Kevin DeYoung's Blog, page 98

Monday Morning Humor

I was the My Bad guy back in the day, with a little bit of Tall Guy Who Shoots 3′s.

Of all these players–and I’ve played with all of them–Foul Guy is the most annoying.

HT: Matt Smethurst

Gospel Transformation Bible

Yes, there are already lots of study Bibles, but I am still very excited about this new one. If the ESV Study Bible contains the class lectures, the Gospel Transformation Bible contains the sermon notes. I pray God uses it to awaken and strengthen our commitment to the transforming power of the gospel.

(FYI: I wrote the notes for Ephesians.)

Gospel Transformation Bible – Short Promo from Crossway on Vimeo.

The Idolatry of a Low View of Scripture

We are sometimes told that the final authority for us as Christians should be Christ and not the Scriptures. It is suggested that Christ would only have us accept the portions of Scripture that comport with his life and teaching, that certain aspects of biblical history, chronology, and cosmology need not bother us because Christ would not have us be bothered by them. The idea put forward by many liberal Christians and not a few self-proclaimed evangelicals is that if we are to worship Christ and not the Scriptures, we must let Christ stand apart from Scripture and above it.

“But who is this Christ, the Judge of Scripture?” Packer asks. “Not the Christ of the New Testament and of history. That Christ does not judge Scripture; He obeys it and fulfils it. By word and deed He endorses the authority of the whole of it.”[1]

Those with a high view of Scripture may be charged with idolatry for so deeply reverencing the word of God. But the accusation is laid at the wrong feet. “A Christ who permits His followers to set Him up as the Judge of Scripture, One by whom its authority must be confirmed before it becomes binding and by whose adverse sentence it is in places annulled, is a Christ of human imagination, made in the theologian’s own image, One whose attitude to Scripture is the opposite of that of the Christ of history. If the construction of such a Christ is not a breach of the second commandment, it is hard to see what is.”[2]

Jesus may have seen himself as the focal point of Scripture, but never as a judge of it. The only Jesus who stands above Scripture is the Jesus of our own invention.

[1] Packer, “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God, 61.

[2] Ibid., 61-62.

All Scripture–All of It

If all Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16), then there is a unity to be found across the pages of the Bible. Without minimizing the differences of genre and human authorship, we should nevertheless approach the Bible expecting theological distinctives and apparent discrepancies to be fully reconcilable.

The unity of Scripture also means we should be rid of, once and for all, this nonsense about being red letter Christians, as if the words of Jesus are the really important verses in Scripture and carry more authority and are somehow more directly divine than other verses. An evangelical understanding of inspiration does not allow us to prize the truths in the Gospel more than truths elsewhere in Scripture. If we read about homosexuality from the pen of Paul in Romans it has no less weight or relevance than if we read it from the lips of Jesus in Matthew. All Scripture is breathed out by God, not just the parts that were spoken by Jesus.

God’s gracious self-disclosure comes to us through the Word made flesh and by the inscripurated word of God. These two modes of revelation reveal to us one God, one truth, one way, and one coherent set of promises, threats, and commands to live by. We must not seek to know the Word who is divine apart from the divine words of the Bible, and we ought not read the words of the Bible without an eye to the Word incarnate. When it comes to seeing God and his truth in Christ and in Holy Scripture, one is not more reliable, more trustworthy, or more relevant than the other. Scripture, because it is the breathed out word of God, possesses the same authority as the God-man Jesus Christ.

Two Often Missed Gospel Essentials

It’s amazing how often people think they are giving the Christian message or have heard the gospel and yet there is nothing about sin and repentance.

The message of the gospel is not simply an invitation to know God’s love or enter his family or to live forever. That is all true. But the call to saving faith must always include a call to repentance.

Acts 13:38-39 “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the Law of Moses.”

The Law of Moses cannot free you. You cannot go to sleep at night knowing for certain that you are righteous before God based on your observance of the Decalogue. The law cannot set you free of your condemnation, that is why the High Priest had to offer sacrifices year after year, for centuries.

You cannot be freed from your sins by the intercession of your ancestors, or your moral religiosity. You cannot be set free from your sins because you have an active social conscience and you’re very engaged in issues of justice, or because you are a very fastidious homeschooling family. Only Jesus, the Savior, can set you free.

We have a problem. We are slaves to sin. We are under the curse and penalty of sin. We love sin. We live in sin. We were born in sin and apart from Christ, we die in sin.

The only freedom: repent and believe.

The Christian’s View of Scripture

Jesus’ offhanded comment about Scripture in John 10:35 is one of the most important things he ever said.

And one of the most confusing. It helps to know the context.

The Jews were looking to stone Jesus (v. 31) because he, as a man, dared to make himself equal to God (v. 33). In response to this charge, Jesus quotes from Psalm 82. He appeals to Scripture (“law” in this case being interchangeable with “Scripture”) to defend himself against the charge of blasphemy. The Jews were upset that he referred to himself as the “Son of God,” so Jesus reminds them that in their Scriptures the word “gods” (elohim) was used in reference to wicked kings (or judges, or magistrates, or some governing authority). The use of “gods” in Psalm 82:6 seems troubling to us, but the Psalmist, who is speaking for God at this point, is probably using a bit of sarcasm: “Look, I know you are so important that you are gods among men, but you will die like all other men.” Jesus isn’t trying to prove his divinity from this curious reference in Psalm 82. He’s trying to puncture their pretensions. He says, in effect, “You are so hung up on the word ‘God,’ but right here in the Scriptures these men were called ‘gods.’ You’ll have to do better than to prosecute me on such flimsy evidence.”

The part of the argument I want us to notice is Jesus’ rather casual comment that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Here’s Jesus defending himself from the Bible, and he’s not making his point from the Torah or from one of the lofty passages in Isaiah. He’s making his case from one word in an obscure Psalm. And he doesn’t have to prove to anyone that Psalm 82 is authoritative. Jesus doesn’t try to convince his opponents that “Scripture cannot be broken.” He merely asserts the truth as a common ground they can all agree on. Down to the individual words and the least heralded passages, anything from Scripture possessed, for Jesus, unquestioned authority. “According to His infallible estimate,” Robert Watts once remarked about Jesus, “it was sufficient proof of the infallibility of any sentence or phrase of a clause, to show that it constituted a portion of what the Jews called ‘the Scripture.’”[1]

The word for “broken” (luo) in verse 35 means to loose, release, dismiss, or dissolve. It carries here the sense of breaking, nullifying, or invalidating. It’s Jesus way of affirming that no word of Scripture can be falsified. No promise or threat can fall short of fulfillment. No statement can be found guilty of error. For Jesus—just as for his Jewish audience—he believed Scripture was the word of God, and as such, it would be gross impiety to think that any word spoken by God, or committed to writing by God, might be an errant word, a wrong word, or a broken word.

Always Under, Never Over

Inerrancy means the word of God always stands over us and we never stand over the word of God. When we reject inerrancy we put ourselves in judgment over God’s word. We claim the right to determine which parts of God’s revelation can be trusted and which cannot. When we deny the complete trustworthiness of the Scriptures—in its genuine claims with regard to history, its teachings on the material world, its miracles, in the tiniest jots and tittles of all that it affirms—then we are forced to accept one of two conclusions. Either the Scripture is not all from God or God is not always dependable. To make either statement is to affirm what is sub-Christian. These conclusions do not express a proper submission to the Father, do not work for our joy in Christ, and do not bring honor to the Spirit who carried along the men to speak the prophetic word and author God’s holy book.

Defending the doctrine of inerrancy may seem like a fool’s errand to some and a divisive shibboleth to others, but, in truth, the doctrine strikes at the vitals of our faith. To deny, disregard, edit, alter, reject, or rule out anything in God’s word is to commit the sin of unbelief. “Let God be true though everyone were a liar” must be our rallying cry (Rom. 3:4).

Finding a half-way house where some things in the Bible are true and other things (as we have judged them) are not, is an impossibility. This kind of compromised Christianity, besides flying in the face of the Bible’s own self-understanding, does not satisfy the soul or present to the lost the sort of God they need to meet. How are we to believe in a God who can do the unimaginable and forgive our trespasses, conquer our sins, and give us hope in a dark world if we cannot believe that this God created the world out of nothing, gave the virgin a child, and raised his Son on third day? “One cannot doubt the Bible,” J.I. Packer warns, “without far-reaching loss, both of fullness of truth and of fullness of life. If therefore we have at heart spiritual renewal for society, for churches and for our own lives, we shall make much of the entire trustworthiness—that is, the inerrancy—of Holy Scripture as the inspired and liberating Word of God.”[2]

A Long Train of Witnesses

Submission to the Scriptures is submission to God, and rebellion against the Scriptures is rebellion against God. The Bible can no more fail, falter, or err, than God himself can fail, falter, or err. This high view of Scripture as the inerrant divinely-spirated word of God has been the position of Christians from the beginning. Clement of Rome (30-100) described “the Sacred Scriptures” as “the true utterance of the Holy Spirit” and that “in them there hath not been written anything that is unrighteous or counterfeit.” Irenaeus (120-202) claimed that the biblical writers “were filled with perfect knowledge on every subject,” and “incapable of a false statement.” According to Origen (185-254), “the sacred volumes are fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, and there is no passage either in the Law or the Gospel, or the writings of an Apostle, which does not proceed from the inspired source of Divine Truth.” Augustine (354-430) explained in a letter to Jerome, “I have learnt to ascribe to those Books which are of the Canonical rank, and only to them, such reverence and honour, that I firmly believe that no single error due to the author is found in any of them.” Jerome (393 – c.457) declared the Scriptures to be “the most pure fount. . . .written and edited by the Holy Spirit.”[3]

Likewise, Calvin (1509-64) claimed that if we follow the Scriptures we will be “safe from the danger of erring.” We ought to embrace “without finding fault, whatever is taught in Sacred Scripture.” We “owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God.” In Scripture, God “opens his own most hallowed lips,” and the apostles were “sure and genuine scribes of the Holy Spirit.”[4] It would not be hard to continue to multiply quotations like this from Calvin, and his view of inspiration was far from novel.

Christians of every tradition, until fairly recently have assumed the complete trustworthiness and comprehensive truthfulness of Scripture. Holding to the highest view of inspiration was not the invention of any tradition, theologian, or school. It was simply part of what it meant to be a Christian.

Seeing as how it came from Christ.

[1] Quoted in B.B. Warfield, Inspiration and Authority, 184, fn. 25.

[2] J.I. Packer, Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life, 55.

[3] These citations can be found in Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, 370-72.

[4] These five quotations come from, respectively, Comm. Matthew 22:29; Inst. 1.18.4; Inst. 1.6.1 (cf. 1.8.5); Inst. 2.12.1 (see also 1.8.5; 3.22.8; 3.23.5; Comm. 1 Peter 1:25); Inst. 4.8.9.

Monday Morning Humor

We Won’t Be Fully Incarnational

Eckhard Schnabel:

Some interpret Paul’s principle of “identification” as indicative of “incarnational mission.” The description of missionary identification with the term incarnation is not helpful–not because it might detract from Jesus’ “becoming flesh” (Lat. incarnatio) when he, the messianic Son of Man and Son of God, become a human being, but because despite all efforts of identification, an American missionary will rarely learn to speak Japanese without an accent, a black Nigerian missionary will never look like a Chinese, an English missionary from a privileged background will probably never fully understand the angst of an Argentinean campesino. (Paul the Missionary, 336)

Doing Good or Looking Good?

In trying to make sense of our crazy busy lives, it’s not always easy to tell when honest hard work and commendable responsibility slide over into people pleasing and pride.

Let me suggest one diagnostic tool that may help. As you find yourself anxious and overwhelmed by the needs of others, or simply by your desire to serve others, ask this question: “Am I trying to do them good or trying to look good?”

Consider, for example, how this question might sanctify our approach to hospitality.

Opening our home to others is a wonderful gift and a ne­glected discipline in the church. But we easily forget the whole point of hospitality. Think of it this way: Good hospital-ity is making your home a hospital. The idea is that friends and family and the wounded and weary people come to your home and leave helped and refreshed.

And yet, too often hospital­ity is a nerve-wracking experience for hosts and guests alike. Instead of setting our guests at ease, we set them on edge by telling them how bad the food will be, and what a mess the house is, and how sorry we are for the kids’ behavior. We get worked up and crazy busy in all the wrong ways because we are more concerned about looking good than with doing good. So instead of our encouraging those we host, they feel compelled to encourage us with constant reassurances that everything is just fine.

Opening our homes takes time, but it doesn’t have to take over our lives. Christian hospitality has much more to do with good relationships than with good food. There is a fine line between care and cumber. In many instances, less ado would serve better.

It’s okay to be busy at times. You can’t love and serve oth­ers without giving of your time. So work hard; work long; work often. Just remember it’s not supposed to be about you. Feed people, not your pride.

Adapted from my forthcoming book Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem.

Five Commitments to Those Struggling with Same Sex Attraction in Our Midst

One of the difficult things–among many difficult things–related to homosexuality is how to speak of the issue in a way that addresses all the nuances people need to hear. As I’ve written before, there are various groups that may be listening when we speak about homosexuality, and the group we think we are addressing usually dictates how we speak. There is time for toughness and a time for tears, a time for defense and a time for letting down our defenses, a time for rallying the troops and a time for putting up our hands to show that we come in peace.

Recently, a brother encouraged me to write  blog post speaking directly to those dealing with same sex attraction. It was a good challenge. Our conversation cannot be only about preserving the truth and fighting the necessary political battles. Those of us who believe in biblical marriage must also be careful to speak in a way that acknowledges the growing number of men and women in evangelical churches who have desires for persons of the same sex and know that God does not want them to act on those desires.

I’m sure there is much more that should be said–and equally sure that many can say these things better than I can–but as a starting place I believe our churches should make these five commitments to those struggling with same sex attraction in our midst.

1. Welcome. We will extend to you the same hospitality we extend to others. We are glad to see you in Christ’s Church–not as a project, not as a proof of anything, but just as another person created in God’s image. Thanks for coming.

2. Friendship. We want to do more than show a friendly face on Sunday. We want you, like every other person in the church, to find friends. We all need companionship. We need accountability. We need love and laughter. We need people to bear our burdens and people whose burdens we can also carry.

3. Truth. We will preach the Bible, not fudging any of the hard parts. We will try to let the glorious parts shine through and the scary parts to do their work too. We will strive in our own lives–and you should in yours–to embrace the whole counsel of God, no matter how difficult, dangerous, or unpopular.

4. Gospel. We will sing and speak and share as often as we can about the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection. We will tell it to you, and we need you to tell it to us. You may need forgiveness, and we may need you to forgive us. We won’t get it right all the time, but our goal is as much of the time as we can to be a truth and grace, gospel place.

5. Hope. We believe in the One who breaks the power of canceled sin. We believe in life change. We believe in eternal life. We belief that we can be washed, that we can be restored, that we can be recreations. Praise God, we believe we are not yet what we will one day be.

If I’m not mistaken, theses commitments should be in place in every church, all the time. For they are not only for those who struggle with same sex attraction, but for those who struggle. And that means for all of us, all the time, in every place.