conversion, they were gradually buried under a weight of conditions. If you follow these steps you can live the victorious Christian life. If you do this God will smile upon you. What, you're not living in victory? Perhaps you're not following the steps. Start over. Rededicate yourself, try harder. It's actually pretty easy, you know, especially with the help of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, having begun in the Spirit, they're trying to be perfected in the flesh, because that's the message they're getting, or at least thinking they're getting, in church.

How new is the new?

When I was a boy, I used to play with mini-cars.  I had a road race set and spent hours watching the cars race around our living room on their track.  I had a toy car I could sit on.  I would push off from a wall, and ride through the basement.  It was fun and cool, when I was a boy.  But now I drive my 5 speed jet black Mazda 3i and would not want to go back.  Those early vehicles were tastes of a real car.  They were designed to prepare me.  But they get put aside once the real has come.

What is true of cars is not true of how I relate to God.  Nor was it true of the people of the New Testament.  I am under the new covenant, but I keep wanting to go back to the old.

Change this: Why didn't I read this stuff earlier?

My first title on this was misleading.  I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from from my seminary days -- all the classes, etc.  I was explosed to these men, but I did not pursue them since them seemed pre-Catholic!  Wow, was I ever prejudiced.

In the providence of God my reading has been taking me back into multiple examples of the early centuries of the church.  Here was a huge gap in my education.  I have three books by these early fathers on my shelf.  But I am now reading Athanasius on The Incarnation plus multiple excerpts from the fathers in defense of the Trinity and the union of God and man in the person of Jesus the Messiah.   I am seeing some truths spoken in a way that is fabulous and I am wondering why I have missed these.  Up til now I guess my view of church history has been something like this:  PAUL (1500 year gap following)  . . .  Luther, Calvin . . . . Edwards . . .  various Reformed writers . . .  Warfield, Machen . . . Piper.  I act as though the men of the first centuries did not do much!  Not at all -- they simply upheld the core of the Gospel and defended it at risk of their own lives! I have some musings  . . .

Peter and Gospel truth, Gospel story, 1

For years I have been a student of Paul.  Much like my Reformed mentors, my heart was full of the logic of Romans and the magisterial words of Ephesians.  It was almost as though I had a red letter Bible and the red letters were not Jesus's words, but Paul's. 

I would reject any teaching that said one portion of Scripture was any more or less of God than another.  That is why I pay no attention to red letter bibles.  Yet, in practice, I esteemed Paul more highly than Peter or John. 

That has all begun to change with my study of 1 Peter.  How little did I know of Peter's rigorous  application of the Gospel to all of life! Peter calls the believers to whom he writes to apply the Gospel to their lives at every point.

Indwelling sin and the Gospel, 3

People think that a serious doctrine of sin is depressing -- on the contrary it is hope-giving.  Only when we face the depth of our disease can we find the infinite remedy in the Savior's death.  If I treat the illness superficially, I will only prolong the illness.

  I will let Dorothy Sayers speak to this.  She was a contemporary of CS Lewis, an apologist, literary, and wrote murder mysteries (with Lord Peter Whimsey as the detective).  She says things in a fresh way even if we wish to critique the fine points:

Kingdom Building

I am studying through Ezra-Nehemiah these days as we lead the church in understanding how God fulfills his promises for his everlasting kingdom.  Set in the century after the exile, these books record the activity of God to rebuild the temple, the law, and the city of Jerusalem. 

It would be very easy to study these for purely historical interest.  Or, more commonly, to study these for "leadership principles."  Neither of these is true to a Gospel driven approach.  All biblical narrative is about Messiah-Jesus.  This is not exception. 

The opening verses of Ezra are a thunderclap about God's ways.

Who is our enemy?

It was twenty years ago when I listened to the entire set of 70 tapes on Pastoral Theology by Al Martin, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in NJ.  His well-studied and mature views of ministry were a formative influence on my thinking and practice.  But I well remember the day when he addressed how we look on those who differ with us in the faith -- Arminians, Paedobaptists, Egalitarians, even people who apply common convictions differently.  It was a truth I would hold on to and fight for in my heart in the years that have followed . . .

The Liberty of the Christian, 4

The Gospel is mighty to change people's lives -- and it does so in very context and culture of the world.  It is not bound to a particular culture -- converted people do not all wear coats and ties.  But whatever fruit it bears looks like godliness -- the fruit of the Spirit, a pursuit of holiness. 

The Liberty of the Christian, 3

Living under my own conscience and protecting liberty is a tough balance.  But it is precisely what the Apostle Paul calls us to do in Romans 14:1-15:7.  I want to give a few thoughts from this passage on what this looks like.