Three Views of the Christian Life

In his sermon this morning at my church (Sovereign Grace Church), one of my pastors, Tab, noted that there are three different views of the Christian life that a Christian can take. Only one is helpful.

1. Legalism: You must obey in order to be loved.
2. License: You are already loved, so there is no need to obey.
3. Gospel: You are loved, so obey. (John 15:9-11)

You are deeply loved by a God who sent his obedient Son to die in the place of wretchedly disobedient men & women. Therefore, obey.

2011 Reading List

At the end of every year, I always find it interesting to list out all of the books I read in the past 365 days and compare them to what I read in years past.

Below is my list of the books I read in 2011. Each book is ranked using the highly sophisticated star system (more stars is better). Let me know if you have any questions about any of the books.

1. Lit! by Tony Reinke (5 stars)
2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (4 stars)
3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (4 stars)
4. Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli (4 stars)
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (5 stars)
6. Knowing God by JI Packer (5 stars)
7. Manhunt by James Swanson (3 stars; stopped at 25%)
8. The Roots of Endurance by John Piper (4 stars)
9. What Is the Mission of the Church? by Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert (5 stars)
10. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (4 stars)
11. Jim & Casper Go to Church by Jim Henderson (2 stars)
12. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (3 stars)
13. The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (5 stars)
14. King's Cross by Tim Keller (5 stars)
15. The Holiness of God by RC Sproul (5 stars)
16. Money by Jamie Munson (4 stars)
17. Power Encounters by David Powlison (4 stars)
18. Getting Things Done by David Allen (5 stars)
19. First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham (5 stars)
20. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (3 stars)

It Isn't Fair!!

"We have come to expect God to merciful. From there the next step is easy: We demand it. When it is not forthcoming, our first response is anger against God, coupled with the protest: "It isn't fair!" We soon forget that with our first sin we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything. If He allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice."   - RC Sproul in The Holiness of God

2010 Reading List

Here's what Aaron and I read for the year of 2010.

Jonathan's Reading List 

1. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (70% complete) 
2. Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraff (30% complete) 
3. When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert & Steve Corbett (50% complete)
4. Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas (5 stars)
   
5. The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (5 stars)
6. Teach Them Diligently by Lou Priolo (5 stars)
7. The Life of Edward Irving by Arnold Dallimore (5 stars) 
8. The Glory of God edited by Christopher Morgan (4.5 stars)
   
9. The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy (5 stars)
10. Evangelicalism Divided by Iain Murray (5 stars) 
11. The Masculine Mandate by Richard Phillips (5 stars) 
12. Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey (4.5 stars) 
13. Is God Really in Control? by Jerry Bridges (4.5 stars) 
14. A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden (5 stars) 
15. The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels by Gordon Fee (4 stars) 
16. Radical by David Platt (5 stars) 
17. Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff (4 stars) 
18. Family Worship by Don Whitney (5 stars) 
19. What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert (5 stars) 
20. Be Still, My Soul by Nancy Guthrie (5 stars) 
21. In the Land of Believers by Gina Welch (3.5 stars for interesting read, not content) 
22. Holy Subversion by Trevin Wax (4 stars) 
23. Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller (5 stars) 
24. Family-Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham (5 stars) 
25. God's Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts (5 stars)

Aaron's Reading List

1. Finally Alive by John Piper (75%)
2. The Future of Justification by John Piper (75%)
3. Justification by N. T. Wright (45%)
4. What Is The Gospel? by Greg Gilbert (4 stars)
5. The Case for Classical Christian Education by Doug Wilson (15%)
6. The Kingdom of God by Martin Lloyd-Jones (25%)
7. The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (80%)
8. The Reason for God by Tim Keller (5 stars)
9. Young, Restless and Reformed by Collin Hansen (4 stars)
10. Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy (4.5 stars)
11. Church Planting Is For Wimps by Mike McKinley (4 stars)

Christmas Is the End of Redemptive History

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's an appropriate quote from John Piper (1981) to as Christmas comes to an close:

"Creation out of nothing was an awesome event. Imagine what the angelic spirits must have felt when the universe, material reality of which they had never imagined, was brought forth out of nothing by the command of God.

The fall was an awful event, shaking the entire creation.

The exodus was an amazing display of God’s power and love.

The giving of the law, the wilderness provisions, the conquering of Canaan, the prosperity of the monarchy—all these acts of God in redemptive history were very great and wonderful. Each one was a very significant bend in the river of redemptive history, bringing it ever and ever closer to the ocean of God’s final kingdom.

But we trivialize Christmas, the incarnation, if we treat it as just another bend on the way to the end. It is the end of redemptive history.

And I think the analogy of the river helps us see how.

Picture the river as redemptive history flowing toward the ocean which is the final kingdom of God, full of glory and righteousness and peace. At the end of the river the ocean presses up into the river with its salt water. Therefore, at the mouth of the river there is a mingling of fresh water and salt water. One might say that the kingdom of God has pressed its way back up into the river of time a short way. It has surprised the travelers and taken them off guard. They can smell the salt water. They can taste the salt water. The sea gulls circle the deck. The end has come upon them.

Christmas is not another bend in the river. It is the arrival of the salt water of the kingdom of God which has backed up into the river of history. With the coming of Christmas, the ocean of the age to come has reached backward up the stream of history to welcome us, to wake us up to what is coming, to lure us on into the deep.

Christmas is not another bend in the river of history. It is the end of the river. Let down your dipper and taste of Jesus Christ, his birth and life and death and resurrection. Taste and see if the age to come has not arrived, if the kingdom has not come upon us. Does it not make your eyes sparkle?"

 Thanks to: Justin Taylor

Just Plain Awesome!

Articles on Idolatry & Free Will

 Here are a two more articles that I added to the Articles page of this blog today.  "Soul Idolatry" by David Clarkson is a tough one and will take a while to trudge through, but it is definitely a must-read!

• Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven by David Clarkson (PDF also available)
• Compatibilist Middle Knowledge by DS Smith

New Articles

I'm finally going to start updating the Articles page on this blog.  As I read a good article, I'll put it on the page and let you know that I've added a new one.  Here's the first one that was added.

9Marks eJournal on Multi-site Churches (PDF also available)

Quote from the Author of "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound"

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am."  - John Newton

What Is Sustaining Grace?

Last Sunday, one of my pastor's preached an excellent sermon on the grace bestowed on us by Jesus, namely, His saving grace and His sustaining grace.  You can listen to it or download it here.  As I was listening to him describe Christ's sustaining grace, I was reminded of a poem of John Piper's that he expounds upon and explains during a sermon he gave on the same topic.  I think it's a succinct & helpful reminder of what God's sustaining grace is.

"Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble & pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain."

The Apostle of the Golden Age--Interview Response

While reading the September 2010 issue of Christianity Today, I stumbled upon an interview with Classics Scholar Sarah Ruden. Earlier in the year, Pantheon Books published Ruden's Paul Among The People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time. I'm not particularly concerned with the content of that particular book, but I thought it might serve some of our readers to see one of the responses she gave to John Wilson's interview question/suggestion.

John Wilson: Quoting freely from many classical authors, you show how a kind of casual brutality was taken for granted in the ancient world, and how Paul's attitudes, by contrast, actually have much more in common with the norms of the 21st century.

Ruden:

"What characterizes our society at its best is the habit of looking at ourselves with a critical attitude. I think this really started for Western civilization on the road to Damascus. Paul is doing what he's expected to do in his environment. He's involved in persecution.This is all sanctioned by authority, and it's going to get him ahead in his career. He has this revelation, and he is forced to answer the questions, What are you doing? What are you actually doing? Why are you persecuting me? That is, what you do to the the world, what you do to other people, is what you do to God. So there's a galvanizing, horrifying, but enlightening realization that what you do every moment you do in the sight of an infinitely loving God. Paul's entire ministry was about that idea. He made a lot of mistakes. He certainly had changes of mind. He had regrets. As he repeatedly said about himself, he was really painfully human in pursuing this idea. He took no personal credit for what he accomplished - the credit belonged to God. But he pursued this great truth relentlessly. And I think that has made us who we are religiously and ethically. That is what brought the ministry of Jesus into our lives in very practical ways."

A few noteworthy thoughts:

1. Ruden's response isn't meant to be read as a heavy treatment of Paul's theology (and it seems obvious that she's more comfortable speaking about his views in very general terms), but I find it remarkable, that the Paul she describes is pretty consistent with the impression you get of his personal characteristics when reading his work.

A few examples:

Paul's Humility -- not taking credit, giving God the glory
Paul's Zeal -- his relentless pursuit of the truth he believes
Paul's Focus -- his entire ministry focused on a single truth

2.Her suggestion that Paul's experience on the road toward Damascus is foundational to an understanding of Western Society's self criticism as a whole is fascinating. I don't care to get into all of the implications underlying this assumption, but I believe it is a worthy suggestion. As a classical scholar, she's not really interested in the mission of Paul (or even his success or lack there-of) as much as she is interested in the message of Paul. The amazing thing about her discovery, is that the text itself seems to exemplify the changes from authoritarian brutality to humble leadership we observe more commonly in Western society. Paul asserts authority in a different way. Paul makes bold claims and answers ethical dilemmas with words meant to enlighten, warn and inform, rather than beat the reader into subjection.

Ultimately, I don't think this post is a fair representation of everything Ruden is trying to say in her book or even in this interview, but it's always encouraging to see scholarship that throws the usual (or rather "en vogue") presuppositions out the window to try to get a clear view of what the author is saying rather than serve an agenda. Ruden's views may be generic and docile enough to suit a variety of opinions, but we may say that her discoveries of Paul's inner-thoughts and context seem to match the Paul we've come to know and respect.

Is it not true that we've been blessed by this servant of Christ? I cannot speak for Ruden regarding her findings, but I'm encouraged to read some of the fruits of her labor that lead me to think on a faithful servant of an even more faithful God! Christ has blessed his bride with a body that works. A body that has big parts and little parts. Some parts have written the very Word of God, have appointed leaders and cast out demons. Some parts read the Word of God, serve quietly and suffer with confident assurance in their Savior. I believe all have something to learn of Paul's humility, zeal and focus. I believe all have something to learn of Paul's "things of first importance", and most of all his Lord, Jesus the Messiah.

What Is the Bible Basically About?

Thanks to: Colin Hansen

You Must Suffer

"For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake."  - Philippians 1:29 ESV

Thou Poor, Afflicted, Tempted Soul

Today, I downloaded Red Mountain Music's rendition of the old hymn, "Thou Poor, Afflicted, Tempted Soul," by John Berridge.  I'd never heard it before today, but it really ministered to my weary soul.  So go download the song for free from NoiseTrade.com (actually, you can download the whole album!) and meditate on these words.

Thou poor, afflicted, tempted soul,
With fears, and doubts, and tempests tossed.
What if the billows rise and roll,
And dash thy ship, it is not lost;
The winds and waves and fiends may roar,
But Christ will bring thee safe on shore.
The winds and waves and fiends may roar,
But Christ will bring thee safe on shore.

What ails those eyes bedewed with tears?
Those laboring sighs that heave thy breast?
Those oft repeated, broken prayers?
Dost thou not long for Jesus' rest?
And can the Lord pass heedless by,
And see a mourning sinner die?
And can the Lord pass heedless by,
And see a sad and mourning sinner die?

Matt Chandler Sermon Jam

Boom goes the dynamite!!



Thanks to: Zach Nielsen

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Dane Ortlund recently wrote a short post on the story behind George Matheson's hymn, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." What a moving and truth-filled testimony!

*********************************************************

O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be

O Light that foll’west all my way
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be

Stabilizing lines, especially for those in darkness.

Do you know the story behind it?

At age 20 George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancee, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.

A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.

The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.

In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.

O love that will not let me go. Heartening hope for you and me.

Here’s the last stanza.

O Cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be

 Thanks to: Dane Ortlund via Justin Taylor's blog

The Difference Between Election & Predestination

Kevin DeYoung has a helpful post on the difference between the doctrines of election and predestination. Here's an excerpt.

I had someone ask me this question recently. My short answer is: in popular usage, not a lot.
The terms election and predestination are often used interchangeably, both referring to God’s gracious decree whereby he chooses some for eternal life. In Romans 8:30 Paul speaks of those whom God has predestined, called, justified, and (in the end) glorified. In 8:33 Paul references “the elect,” apparently a synonym for the predestined ones described a few verses earlier.

A sharp distinction between the two words is not warranted from Scripture, but if there is a distinction to be made, predestination is the general term for God’s sovereign ordaining, while election is the specific term for God choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That is, predestination is the broader category of which election is the smaller subset. Calvin defined predestination as “God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man…Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or to death” (Inst. III.xxi.5). For Calvin, predestination encompasses the entire eternal decree. Election and reprobation, then, represent two different aspects of the decree. The Canons of Dort Article 1 makes the same distinctions.

Read the rest.

Greatest Baseball Catch I've Ever Seen

I had a dream last night.  In it, I did this...



Thanks to: Jared Moore

Affected by the Gospel

Today, as I was designing at work while listening to some music on my ipod, God made me freshly aware of the weight of my own sin, but even more so, of the overwhelming glory of my Savior who took my sin and made it his own so that now God can pronounce me forgiven.  And this time, God did it through a son.

"My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!"
        - It Is Well by Horatio Spafford

Thank you, Jesus, for going to the cross on my behalf.  That should have been me.

Christians and Karma

Throughout the history of the church, one common temptation has been to import pagan concepts & practices into the church and intertwine them with Christianity itself.  This can be done intentionally.  Case in point would be the Old Testament Jews as their sons married Gentile daughters, thus adopting some Gentile religious practices into their daily lives.  However, my guess is the majority of these cases are unintentional.  Overexposure to any worldly concept can lead to a general acceptance of the idea, thus propping the door open for incorporation into everyday practice.  I believe this has happened today in the Christian church with the Hindu concept of karma.


If you're not immediately familiar with karma, I'm sure you will be after you hear the definition. Dictionary.com defines karma as "action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation."  Hindu philosophy holds that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next life will be rewarding, and if not, the person may actually devolve and degenerate into a lower life form. In order to achieve good karma it is important to live life according to what is right (About.com).  Basically, karma means this: Do something good and something good will happen to you in return.  The opposite is also true.  Do something bad and something bad will happen to you in return.

Karma has recently been popularized by the TV show My Name Is Earl.  In the sitcom, Earl Hickey is a petty criminal whose winning $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. Lying in a hospital bed he develops a belief in karma during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. To turn his life around, he makes a list of every bad thing he's ever done in an attempt to correct them, as he believes that this is the only way he can gain positive karma. After doing his first good deed, he finds the lottery ticket he had previously lost. He sees this as a sign of karma rewarding him and, with his newfound wealth, he begins doing good deeds according to his list (Wikipedia).

It is this same concept of karma that many Christians have incorporated into their daily lives, many times unknowingly.  And I am not immune.  It was one of my most common prayers growing up.  After I had sinned in some way, I was convinced that God was going to punish me by making me play horribly in my upcoming baseball game.  So I would ask God to forgive me for my sins and to please punish me in any other way besides that.

Do you see what my belief was in that moment?  I believed that because I had sinned, God was going to punish me in some tangible way.  Likewise, the opposite was true as well.  I believed that if I did something good, God was going to reward me.

This is not the only way karma has infiltrated our Christian beliefs.  How do you view your relationship with God after you have completed a good quiet time?  Do you think that God is pleased with your efforts and predisposed to bless you throughout your day because of your great quiet time?  Or what about on the days that you've neglected your quiet time with Him?  Do you feel that God is now disappointed with your efforts and will not allow you into his presence as a punishment?

Or what about the common answer to the question, "How to you get to heaven?"  Sadly, many Christians answer this question the same other nonreligious folk.  If we do enough good things in this life such that the sum of them outweigh the bad that we have done, then God will grant us eternal life in heaven.

Friends, all of these examples embody the Hindu concept of karma.  We have borrowed karma and molded it into our everyday Christian practice.  In its basest form, karma is legalism and anti-Christian.

In fact, God shatters the concept of karma.  Despite all of the bad we do in our lives, God is patient with us in our sin.  Sin against a holy, just, & eternal God requires immediate & eternal death.  Yet we are still alive, eating God's food, living in shelters He has provided for us, hanging out with friends & family that He ultimately has created. And not only that, but God even goes so far as to offer us redemption & salvation from this impending death.  If karma were true, the moment we first sinned, we should have been struck down by God himself.  End of story. 

But for the Christian, God has flipped karma on its head. For those who love God, everything that happens to us is for our good.  "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).  Therefore, if you do good or bad, only good will come to you.  God's blessing & discipline alike are meant for your good.

I believe what is needed to counteract this disease of karma within the Christian church is a healthy dose of two doctrines: our adoption as sons & daughters into God's family and Christ's imputation. 

When you became a Christian, you were indwelt with the Holy Spirit and adopted into God's family.  You became a son of the Most High.  God now regards you as son!  A member of my church put it well in the sermon that he preached today.  "If my children disobey me, I love my children.  If my children continually disobey me, I love my children.  And if my children run to me and beg for forgiveness for their disobedience, I love my children."  As a Christian, God's disposition towards you does not change, sin or no sin.  He is your Father, and he is totally for you.

And secondly, when you became a Christian, something miraculous happened. Christ took all your sin - past, present, & future - upon Himself as He hung on that bloody cross and, in return, He gave you all of His righteousness, so that now, anytime God looks at you, he does not see damned sinner.  No.  He sees the righteousness of Christ himself.

So for the Christian who struggles with doing his quiet times, God does not distance himself from you.  No, God gets down on one knee and opens wide His arms to comfort His son.

For the Christian who struggles with continual sin, God does not see you as filthy sinner who has punishment coming.  No, He looks at you, counts you righteous because of the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf, and picks you up to carry you through your struggles.

And for the Christian who has done all he can to please the Lord in all he does, God treats him no differently than he does the previous two above.  He is His son, and good is coming to him.

If karma were true, we would all get what we truly deserve... immediate, eternal damnation in a place of isolation & torment.  Praise God that we live by the law of Christ and not the law of karma.