GospelDrivenLife

The Deep Things of God with addendum

Fred Sanders, Biola Professor, on the faculty at their Torrey Honors Institute, and a recent teacher of my daughter, has written a barnburner.  That is pretty amazing for theology.

This book is easily on my list of best books in the last year, would be on my top books of the last ten years, and may become one I read again and again.  That latter list is very short.  God has given us a gift of grace through this book. 

Why would I say this?

It is well written. It is rare for me to start into a book and not want to put it down. That is especially true with theology books, and more so with books on the doctrine of the Trinity. That is because most theologians could use a course in good writing.  This book is clear and deep.  It develops the glory of the Godhead and does so without superficial summary or theological jargon. That does not mean it is simplistic.  It will call you to engage with the revealed God of glory.

It is mature. This is not an off the cuff work.  There is depth here.  There are clearly years of reflection.  The author has read widely and thoughtfully in his field. He holds the jewel of the Trinity up in the light and explores its many facets.  That God is Triune is not lightweight, but this truth does not have to be esoteric. Because he has reflected on this for years, Sanders makes a deep subject sing.  He connects the dots clearly and winsomely.  He offers critique with humility and humor.  He offers a grander Gospel and a grander worship and a grander reading of the Bible by showing the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity.

It is timely. I have grown to see the redemptive center of the Bible.  I am an advocate of Gospel-centrality.  Sanders is gospel centered, but he calls us to revisit the background to the Gospel.  He notes that while our emphasis is the Gospel, when we lose the eternal glory of the Godhead, the Gospel is diminished or narrowed or reduced. 

I think he is correct.  There has been a lack. 

A few, like Piper in God is the Gospel, hinted at it.  Sanders mines it. He takes us back to the eternal glory of God -- the happy life of the Trinity.  What he insists on is this: God as God the Father, Son, and Spirit is the deep foundation of the Gospel.  The goodness of the good news is rooted in the happy and blessed fullness of the Triune God.  In the Gospel this God, our of sheer generosity, gives himself to us.

Sanders picks up where Piper left off. He develops the doctrine more. He notes that while we are emphatic about Christ, grace, sacrifice, atonement, faith, justification -- those emphases become shallow when they are not set deep in the Triune God. 

That is a bit shocking.  I think he wonderfully makes the case.  On the other side of my justification is more than imputed righteousness.  I have been imputed righteous so that God may give himself to me as my God, and I may see his glory.  I think the prayer of John 17, especially vesres 21-26 have taken on a new meaning.

But that is just one instance.  Many times I had flashes of light (as in Eph 1:14-23) come to my heart as he connected the dots.  This is the first book in a long while that has compelled me to stop my reading and adore my God.  It has fueled my sight of the beauty of God in worship on Sunday.  It has stirred new faith for preaching. 

Preachers -- your people need this.  They need a vision of the glory to which the God of grace calls them.

Each chapter is a stand alone, fruitful for extended study and meditation. He shows that this is not just for scholars. Considering the glory of the Godhead is not something I recall thinking about, but Susannah Wesley (mother of 17 I think) did and found it glorious and practical while she tended house.  I do not remember the last time I considered that my prayer or the reading of the Word were Trinitarian.  I could go on.  The quotable quotes are many and fun (that one about Nicky Cruse writing the only book on the Trinity that has a knife fight!)

It is in the Great Tradition. But one more item. I have become more and more persuaded that my calling is to be as unoriginal as possible.  I am passing on the deposit of faith, entrusted to the Apostles.  I have also become more and more persuaded that history informs my grasp of Scripture.  I am an heir to the Great Tradition. 

For some years now I have been dipping into writings on the Trinity and the early church fathers. I have noted their influence on early Protestants too.  I am one who, without reading them, used to think the fathers missed it.  I now think, and Sanders confirms, that they got it better than I do.  When they wrote the Trinitarian creeds, they had a grasp of the deep source of our salvation.  God the Father Almighty, his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son are working symphonically to save, to redeem, and to exalt the bride of Christ into their presence. Chalcedon was profound.  

Some may not have missed these rich resources of faith.  Perhaps I have just been in the narrow confines of sectarian American evangelicalism. But the early church fathers had a grasp on God in Trinity and the Incarnation that is rooted in Scripture and life-shaping. I want to consider it more.

Fred is in that Tradition, though he carefully confines his citations to the rich resources within Protestant evangelicalism. He is not calling us to become liturgical.   He is calling us to bring out of the background what we know to be true,  He is calling us to rediscover the resources of our our tributary of the Great Tradition. 

I for one want to go back to learn from those men and the ones who went before them.  I am grateful for this book which I hope sells out and is reprinted and circulated to as many people as possible.  It is a gift to see the glory of the Triune God as the root and foundation of our redemption.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Addendum: This is Dr Sanders life message.  Its implication and applications and connections to life can be worked out for many years to come.  My wife, who is a woman soaked in the Word and in the Triune God, wants to apply this to her daily life.  She is asking for a chapter in a future book called, "The Tacit Trinitarianism of Housework" and with it, "The Tacit Trinitarianism of Marriage and Family." 

The Heart of the Matter

One does not have to hang out in the blogosphere for very long to find heated debates and critiques of this and that -- emergent, charismania, reformed, truly reformed, seeker, etc.  This is nothing new in church history and I, for one, do not think the church today is any worse or better condition than it ever has been.  Redeemed sinners have always been redeemed sinners.  And redeemed sinners often treat enemies as friends and friends as enemies. 

But there is something unusual afoot.  One of the amazing works of God in our day is that leaders are uniting across barriers formerly uncrossable.  They are uniting around the Gospel.  And I think here is the place to define and to determine who is for Christ and who is against him.  It was called the "rule of faith" by Tertullian.

Christ centered or Gospel Centered

Here is a good question brought to me today by someone I deeply respect -- are we to be Christ-centered or Gospel centered?  Are we to be cross-centered or Christ-centered?   The question is excellent because it brings greater clarity to our thinking -- which is tne NT? 

As a first thought, I think there is a simple answer -- the NT is Christ-centered, and by that it means the person, work, office, achievements, and purpose of the Messiah as sent by God to us.  That includes the cross as the place where his work was completed -- but it also embraces the resurrection and ascension.  It is the whole picture that is the center of God's purpose.

Let's be careful not to divide them up -- as the apostles seem to view this as a diamond with a hundred facets.  At one time the incarnation shines and it applied to servanthood (Phil 2:5-8) -- at another time the resurrection speaks to godliness (Romans 6) -- still another applies the completeness of the cross to our assurance (Heb 10:19-25) -- and still another deals with the certainty of his triumphant return (1 John 3:1-3).

Think of it like this -- and I do not want a trivial illustration -- when Tiger Woods won the Masters, golf enthusiasts celebrated his total victory -- but we also watched replays of the highlights -- great putts, the chip in on the 16th, a well placed drive. 

Jesus has won an enormous redemption -- it will result in the renovation of all things.  Each facet of it adds lustre to the overall achievement.

There he goes again

I am reading 2 Peter still -- just meditating my way through the book.  I came to this description of Peter's ministry that floored me.  It floored me because it is centered on the Person and Work of Jesus.  It floored me because I do not think it would be used to describe my ministry of many years duration. It floored because of its contrast with many evangelism practices today.

Here is how Peter describes his labors among these folks:

. . . . we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1:16)

He is talking about Jesus in the flesh, especially as revealed in his transfiguration.  He uses terms we usually associate with his second coming.  He spoke of Jesus transfiguration to his audience -- it was central to his message.  When have I ever done that?

The point is simple: his theme was Messiah Jesus, exalted Lord of all.  He did not preach purpose or principles or self-help or even doctrine and philosophy.  He proclaimed Christ.

How would someone describe your ministry?

Is this the Gospel?

Here is a moment for passionate critique.  I recently heard a clip from Christian Booksellers Convention.  The question was asked of many, "What is the Gospel?"  The answers were appalling with one or two exceptions -- things like going to church, having sincere faith in one's heart.  And that from folks selling Christian books.

My memory ran back to a message I heard at a major Southern Cal church, where the man ended with the "Gospel" -- "Here is the good news of Jesus.  If you accept God, he will accept you."  That was it.  End of explanation.  It was a church famous for evangelism.  No one protested this lie.

Another friend recently asked if this statement, taken from a testimony at a major evangelistic endeavor, was the Gospel:“When each person becomes willing to have an experience with Jesus Christ, I’m telling you, you’re gonna have it. All it takes is the willingness, discipline, obedience and passion.”  No one critqued this either.

I find this frightening for one simple reason.  None of these is the Gospel.  The Gospel is not an empty suitcase to be filled with my own meanings.  It has fixed content -- the Son of God was sent in mercy to a race of rebels, to lay down his life for sin, to bear in his body their well-deserved judgment.  This he has done completely and he is now exalted as Lord and Master of all -- offering salvation to all who bend their knee to Him.  The accent is entirely on Him.  The news is about Him and what he has acccomplished.  The Gospel is good news even if we reject it.  It is not about me!

It is frightening because the Gospel may not be altered in the least.  Modifying the Gospel is damning -- to the speaker and the hearer.  A distorted Gospel cannot save and we are yet in our sins.  Galatians 1:6-9 is clear -- no one may change the Gospel.

It is frightening because there is massive indifference to this.  Perhaps even as you read this you think, "Big deal, what's the difference?!." 

We are not talking about the nuances of pre or post tribulationism or the distinctions between views of the millennium or even the debate on baptism.  We are talking about the Gospel by which we are saved.  Heaven will be populated with folks who held varying views on these other matters -- but there will no one who believed a false Gospel.

I have sensed for some years that the real battle in the church in America is over the Gospel -- will we be faithful to explain it in all its dimensions or will be mix it with pop culture and create a message that is more favorable to American values?  In years of pastoring I have been amazed at how many members could not explain the Gospel.  I think of one man who insisted he was a Christian because "he went forward" at an altar call -- but could not tell me in the least what Jesus had done for him. I have witnessed hundreds of baptisms equally vague -- "I was desperate and thought I would try God."

My only question is this -- if that is all they really grasped, can someone be saved from wrath with such little understanding?

When I was in college I was mentored by a man who was very careful with the Gospel.  A couple of students had been sharing the Gospel with another undergrad.  No simple tracts for us -- we had walked him through Romans!  He came to church. Later that day he called up one of us and said he wanted to talk.  He asked, "What must I do to be saved?"  Here was sovereign grace!  He trusted in Jesus.

Later that week we introduced him to Doc Fullerton (our mentor, then 81 years old).  We said, "Mike is a new Christian."  Doc did not rejoice immediately, he asked Mike questions -- "What do you mean you are a Christian?  What did Jesus do for you?  Why did he need to die for us?  What do you mean by sin?"  Only after he answered the questions clearly -- more clearly than anyone at the Christian Booksellers Convention -- did Doc offer to meet with him and show him how to study the Bible.  I was taken back at first, then appreciated the wisdom in Doc.

Such care was a powerful example to me. Luther said we needed to be continually reminded of these things and the Gospel miust be beaten into our heads. Let us review and renew our minds with the Gospel every day -- and with our church all the time.   

No Place for "Jesus and . . . "

Jesus stood in the midst of Jerusalem, charged with breaking the Sabbath.  He claimed to be in perfect communication with the Father, in complete submission to the Father, and to be a total picture of the Father.  All authority to give life and to judge has been given to Him.  Then he informs his inquisitors that they will hear his voice on the LAST day -- and his voice will summons the dead from their graves to a resurrection of life or judgment. (John 5:19-30).

All this is that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father (5:23).

I was struck by this simple truth -- He is the Gospel.  His person and work is Who we celebrate.  This is unlike any religion .  He does not give us five pillars or an eight fold path.  He does not teach us philosophy or a path to enlightenment.  He is the Savior who calls the dead to life.  Christianity is not at all about me.

Here we find the depths of our need -- our salvation required the action of the Son of God.  Here we find the infinite glory of the Savior -- the Lord of destiny for each human.  Here we find his work.  He would be obedient to the Father unto the death of the cross.  He would die that he may give life.  He would be judged that he might pronounce forgiveness. 

My application this morning was this:  there can be no other competitors to Him.  That is what we mean by Gospel Driven Living.  There is no place for Jesus AND anything else.  No place for pet peeves -- we are not to be into Jesus and cool worship music -- or Jesus and the time of the rapture -- or Jesus and AWANA -- or Jesus and homeschooling -- or Jesus and Reformed theology -- or Jesus and charismatic gifts -- or Jesus and complementarianism. . . .  The list of favorite issues is endless.  They diminish Christ -- rob him of his unique glory.    Certainly we may have convictions in these areas, but let them orbit about the Son of God.  Our hearts must be captivated by HIM ALONE.

So, when you introduce yourself to someone -- what do you say?  "Hi my name is X and I am into . . . ."  There is only one answer: My name is X and I am a worship per of Jesus crucified and risen.

Jesus as the solution . . . .

To my thinking, Gospel centeredness is the best description of the New Testament.  If the Gospel is the center, then our lives are Gospel Driven.  Is the Gospel the center?  To verify this, simply highlight every reference to Jesus and his work in the letters of the apostles.  A good friend put it this way: the entire New Testament can be summed up in this way, Jesus the Christ has lived, died on the cross for sin, and rose from death -- live in light of that. 

But today I came to see that this focus makes sense only if someone is asking the question: How does God see me? There must be a Godward orientation. How God sees the world and our lives in particular is the issue at hand.

From God's position, we are found to be pitiful creatures.  Made in his image, we are capable of the most amazing acts of courage and grace.   As an example, consider acts of heroism in the rescue of people from danger -- or the persevering love of a parent toward a thankless child. 

We are also corrupt.  Those capable of such noble deeds may simultaneously be explosive in anger, enthralled by ego, endlessly self-promotingm or secretly enslaved to lust.  We are as the ruins of ancient Athens -- when one visits the Acropolis, one finds majestic architectural beauty now corrupted by decay. So it is with the entire world. 

Evceryone agrees that we have a problem, but not all agree that the solution lies outside of ourselves.  And so it is that humanity extends itself in education, religious devotion, criminal rehabilitation, government programs, and social actions to right what is so wrong in persons and society. This is self-salvation.

To such folks the message of Jesus coming in life, death, and resurrection is utterly beyond reason.  What does such a life and death have to do with global evil? More than that, it is a threat to their vaunted remedies.  They attempt to domesticate the claims of Jesus, transforming him into just another relgious viewpoint. His teachings, they assert, are basically the same as all the other world religions. But he will not be shrunk into such limited categories.

To the eyes of humanity, our problem is limited, and not deep.  People are basically good and proper action will put an end to the evil of the world.  Optimism is the hope that all will turn out well and the essentially good in humankind will eventually triumph. It is all in vain.  Nothing changes.

A few years ago I sat at a community dinner next to a very well read elderly woman.  As the conversation progressed she exuded enthusiasm at living in such a time of hope.  She bubbled over about the goodness of humanity and how wonderful it was to see human progress.  When I noted that in the previous hundred years more people had been put to death by their own governments than by war, she was silenced. Finally she collapsed, "I guess there has not been much progress."

To the eyes of God our problem is a corruption that extends to every molecule of our being -- it is as though our DNA is out of whack.  But more than that, our very souls are distorted. No human solution will be effective -- it is impossible to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  God must act, and God has done so.  God took on human flesh, lived the life of obedience he requires of us, and voluntarily laid down his life in a sacrificial death.  His death carried sin into the grave and judged all human forms of self-salvation.  His resurrection began a new day.  His return will rid the world of unrighteousness.

Gospel Driven Living is the constant celebration of his achievement, now hidden.  It is the constant repudiation of all forms of self-dependent deliverance from sin.  It is the anticipation of his full triumph in his return.

living in the Gospel

I think most people hear about being Gospel centered and they are suspicious.  It sounds simplistic.  It sounds like all we do is evangelism and preach John 3:16 sermons.  Not so. I am seeking to explain what it means.

Gospel centeredness is what Paul is after in Colossians. "As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him . . . "  He rebukes this church for "not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together . . . " (2:6-7, 19).  What does this mean?

The Colossians were looking elsewhere in faith for their deliverance from sin and acceptability with God.  They created rules and mandated experiences.  They thought they would help out the Savior -- butress him in any way where he needed support.  That, at least, is how Paul read it.  And the fruit was a diminishing of the centrality of Jesus and the fullness of grace in Him.  He no longer was solo -- he was in a duet with other means of grace.

Gospel centeredness means cultivating in our hearts a singular depeendence on Christ and his blood applied to our lives by the Spirit. Our hearts, as Calvin put it, are a factory for idols.  I have observed over years that people (myself included) make a church program or a particular way of training their children into an idol -- they place their hope in it.  People have an experience with the Holy Spirit and immediately trust their experience.  People have a few days of joy and willing obedience and soon trust their momentum.  People want to raise their children in godliness and find a method that is helpful (whether the help of an AWANA program or the plan for homeschooling) and they quickly make it absolutely necessary. 

More recently, people write books that are guaranteed to change our lives.  Their truths and their principles are "revolutionary."  The conclusion is that the reason we continue to battle our sin and fail to grow is that we have not known these previously secret truths.  When pastors teach a lot of "how to" sermons, they are teaching people that what is lacking in their godliness is understanding the steps of obedience.

Pastors practice idolatry when they buy into the latest wisdom from the latest success story. We go out and imitate their method thinking it will guarantee our pastoral success.

Certainly there are means for our growth present all around us -- but they are not our Savior.  Christ Jesus alone is our Savior.  Gospel centeredness means I know the depth of my soul's disease and the ONE remedy sufficient to renew my heart -- the crucified and risen Christ.  I look to Him alone every day. 

Can I tell you about a church I have observed for twenty years?  They would be an example.  At one time this church knew the favor of God.  They were fruitful and prospering.  Some of their ministries were studied by others.  But soon they worshipped their success and the blessing of God faded.  They were idolaters. 

What followed was multiple attempts to renew the ministry by revitalizing programs -- they tried new methods of discipleship, new bulletins, new styles of music, new staff members, cool websites, consultants and new structure for leadership.  It was all in vain.  They were worshipping their great history and had ceased to hear the voice of the Spirit.  They had ceased to place their hope in the Savior alone.  Sadly, they have faded.  Image and appearance have become more important to them than facing their own hearts at the foot of the cross.

That story could be repeated a hundred times. My observation of my own life is that the more I am meditating on the riches of Jesus, and the more I am looking to him alone in trust, the greater my joy and fruitfulness.  I must war against all substitutes -- all idols.  Christ alone must be the One on whom my hope is built.

Ruined to this world

The most frequent question I hear about being Gospel centered has to do with "what difference does it make?"  I wanted to take a few stabs at that and ask your thoughts as well.

I think one implication is that all my values are turned upside down.  God, who owns and rules all things, who is worthy of honor and respect, set all that aside in love in order to redeem a people of his own.  Those people are rebels -- hateful to Him.  They put his Son to death.  He purposed this and knew this and loved us still.

So, if all that I think is important, all that I pursue is renounced by Jesus for the sake of love -- what does that I say about what I pursue?  By Jesus death the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. 

Being Gospel centered means I do not simply teach people to "love not the world" -- a good Buddhist can do that.  A Buddhist believes that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are evil.  The Buddha precribes an 8 fold path to set ourselves free from such passions.  Are we just like them?  Absolutely not.

Jesus does not teach us a path to be free from love of the world.  He judges the ruler of the world and the values of the world -- but he does not judge it with moral teaching, he judges it by his sacrificial death.  He is crucified and with him the present age is crucified.  His sacrifice breaks the power of the world.  And it opens up to us a new world -- life and immortality come to light in the Gospel.  We are delivered from the vain hope of religion and morality.

That may seem like a subtle difference -- but it is not.  There is a chasm of difference between self-help salvation and personal efforts to love not the world -- and the sacrificial death of Jesus (the Gospel) and its powerful working on our lives. When I teach people to love not the world but do not lead them to faith in the crucified and risen Jesus as their hope in doing so, I set them on a totally wrong path.

The Gospel and Seven Habits

A few years ago I attended a wonderful seminar by Stephen Covey. I had been struggling with the use of my time and energies. Someone offered to pay my way to give me needed help. Covey laid out a system for investing one’s life in the things that matter. He gave criteria for determining what was important and encouraged us to shut out the loud voice of the urgent concerns that screamed for my attention.

I began to use it systematically. I still go back to its principles to refresh my memory and reorganize. But there was no Gospel in anything he said. He is a devout Mormon. He does talk about God. But he did not talk about human sin, judgment of sin, the death of Christ for sin. He never related any of these to how we live. He gave “workable principles” that were as legitimate for atheists as for Christians.

As I left the seminar I began to wonder how many Christians think that following Christ is just like following Covey. We live our lives by principles that work, and they work whether one is a believer or an unbeliever. We have been forgiven and now we find the princples that work. I cannot imagine an idea more alien to the New Testament!

The Christian life is impossible for an unbeliever! It is not principles, but power. The greatest enemy to the Gospel is a belief in human ability to improve themselves morally. I have been a pastor for twenty years and I have few memories of folks who live by the Gospel. When they face a question in life they turn to the Bible for a rule or principle to live by. They do not turn to the Gospel for direction. Once someone believes in Jesus they hardly think on the Gospel except as a reminder of their forgiveness. The New Testament says we live by and stand in the Gospel.