K. Rex Butts's Blog, page 10

We Live With Hope

A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. First of all, I was able to attend Harbor: Pepperdine Bible Lectures at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California this past May 3-6. It was nice to see a lot of friends, many of whom are ministry colleagues while taking in some time for classes and enjoying some rest.

The theme for Harbor was “No Other Jesus” which I really enjoyed. We all need a reminder of who Jesus is and what it means to follow him as his church. The Keynote addresses were primarily based on 2 Corinthians, which can be viewed on YouTube: Harbor 2022 Keynote Addresses.

I am biased because John Mark Hicks is both a friend and former seminary professor of mine but his address, which closed out the conference, was a word I really needed to hear. One of the unfortunate things that John Mark and I share in common is the loss of a son. I mention this only because in nearly twenty years since the death of my son, despair and depression has been a battle. My faith is in Jesus and therefore I live with hope but there are days when the grief and pain of losing a child can be an unshakable despair. John Mark’s address, which mentions the death of both his son and first wife, reminded me that we live within the new creation as people raised to life in the resurrected Jesus Christ. Though we grieve, we also live with hope.

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Speaking of hope, after returning from Harbor, I had the privilege and honor of offering a eulogy for an elderly Christian lady that had passed away. While every funeral is an occasion for some sadness as family and friends grieve the loss of someone they loved and cared for, I took solace in the fact that this woman went to be with the Lord. So although we grieve, we also live with hope.

During the eulogy, I mentioned how much of an honor it is that the family would let me share this moment with them. It’s a moment where I, as a pastor, can offer both comfort and hope. So a thought occurred to me regarding the pastoral role at a funeral: A thin place is where a pastor stands among the bereaved, undertaking the priestly service of going to the people on behalf of God and to God on behalf of the people.

Perhaps I can assume that priestly service for people now and say a word to people like you on behalf of God and a word to God on behalf of people like you:

Why? Why do you continue allowing violence, racism, and disregard for human life to continue? Innocent people are dying, while others are left to suffer through grief and pain that seem too much to bear. I believe in you God and I believe that you are redeeming and restoring life through your crucified Son, Jesus Christ, whom you raised from death. So please Lord, give us strength from your Spirit to bear this grief and pain, making the burdens of those who are suffering more bearable. But Lord, do not let the violence, racism, and disregard for human life to continue. Teach us to be more merciful, to act with justice, and to love our neighbors as ourselves so that we may love you. Do what you must do and but Lord, please come again and make all things new. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen!

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From The Bottom Up

Last Sunday the Newark Church ordained three new elders to serve alongside our other three elders. It was a beautiful Sunday and an answer to prayer, as our church has prayed that God would raise up more elders to help shepherd our church.

As I think about elders, the thought of Christian leadership comes to mind. Part of the reason for that is because shepherds/elders are leaders in the church, along with ministers/pastors, as well as deacons, teachers, etc… Another reason is that I know there is much confusion as to what constitutes Christian leadership these days. This confusion is illustrated by this quote shared by Michael Bird last week in his Newsletter Word from the Bird, regarding the Hillsong Church Network:

According to three sources who spent time in Australian and American Hillsong green rooms, pastors often had riders explicitly outlining what should be provided for them backstage. After a sermon of a conference speech, pastors could be seen backstage congregating with celebrities over tequila. It wasn’t unusual to see envelopes of cash or prepaid expense cards handed about. Volunteers became accustomed to requests such as finding a better car for chauffeuring preachers and guests around town, or last-minute requests to carpet the stage because the pastor’s wife had bought new heels.

Of course, there are many other glaring examples of Christian leaders failing to reflect leadership character formed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So there are a couple of questions that come to mind at this point. What does Christian leadership look like? How should a Christian function as a leader?

Before I deal more with these questions, let me point out that nowhere in scripture are the words leadership and leader ever used. Those are words we use to describe the role and function of various people of God, from Moses and Elijah to Jesus Christ as well as the apostle Paul and even all the people listed by Paul in Romans 16. But the Bible never uses these words. Instead, the Bible speaks about serving and setting an example.

Consider the following passage of scripture written by the apostle Paul regarding his own work as an apostle. Paul writes, according to 1 Timothy 1:12-17:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength because he considered me faithful. So he appointed me to ministry even though I used to speak against him, attack his people, and I was proud. But I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and without faith. Our Lord’s favor poured all over me along with the faithfulness and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I’m the biggest sinner of all. But this is why I was shown mercy, so that Christ Jesus could show his endless patience to me first of all. So I’m an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. Now to the king of the ages, to the immortal, invisible, and only God, may honor and glory be given to him forever and always! Amen.1

Did you how Paul spoke of “ministry” and living as “an example”?

The word ministry comes from the word diakonia, which means ministry or service. It’s a word that may sound familiar to you because its cousin is the word diakonos, which unfortunately often gets transliterated in our English Bibles as a deacon when the word should be translated as servant or minister. Living as a servant is how Paul understands his ministry. That’s important because being a servant seems to be the fundamental characteristic of Christian leadership and therefore should characterize the way every Christian leader functions within their role.

Furthermore, because Paul understood his role of being an apostle as that of a servant, his desire was that he would set an example for other believers. I’m going to be blunt but when a pastor or some other Christian leader seems more concerned with tequila, riders, and rubbing elbows with celebrities, then I question if they really know what it means to be a servant setting an example of Christ for others to follow.

Another issue related to the issue of Christian leadership as serving and setting an example pertains to the matter of authority. One of the questions that inevitably seems to come up whenever a church calls a new pastor to serve or ordains new elders to serve is the question of who’s in charge. But where does the language of “who’s in charge” come from? Not from scripture, neither from Jesus nor Paul. Jesus warned his disciples about being like the Gentile who seek to rule over, or shall we say be in charge of others, and instead instructed his disciples to follow his example in becoming a servant (Lk 22:23-27). Of course, Paul follows Jesus, describing himself as a servant wanting to set an example for other believers.

The language of who’s in charge or who has authority comes from the culture of business and politics where leadership is exercised from the top-down. However, among Christians and therefore among the church, leadership is always exercised from the bottom up. Bottom-up leadership that serves and sets an example is the economy of leadership within the kingdom of God, derived from the very gospel that Jesus embodied with his own like. This isn’t to suggest that leaders should be passive or should never offer guidance as to how the church should live. However, Christian leadership, as we learn from both Jesus and Paul, is about becoming a servant and setting an example for others to follow. 

What I am suggesting is that the question of leadership within the church is about who serves, not about an elevated stature or ruling over others. Those who seek to serve will help lead others in the way of Christ, while those who seek to rule over others will only cause harm. And there are too many examples that say so.

1

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What Is The Bible Intended to Do?

As you should know, if you know me, I’m thrilled that people read the Bible. However, I also want to talk about how we read the Bible because how we read the Bible has an impact on how we understand the Bible and subsequently how we live as Christians. This is why I have written my forthcoming book published by Wipf and Stock called Gospel Portraits: Reading the Bible as Participants in the Mission of God.

In his book Cross Vision, Greg Boyd writes, “I affirm the traditional view that the Bible is infallible. If we trust the Bible to do what God inspired it to do, and if we are interpreting it correctly, it will not fail us. But the all-important question is, what did God inspire the Bible to infallibly accomplish?”1 I’m not far enough along in Boyd’s book to fairly evaluate it but I really like this question.

Like Boyd, I affirm the inspiration and authority of scripture and therefore affirm the infallibility of scripture. Infallibility literally means not liable to deceive. What this means for scripture is that I trust the Bible to accurately teach us who God is, how God is working within history to redeem his creation in Jesus Christ, and how we participate in this work of God as followers of Jesus Christ.2

That said, I’m also interested in Boyd’s latter question about what exactly is the Bible inspired and infallibly written to accomplish. This question piques my interest because we want to let the Bible accomplish what it’s meant for and likewise, we need to avoid attempts in making the Bible do something it’s not intended to do. For example, the Bible offers plenty to say about marriage but it never directly addresses how married couples manage their finances (which is an issue that has caused a lot of marriage troubles over the years). Similarly, the Bible offers a good bit of wisdom for raising children but it never says a word about where to educate children (public education, homeschool, etc). And yet, when we read the Bible we do so while living a very complex life that encounters all kinds of twists and turns.

Life is complex. There are many questions and challenges we face for which there are not any easy answers or solutions. So we pick up our Bible to begin reading but before we do, consider this somewhat provocative challenge from Tomáš Halík, who writes:

We are confronted by a whole set of specific questions that did not confront the people of the Bible, and if we substitute our problems for theirs, and relate answers to other questions to our own problems, then it is not the ‘Bible itself’ that speaks from our words, but instead our all-too-human manipulation of God’s world—and such manipulation is unavowed, unthinking, and often simpleminded. Such overuse and ab-use of the Bible is irresponsible not only vis-à-vis Scripture, but also toward those with whom we still have sufficient credit for them to invite us to dialogue and a joint quest.3

When we too quickly try to make the Bible address the challenges and questions we face today, we risk making the Bible say what we want it to say. So we need some patience that can trust God even when we don’t have an answer to whatever question or challenge is confronting us.

Now, as I said earlier, I trust the Bible to accurately teach us who God is, how God is working within history to redeem his creation in Jesus Christ, and how we participate in this work of God as followers of Jesus Christ. And therein lays the key: we are called to follow Jesus so that we may participate in the mission of God. But notice that I said, “we” and not “I.” Reading the Bible isn’t meant to be merely an individual activity done apart from a community of disciples, rather our reading of scripture should be engaged among a discerning community. Within this community is where we come to know God, understand his redemptive work within history, and participate in that work as followers of Jesus.

The Bible will not directly answer every question or challenge we face. However, it does teach us how to live as followers of Jesus. That’s what it is inspired and infallibly intended to do. I realize that so much more could be said and needs to be said about this. But I trust that when we discern together what the scriptures are saying and what it might look like to live in the moment, we can navigate the way forward. Sometimes the path will seem straightforward and sometimes the path forward will remain a challenge.

1

Gregory A. Boyd, Cross Vision: How The Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017, 56.

2

The inspiration and authority of scripture are not a denial of human involvement in the writing of scripture. Rather, infallibility recognizes both divine and human elements in the writing of scripture and its formation into a complete biblical canon through which God speaks. Thus infallibility recognizes that God speaks in an illocutionary voice, meaning “the Spirit speaks by way of the speaking of the biblical authors.” See Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke, Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 73.

3

Tomáš Halík, Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty, trans. Gerald Turner, New York: Image Books, 2012, 135.

The Gospel and Political Tribalism

Albert Einstein once said, “Before God, we are all equally wise — and equally foolish.” There’s a lot of truth to that and my cynical side says especially the foolish part. But I’m thankful that Einstein isn’t the only one who has something to say about God today. The apostle Peter has something to say about God as well, namely that before God we are all equals.

Well, Peter doesn’t use those precise words. Peter actually says, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another.”1 Simply put, Peter realizes there isn’t any person or group whose loved by God more than others. But there’s something about what Peter said, his verbiage. He says, “I really am learning…” as though he’s just figuring this out. Will Willimon calls this “a stunning confession by Peter.”2

If you’re familiar with the story, which you can read here, Peter still held an exclusive view regarding Judaism and Israel. So there wasn’t fellowship with Gentiles and other non-Jewish people and no expectation that they could share in the gospel that was proclaimed to the Israelites in Jerusalem at the Pentecost festival (Acts 2). However, God spoke to Peter in a vision telling him that he should never regard as unclean and impure what God accepts as clean in pure (Acts 10:15, 28). So when Peter is summoned to the home of Cornelius and his household, he proclaims the gospel message to them, and upon witnessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on everyone, Peter directs that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:44ff).

One aspect of this story is the challenge it issues toward the tribalistic mentalities we are often prone to. Like Peter, when we are confronted with the gospel then we realize that practices of exclusion that refuse to welcome others are wrong.3 So we seek to cultivate spaces of openness, hospitality, and love for all people, even when we perceive that there might be some fundamental disagreements with such people.

The opposite of the practices of exclusion is inclusive practices of embrace. I realize that the word inclusive is a loaded term in our culture today but the way I’m using the term doesn’t require us to agree or approve of everything about another person or group. In fact, if inclusion requires agreement and approval as a prerequisite, then we might as well quit because we will always have disagreements and objections. So we are learning to embrace others, without partiality, just as God embraces others and ourselves too.

Or are we?

There are many angles that we could explore but one that I wish to mention is what I perceive to be the growing political tribalism. By that, I mean people aligning themselves with other people who share their political views and barricading themselves from people who share different political views.4 I bring this issue up only because the other day I spent some time listening to some college students who love Jesus and are trying to follow him but feel somewhat alienated from the church because the churches of their youth cultivated a culture that was, in part, centered around partisan politics.

The students I was listening to were describing how the pastors and other leaders of their churches readily expressed certain political talking points but felt that they could not express any dissent. This is unfortunate and something I consider to be a failure because as believers, we are called to unity around the gospel of Jesus Christ rather than any exclusivity around partisan politics. But I sense that this trend toward political tribalism is only increasing in America and that is cause for concern.

To be clear, the rise in political tribalism within local churches happens on both sides of the fence. I know churches where any tip of the hat towards a conservative politic would be shunned, just as I know of churches where any tip of the hat towards liberal politics would be shunned. Either way, this is wrong and is just one reason, perhaps a big reason, why Christianity is declining in America. The gospel of Jesus Christ, which we so gleefully celebrated this past Easter Sunday, calls us to embrace others regardless of our differences. So it would be a shame for any church to implicitly and unintentionally convey a message that anyone who votes for __________ is unwelcome.

One of the students asked me how I handle politics and elections in the church I serve with. My response was that first and foremost, I neither tell anyone whether they should vote or who they should vote for nor do I tell people what issues they should support or oppose. If people are going to vote, I’ll trust them to make their own informed decisions even if it’s a decision I might personally disagree with. Second, because I believe that the confession of Jesus is Lord means that the gospel must confront all matters of life, even matters that become political issues, I try my best to speak from the perspective of the gospel rather than any partisan politic. Lastly, I really try to keep the church I served focused on and centered on the gospel. There are plenty of spaces within the American society that is saturated with politics but the church is the one place where attention is given to the gospel and I’m not giving that away to partisan politics.

My hope, as we move on from Easter toward Pentecost Sunday, is that we can renew our focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Not only is it the good news but it’s a compelling truth that many people are willing to consider but won’t if we require that they align with a certain partisan politic in order to find acceptance among our church. Our churches will surely fade away if our congregational culture embraces political tribalism. Don’t. Instead, keep the focus where it belongs which is on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God!

1

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

2

William H. Willimon, Acts, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988, 97.

3

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996, 68, “I reject exclusion because the prophets, evangelists, and apostles tell me that this is a wrong way to treat human beings, any human being, anywhere, and I am persuaded to have good reasons to believe them.”

4

John Burnett, “Americans are fleeing to places where political views match their own,” NPR, February 18, 2022, “America is growing more geographically polarized — red ZIP codes are getting redder and blue ZIP codes are becoming bluer. People appear to be sorting.”

The Coming of the Crucified King

Per the Christian Calendar, this week is Holy Week. This Holy Week began last Sunday, which we know as Palm Sunday, with the procession of Jesus into Jerusalem. I always find the story of Jesus’s procession into Jerusalem to be an interesting juxtaposition to the society we live in, particularly considering the two previous Sundays prior to Palm Sunday.

Three Sundays ago were the Oscars. Whether we watched the Oscars or not, we know about it and not just because Will Smith decided to slap Chris Rock. We know about the Oscars because we can hardly turn on the news or social media without hearing about it. Every year we see the pictures of different celebrities walking on the red carpet in the fanciest of wardrobes and treated as celebrities The same goes for the Grammys, two Sundays ago. Then we come to Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt.

This humble entrance of Jesus, whom we believe is the Messiah, ought to challenge us. We know where this story is going. As we have followed Jesus throughout his ministry in the Galilean region, Jesus has made it clear that he is going to Jerusalem where he will be executed by crucifixion. That’s the Messiah who is entering Jerusalem on a colt. So as we proceed to coronate him as the King, we are faced with a challenge: Will we really accept this Jesus as King on the terms of his kingdom? Or is our coronation of Jesus as King on Palm Sunday nothing more than a vain religious gesture divorced from our actual lives and beliefs, values, and practices we live by?

We live in a world that says the only way to win is by bullets and ballots. The latter is preferred but when the political dialogue appears inadequate, might will always make right or so we tell ourselves. Yet Jesus enters Jerusalem neither by bullet nor ballot but is placed as a king onto a colt (cf. Lk 19:35)1 so that he can ride into the city where he will be nailed to a cross — another juxtaposition. Yet the chorus of praise for Jesus resounds, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens” (Lk 19:38).2

We are faced with the enigma of King Jesus and his kingdom. We may ask what kind of kingdom is this? What kind of kingdom is it where the person we have coronated as King neither picks up a sword nor speaks a word against his accusers but instead subjects himself to the most barbaric and shameful manner of death called a crucifixion? The only conclusion to draw is that this is a kingdom brought about by neither a bullet nor a ballot but by a crucifixion.

Ponder that and remember that this very same Jesus we have crowned as King also said, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

And the point is?

Well, as I have tried to carefully point out, King Jesus inaugurates his kingdom by neither bullet nor ballot but by crucifixion instead. Yet this truth is not very evident throughout a lot of church history where Christians have wielded a sword, even against other Christians, in service to another king or to some sectarian creed. Likewise, this truth is not very self-evident in our observations of Christianity in America, where donkeys and elephants seem to captivate so much of the Christian mind.3

However, Jesus is resolute when it comes to the coming of God’s kingdom. According to the Gospel of Luke, the Pharisees tell Jesus to silence his disciples but Jesus will not. Instead, Jesus responds, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.” In other words, neither the Pharisees nor anyone else will have a say in the terms upon which God’s kingdom is established. God has already spoken. His kingdom is and is to come, and his kingdom comes only through the coming of the Crucified King. We can follow this Crucified King into his Kingdom through the cross or we don’t. There isn’t any in-between on this matter.

On this Maundy Thursday, the day before Jesus will be crucified, let’s not forget that the coming of Jesus as King is the coming of a Crucified King. From the vantage point of the world, this is not Good Friday. To continue following Jesus seems foolish and scandalous. But Resurrection Sunday is coming and from the vantage point of Easter, following Jesus is to participate in his Kingdom and share in his victory.

Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end. Amen!

1

The placing (epibibazō) of Jesus upon the colt signifies the pronouncement of Jesus as a king, see I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 714.

2

All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

3

Well worth your time to watch is this video on the Wineskins YouTube channel by Matt Dabbs titled My Big Aha on Christian Nationalism, in which he explains the growing “Sadducees problem” among Christianity in America.

How Do You Read the Bible?

If you’re a Christian, then it’s a safe bet to assume that you read the Bible some. If you don’t, then I implore you to start reading your Bible but I’ll assume you do. And I’m glad you read the Bible but now tell me, how do you read the Bible?

The question of how we, as Christians, read the Bible has captivated much of my attention. You see, anyone can read the Bible including the devil himself but reading the Bible and reading the Bible well are two very different matters. My interest is in understanding how Christians read the Bible (hermeneutics) and do so well. By well, I mean reading the Bible as participants in the mission of God since that is our calling as followers of Jesus.

Learning to read the Bible well not only provides instruction for participating in the mission of God but also mitigates the possibility of misusing scripture. By misuse, I certainly think of how the Bible can become a weapon used to oppress people, such as slave owners in American history who used the Bible to justify chattel slavery. I also think about the way some people take certain scriptures out of context to prop up certain dogmas or something like the so-called prosperity gospel of health and wealth. To be a bit more controversial, I also consider turning an ancient text originally written in a pre-scientific era into a scientific text, such as some do with the Genesis Creation narrative(s), to be a misuse of the Bible.

All that said, learning to read the Bible well is something that needs to be taught and there are more than a few books that can help teach us to better read the Bible. For your interest, I just want to provide a list of five accessible books that I believe can help us learn to read the Bible well.

Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014. The writers provide a narrative retelling of the entire Bible as a story told with six acts that help us understand the Bible within the grand narrative. And don’t let the “Baker Academic” fool you, as this book is very easy to read. I read the first edition, which was given to me as a gift by a Christian lady (thanks, Amy) who doesn’t have any formal theological education.

N.T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today, reprint ed., New York: HarperOne, 2013. This book begins by addressing the authority of scripture and then how the Bible, as an authoritative text, has functioned within Christian history. Towards the end, Wright proposes a model for reading scripture so that has helped form my own understanding.

Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018. Approaching the Bible as a story with many “Wiki-Stories,” McKnight helps us learn how to read the Bible by listening and discerning scripture. The later half demonstrates how this reading works by exploring the issue of the Bible and women in the church.

Dan Kimball, How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-Women, Anti-Science, Pro-Violence, Pro-Slavery, and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020. Written by a pastor who has had to deal with such matters, this book offers some principals for interpreting the Bible in manners that help us avoid misusing scripture. This is also a helpful resource to discuss with seekers who are hesitant to consider what the Bible says because they believe they must choose between the false dichotomies of matters like the Bible and science or the Bible and social-justice.

John Mark Hicks, Around the BIble in 80 Days: The Story of God from Creation to New Creation, Abilene: Leafwood, 2022. I’ve actually just started reading this book and am far from finished, so there’s always a risk in recommending a book that I’ve not finished reading. However, the author is both a friend and former seminary professor, so I have confidence here. The book is a series of short devotional-type readings that help us understand the story of the Bible and how that story fits within God redemptive mission of renewing creation as a new heaven and earth.

Of course, when my book Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God is released, I hope you’ll buy a copy and read it to. Yes, that sounds a little self-serving but I do believe the book will make a significant and accessible contribution in helping Christians to read the Bible well. I don’t have a release date yet but when I know, I’ll be sure to let you know.

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Get Right With God?

“You better get yourself right with God.”

I bet you’ve heard that phrase before. I certainly have. You can even hear the phrase used in the 2007 film The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller, when Martin finds out Eddie has been cheating on his wife with Martin’s sister. Martin angrily shouts, “You gotta get yourself right with God, buddy!”

It’s a hilarious scene but in truth, it’s a terrible misunderstanding of God, the Bible, and the Christian faith.

Nobody gets themselves right with God. It’s utterly impossible. But in my years serving as a minister of the Gospel, I’ve encountered those who think they do and even those who try. Some do so because they think their salvation depends, in part, on understanding and obeying particular Christian doctrines correctly (precision obedience). Others think that certain spiritual practices, such as prayer, will somehow help them, like a cashier I recently heard who said to me, “I’ve got to get myself prayed up; get God in me.”

Whether people are aware of it or now, such attempts at getting ourselves right with God say that what God has accomplished in Christ crucified is not enough. That’s a problem sort of like the Jewish believers the writer of Hebrews had in mind, who were starting to believe the sacrificial offerings of bulls and goats was still necessary. But the writer of Hebrews is clear in chapter 10 that the Law, with its sacrificial offering, can never make us right with God “because it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (v. 4).1

Instead of worrying about getting ourselves right with God, the writer of Hebrews says in v. 10, “We have been made holy by God’s will through the offering of Jesus Christ’s body once for all.” And then a few verses later, in a more well-known passage, we read in vs. 19-21:

Brothers and sisters, we have confidence that we can enter the holy of holies by means of Jesus’ blood, through a new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, which is his body, and we have a great high priest over God’s house.

We have such confidence because Jesus is the perfect offering to take away sins and make us holy. Why? Because Jesus is the very incarnation of God, or as the writer of Hebrews says at the beginning of Hebrews, Jesus is “the imprint of God’s being” (Heb 1:3). What Jesus offers as a sacrifice is his body and that matters because what Jesus offers, as Fleming Rutledge says in her book The Crucifixion, is “his entire incarnate life on the cross.”2

So as we inch closer to Holy Week in this season of Lent, let’s remember that we can’t and don’t get ourselves right with God but God does get us right with himself. We know God does that because God has said so in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I said during my message to the Newark Church last Sunday, God has established a second or New Covenant in Jesus Christ, through the suffering of Jesus on the cross whom God raised from death as the Lord and Messiah and that is more than enough for our salvation.

1

All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved

2

Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015, 254, also writes, “The miracle of Christ’s sacrificial death is that priest and victim have become one. Instead of an unthinking animal involuntarily slain, the Son of God knowingly offers himself. Instead of a sacrifice endlessly repeated by sinful human beings to no ultimate avail, Jesus’ death is once for all, having been made by the one who abides forever (7:24). Instead of a mere animal physically unblemished, this Victim, though he becomes “lower than the angels” in order to offer himself as a sacrifice for us, is in fact the incarnate Son…”

Formative Streams

The other day I saw a Facebook friend post about his “roots” which are the traditions that shape a person’s way of being a Christian. These traditions or roots are what I like to think of as formative streams because they not only have an impact on our formation as Christians but also, like a stream, they are always flowing through our mindset both consciously and subconsciously.

So I thought I would share the three formative streams flowing through me as a Christian. In no particular order, these three streams are . . .

Restorationist: I grew up within the Churches of Christ, which are part of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. At the heart of this movement is the restoration of primitive Christianity, desiring to be “Christians only” based on the teachings of the Bible. Although I lament how the restoration impulse morphed into sectarianism and legalism, as congregations focused on the restoration of church polity, I still appreciate the desire for the pursuit of non-denominational Christianity and knowing what the Bible says. I am also thankful that many Churches of Christ are moving beyond a sectarian and legalistic faith.

Anabaptist: The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, is a politic and therefore a way of life. The church is called to follow Jesus as his disciples, embodying the gospel (and its political claim) among the world. Therefore the church is called to live a peaceful, non-violent, life of self-sacrificial service as a testimony to the confession that Jesus is Lord. So without denying that some temporal goods in the world come through nations and their governing officials, followers of Jesus bring about the good of the gospel through their own good works as the church.

Missional: Rather than the church having its own mission, the church participates in the mission of God. This pursuit seeks to discern God at within the local neighborhoods and joins as followers of Jesus embodying the gospel. The church is functions with a servant-oriented and polycentric leadership rather than a top-down leadership that seeks to equip every believer to serve as the Spirit has gifted.

These are the formative streams that shape my approach to reading scripture, thinking theologically, and ultimately putting into practice my understanding of the gospel. Others, of course, will claim other formative streams, such as Calvinism, Holiness, Orthodox, etc. My list is not a critique of other formative streams, its just that these other streams have not shaped me as follower of Jesus who happens to serve as a pastor and writer. Of course, with all three of the formative streams I mention, there are some ways in which I differ from each of those streams to some extent. Another reason for identifying the formative streams that flow through me is that they will undoubtedly flow through my forthcoming book Gospel Portraits.

So what formative streams flow through you and how God has used such streams to shape who you are as a follower of Jesus?