"How could you have become so foolish? What delusion has distracted you from what you once clearly saw - the Gospel of grace in the saving death of Jesus Christ?"
Paul to the Galatians (3: 1 -paraphrased).
I've often wondered, whilst I've attended church over the numerous decades of my life as a Christian, why it is that, so often, the gospel itself simply isn't enough.
It's often all too clear that it isn't - in our preaching, our worship songs, our busy little service activities and the pointing to all that we're doing beyond that - there's a clear emphasis. Like the rich man who came to Jesus looking for 'the formula' or the 'how to' guide to eternal life, we are clearly convinced that what it's all about is ticking the particular boxes that mean all is right with the world - yep, it all looks good, and, of course, it keeps us well away from all that 'free grace' naivety... fine for those 'new' to the faith, but we've 'moved on' and are now more 'spiritual' than that.
We can dress it any way we like, but the truth behind so many of our 'good' pretenses is that we're playing at religion because we're deeply uncomfortable with the bare, unvarnished reality of the message of grace.
'How can it be fair or right', a little voice inside us asks, that the vilest sinners (not us, of course) get into the Kingdom of God before those who do so much good, who are so noble and upright in their living... it truly beggars belief! How can I really have confidence in a message which has such ridiculous notions of what really counts.... no, we clearly need to be busy to make this whole thing of value.
And so, we undermine the real truth of the matter - that our 'righteousness' is a mere mask for the canker that resides beneath (which we usually refuse to see) and thereby we cannot recognize, every moment of every day, our total need for nothing more than a deliverance entirely beyond ourselves.
The tragedy of such ugliness is two fold. It actually removes us from the life which comes from Christ, for that gift is replete with mercy given in time of need (and, let's face it, we really don't see much of a need for that) which is tragic enough, but it also means we offer nothing but a ghastly caricature of both God and His saving grace to those who come amongst us hungering and thirsting for His care and love. To be a saint, we teach, you must become like us, 'godly... pure... beyond reproach'. Like the Pharisees, we make such 'converts' twice as fit for hell as ourselves!
We are indeed like the second son in Christ's parable (Matthew 21 :28-31). In truth, we often believe that our ability to 'change our spots' and 'be good' is so the norm, that we can deny the Father's request to go and truly work in the field (share we He wants us to share) beyond some form of lip-service to it - nothing more is required.
We need to see afresh what such 'goodness' costs - it does nothing to help, but merely murders the truth.... We become a 'bushel of works which stifles the light of the world'.
The Gospel points us to a life, a work, a gift, which is entirely outside of us. The very faith needed to trust in its scope is alien to us - a gift of God - so why do we then chose to hide in the hovel of our own self-worth?
'Church' is here for one purpose, and one only - to point to Jesus, for He alone is the one who saves us totally. Everything else, including all those 'little goodnesses' we so easily allow to pat us on the back, are, as the old hymn says, sinking sands.
Our life can only be 'hid' in Christ before God.
May it ever be.
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Clarity!
This is, without doubt, one of the key areas where Christians go wrong.... Sanctification.
This latest post from Alden really hits the spot.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
The Wounding Church
"We limp in faith from the bed of our death, through the blood of the cross, to the the joy of Christ's resurrection". Robert Capon Farrar.
I watched a two-hour long documentary last night on the growth and teaching of the emergent church. The analysis was telling, not only in its accuracy with regards to where the likes of this phenomenon has departed from orthodox theology and practice, but equally, if unintentionally, as to why so many have made such an exit from mainstream Christianity. Amidst the sharp critique of some (not all) of those defining the painful declarations of de-constructive spirituality, was a clear adherence to the kind of theology which internally wounds the church as much as any external intrusion of alien (non-christian) approaches to God.
It's usually pretty easy to unmask teachings which present a God or faith which is contrary to the character and relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to His handiwork, but what is equally, if not far more dangerous, is those welcomed within the very fold and ministry of the faith who are effectively tearing down the very core of God's redemptive work in Christ (justification by Grace alone through Faith alone) by a seeking to re-establish the place of the Law over and above the Gospel.
Sometimes this happens simply out of ignorance. I recently attended a service where a young student minister was preaching in such a fashion, that I don't think he was even really aware of what he was doing. It made my blood boil to hear it, but I know that there are others in that church who will work hard to take and keep people beyond such folly, so that is something (and quite rare right now), but watching the documentary made me realize afresh why it is that so many have been so scarred and bruised amidst Christianity- not by Christ, but by the church- that they have had to go elsewhere to try and find something better! The reason why such movements begin and grow is because of the great numbers of people who have gone to 'orthodox' churches and been thrashed again, and again, and again by nothing but a 'gospel' of law which has been emptied of the riches of Christ and God's unmerited mercy and love towards us.
When the Gospel is 'clipped' of this primary, essential message of the redemptive work of God in Christ, then all religious belief and practice becomes nothing more than our seeking to be valid before a god of our own making, and most certainly not the living God who justifies the wicked.
We can indeed become grieved when men profess a faith which denies Christ as seen in His own words or those of His Apostles and Prophets, and rightly so, but should we not be all the more deeply anguished when, in those very churches which deem themselves to be genuinely 'christian', the life-giving bread of the Gospel, the person, of Jesus Christ, is not broken and shared, but in truth withheld from the very souls which are there to feed upon Him - to meet with God with a broken and contrite heart and to eat of His grace in their time of need? Is that not the greatest evil of all - to leave men and women outside of that mercy and fellowship when that is why we are here... to hold out that word of life?
We simply cannot deal in many of our churches today with the manner of 'Lordship' evidenced in Christ Himself in the upper room at the last supper - removing His clothing and girding Himself in a towel (dressing Himself as a slave, as the Living Bible so succinctly puts it) to wash the feet of those who were His friends - those who, in spite of all the failings and denials, He loved totally, and would give His life to save just a few short hours later.
This gospel means we totally and entirely saved "not by our successes but in and through our failures... Our so-called 'successes' cannot be saved - they are nothing but suits of obsolete armor, ineffective moral and spiritual contraptions we have climbed into to avoid facing the thing which can save us - our totally naked vulnerability before Jesus, for it is the person He lives and dies for, not the suit we contrive to wear" (Farrar - Parables of Judgement).
Is this the God with whom we have to do in our Sunday services, our bible studies, our daily lives, because if we are not focused upon this God, seen in the incarnation and life of His only begotten Son, then we really have nothing to say - THAT is the reality.
The pain of the emergent church is great, but that is primarily because it shouts so loudly regarding the failure of mainline Christianity to 'speak' the truth in love, evidenced in God's reconciling work in Jesus Christ. Because of that failing, many of us who, miraculously still attend a church, know only too well of such wounding, and can only hope and pray that even as such bruised reeds and smoldering flaxes, we can seek to point to true grace in these days of such great need.
I watched a two-hour long documentary last night on the growth and teaching of the emergent church. The analysis was telling, not only in its accuracy with regards to where the likes of this phenomenon has departed from orthodox theology and practice, but equally, if unintentionally, as to why so many have made such an exit from mainstream Christianity. Amidst the sharp critique of some (not all) of those defining the painful declarations of de-constructive spirituality, was a clear adherence to the kind of theology which internally wounds the church as much as any external intrusion of alien (non-christian) approaches to God.
It's usually pretty easy to unmask teachings which present a God or faith which is contrary to the character and relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to His handiwork, but what is equally, if not far more dangerous, is those welcomed within the very fold and ministry of the faith who are effectively tearing down the very core of God's redemptive work in Christ (justification by Grace alone through Faith alone) by a seeking to re-establish the place of the Law over and above the Gospel.
Sometimes this happens simply out of ignorance. I recently attended a service where a young student minister was preaching in such a fashion, that I don't think he was even really aware of what he was doing. It made my blood boil to hear it, but I know that there are others in that church who will work hard to take and keep people beyond such folly, so that is something (and quite rare right now), but watching the documentary made me realize afresh why it is that so many have been so scarred and bruised amidst Christianity- not by Christ, but by the church- that they have had to go elsewhere to try and find something better! The reason why such movements begin and grow is because of the great numbers of people who have gone to 'orthodox' churches and been thrashed again, and again, and again by nothing but a 'gospel' of law which has been emptied of the riches of Christ and God's unmerited mercy and love towards us.
When the Gospel is 'clipped' of this primary, essential message of the redemptive work of God in Christ, then all religious belief and practice becomes nothing more than our seeking to be valid before a god of our own making, and most certainly not the living God who justifies the wicked.
We can indeed become grieved when men profess a faith which denies Christ as seen in His own words or those of His Apostles and Prophets, and rightly so, but should we not be all the more deeply anguished when, in those very churches which deem themselves to be genuinely 'christian', the life-giving bread of the Gospel, the person, of Jesus Christ, is not broken and shared, but in truth withheld from the very souls which are there to feed upon Him - to meet with God with a broken and contrite heart and to eat of His grace in their time of need? Is that not the greatest evil of all - to leave men and women outside of that mercy and fellowship when that is why we are here... to hold out that word of life?
We simply cannot deal in many of our churches today with the manner of 'Lordship' evidenced in Christ Himself in the upper room at the last supper - removing His clothing and girding Himself in a towel (dressing Himself as a slave, as the Living Bible so succinctly puts it) to wash the feet of those who were His friends - those who, in spite of all the failings and denials, He loved totally, and would give His life to save just a few short hours later.
This gospel means we totally and entirely saved "not by our successes but in and through our failures... Our so-called 'successes' cannot be saved - they are nothing but suits of obsolete armor, ineffective moral and spiritual contraptions we have climbed into to avoid facing the thing which can save us - our totally naked vulnerability before Jesus, for it is the person He lives and dies for, not the suit we contrive to wear" (Farrar - Parables of Judgement).
Is this the God with whom we have to do in our Sunday services, our bible studies, our daily lives, because if we are not focused upon this God, seen in the incarnation and life of His only begotten Son, then we really have nothing to say - THAT is the reality.
The pain of the emergent church is great, but that is primarily because it shouts so loudly regarding the failure of mainline Christianity to 'speak' the truth in love, evidenced in God's reconciling work in Jesus Christ. Because of that failing, many of us who, miraculously still attend a church, know only too well of such wounding, and can only hope and pray that even as such bruised reeds and smoldering flaxes, we can seek to point to true grace in these days of such great need.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Sola Christos
"One thing, and only one thing is necessary for Christian life, righteousness and freedom. That one thing is the living Word of God - the Gospel of Christ " (John 11:25). Martin Luther.
Happy Reformation Day!
Sunday, 28 October 2012
More?
"This parable insists that the kingdom enters the world at creation and that there is not, and never has been any 'unkingdomed' humanity anywhere in the world. For by, through, and with the very breath and waters that make and restore creation... in the mist that watered Eden, in the paschal blood upon doorposts, the Jordan waters and the flow from Christ's side on the cross, the river of life of the New Jerusalem is evidenced - the Word is indeed the yeast that leaves not one scrap of the world unleavened - He has always been hidden within creation".
Robert Farrar Capon on the Mustard seed & the Leaven.
I was recently reading C R Wiley's review (Modern Reformation magazine) of Alain de Botton's recent book, Religion for Atheists, which makes a mixture of astute and predictable observations of both contemporary Atheism and Christianity. What truly struck me in the review was both writers' focus upon what Wiley terms "Reformed aesthetics", or more precisely, the lack thereof.
Since my childhood, I've been drawn to the power of 'picturing' the wonderful, be it Tom's magical garden, or the snow-covered woods of Narnia. When I was fourteen, my art teacher introduced me to the Tate Gallery in London, and I spent an amazing afternoon amidst the Pre Raphaelites. In the mid-90's , I can also recall a truly wonderful visit to London's V&A and being enthralled in the renaissance sculpture gallery. These are just a few select moments of many where the visual has enthralled, inspired and informed my own life and fed my soul.
Painting such images - using the visual to speak loudly of the spiritual in life - is not alien to our faith - far from it. The Old Testament and the Gospels, as well as Revelation, are full of images from history, and equally in poetry and parable that are provided to convey some key truths to us about the spiritual within the material, so where are such manner of illustrations in our modern culture?
Contemporary artists of all stripes around us are not afraid to tap this rich resource. Some of the best movies, shows and books of our times readily access the themes of human nature and the need for redemption in many of their major themes, and yet the church often seems strangely removed from such potent inter-action. Are we meant to be the advocates of the bland, the mediocre, the ugly? Shouldn't we be using the visually striking to stand up and say "do you see that? Do you understand what that implies?"
In the work of Creation, the very first element that is brought to bear upon the crude, unfurnished mass of the heavens and earth by the Word is light, for this brings clarity and allows an understanding and an adornment of the universe that is satisfying and inspiring. The work of God is to allow to us to see His hand in Christ within life if we genuinely look for this. If we are children of His mercies, then surely, our art (speaking, painting, writing) can do no less.
Robert Farrar Capon on the Mustard seed & the Leaven.
I was recently reading C R Wiley's review (Modern Reformation magazine) of Alain de Botton's recent book, Religion for Atheists, which makes a mixture of astute and predictable observations of both contemporary Atheism and Christianity. What truly struck me in the review was both writers' focus upon what Wiley terms "Reformed aesthetics", or more precisely, the lack thereof.
Since my childhood, I've been drawn to the power of 'picturing' the wonderful, be it Tom's magical garden, or the snow-covered woods of Narnia. When I was fourteen, my art teacher introduced me to the Tate Gallery in London, and I spent an amazing afternoon amidst the Pre Raphaelites. In the mid-90's , I can also recall a truly wonderful visit to London's V&A and being enthralled in the renaissance sculpture gallery. These are just a few select moments of many where the visual has enthralled, inspired and informed my own life and fed my soul.
Painting such images - using the visual to speak loudly of the spiritual in life - is not alien to our faith - far from it. The Old Testament and the Gospels, as well as Revelation, are full of images from history, and equally in poetry and parable that are provided to convey some key truths to us about the spiritual within the material, so where are such manner of illustrations in our modern culture?
Contemporary artists of all stripes around us are not afraid to tap this rich resource. Some of the best movies, shows and books of our times readily access the themes of human nature and the need for redemption in many of their major themes, and yet the church often seems strangely removed from such potent inter-action. Are we meant to be the advocates of the bland, the mediocre, the ugly? Shouldn't we be using the visually striking to stand up and say "do you see that? Do you understand what that implies?"
In the work of Creation, the very first element that is brought to bear upon the crude, unfurnished mass of the heavens and earth by the Word is light, for this brings clarity and allows an understanding and an adornment of the universe that is satisfying and inspiring. The work of God is to allow to us to see His hand in Christ within life if we genuinely look for this. If we are children of His mercies, then surely, our art (speaking, painting, writing) can do no less.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Thinking Aloud...
I'm very thankful to my friend, Steve Clement, for this link. There are a whole range of papers here on Christianity's relationship to key issues facing us today, so well worth a visit. I particularly enjoyed Stephen Meyer's robust paper on why theism is still at the very heart of understanding what science is telling us about the nature of reality.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
The right direction.
The first thing we need to do when opening a New Testament letter is understand who it's seeking to address, and why. Alden's new innings of discussions on Christians and the Law does so on one of the essential pieces of the scriptures - The Book of Romans.
you can read this introductory study for yourself here.
I'm already thirsty for more!
you can read this introductory study for yourself here.
I'm already thirsty for more!
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