Justin Taylor's Blog, page 203

How Jesus Prayed for You

Jesus’s “high priestly prayer” in John 17 is worth a lifetime of reflection as we get to “listen in” to the Son’s prayers to his Father. I once tried to break down the petitions and organize them a bit:

The Father Gave the Son…
John 17


authority to give eternal life
v. 2


people out of this world
vv. 2, 6, 9, 24


work to accomplish
v. 4


words
v. 8


his name
vv. 11, 12


glory
vv. 22, 24






The Son Gives Believers…
John 17


eternal life
v. 2


Father’s word
vv. 8, 14


manifestation of Father’s name
vv. 6, 22


glory
v. 22






The Son Asks the Father to…
John 17


glorify him
vv. 1, 5


keep believers in the Father’s name
v. 11


keep believers from the evil one
v. 15


sanctify believers in the truth
v. 17


make believers one
v. 21






Jesus’s Followers
John 17


are sent into the world
v. 18


are in the world
v. 11


are not of the world
v. 16


are hated by the world
v. 14


have unity with each other and union with God—which may cause the world to believe that the Father sent the Son
v. 21

One of the things that Jesus teaches here is that various “indwellings” serves the cause of unity. For example:

The Father is in the Son (John 17:21, 23)
The Son is in the Father (John 17:21)
Believers are in the Father and the Son (John 17:21)
The Son is in believers (John 17:23, 26)

If we do not recognize that these are different sorts of “indwellings,” we’ll quick descend into heresy! But it still may be instructive to see this illustrated:

Jesus’s high priestly prayer is worthy of our greatest study, as we seek to learn from and imitate our great co-heir as he approaches our Father.

The Apologist’s Evening Prayer

C. S. Lewis on defending the faith while trusting in grace:

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more

From all the victories that I seemed to score;

From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf

At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;

From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead

of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.

From all my thoughts,

even from my thoughts of Thee,

O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.

Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,

Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

C.S. Lewis, “The Apologist’s Evening Prayer,” in Poems, ed. Walter Hooper (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964), p. 129.

HT: Doug Wilson

Robert Gagnon’s Critique of Alan Chambers and the New Direction of Exodus International

In a recent feature in The Atlantic (June 20, 2012), Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, said of “gay Christians” in same-sex marriages: “Some of us choose very different lives than others. But whatever we choose, it doesn’t remove our relationship with God.” When The Atlantic asked whether that means “a person living a gay lifestyle won’t go to hell, as long as he or she accepts Jesus Christ as personal savior,” Chambers said his “personal belief is that . . . while behavior matters, those things don’t interrupt someone’s relationship with Christ.”

Robert Gagnon (in a 34-page response) writes:

I have agonized for months about whether I should go public with my concerns about Alan’s leadership with Exodus. I have written to Alan a half dozen times since January 2012 when Alan made similar statements at a meeting of the “Gay Christian Network.” Our exchange was cordial but Alan has made clear to me that his views are fixed and will not change. Still, I had hoped that he would at least refrain from public comments of this sort. With his Atlantic interview it has become evident that he has no intention of keeping his aberrant views to himself. In fact, these views will define Exodus (even when Alan couches them as “his opinion,” which he only partly does in the Atlantic interview). There are, to be sure, many good parts to his interview. But the bad parts, which involve convictions at Alan’s theological center, are so bad that they fairly nullify the good.

As the opening to this article suggests, my main concern is that Alan’s comments to those living a homosexual life are ultimately unloving and ungracious. I don’t doubt that Alan intended his comments to “gay Christians” to be otherwise. Yet the actual result is to leave such persons deceived by giving them a message of “peace and security” when instead danger hangs over them (1 Thess 5:1-11). Who is gracious and loving? The parent that assures a child that crossing a busy intersection without looking both ways will produce no harm or the parent that does everything in his or her power to warn the child about the potential harm? Obviously the latter, for the warning is part of the makeup of a loving parent. In fact, state social services agencies count the former as abuse.

We saw above how Alan’s assurances to “gay Christians” are the antithesis of how Paul operated with regard to a case of sexual immorality in the church at Corinth.

You can read the whole thing here.

Here is a letter from Chambers on the new direction and emphasis.

This situation requires our careful analysis and prayers.

What Did It Looks Like to Walk Around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in the Time of Jesus?

A virtual reconstruction, entering from the south:

The ESV Concise Bible Atlas

The ESV Concise Bible Atlas is now available. In my (obviously) biased opinion, the best atlas for serious students of God’s word is the full 352-page hardcover Crossway ESV Bible Atlas. As John McRay (professor emeritus of NT and archaeology) at Wheaton College wrote, “During the 44 years I served as a college professor I used many good atlases. However, I have never seen one comparable to this in the breadth of material, the depth of coverage, and the outstanding quality of its impressive and abundantly illustrated maps and photos of Bible lands.” But if you are looking something more portable and less expensive (64-page paperback for around $10), the ESV Concise Bible Atlas will be very helpful. Its trim size (9.0 in x 11.75 in) really allows the beautiful reconstructions of Jerusalem and the temples (for example) to pop off of the page.

You can take a look at a PDF sample here, or browse through it below:

The Trinity in the Upper Room

Sinclair Ferguson:

I’ve often reflected on the rather obvious thought that when his disciples were about to have the world collapse in on them, our Lord spent so much time in the Upper Room speaking to them about the mystery of the Trinity.

If anything could underline the necessity of Trinitarianism for practical Christianity, that must surely be it! (cited in Letham, The Holy Trinity, 375)

For an exegetical and theological exploration of this, see Father, Son and Holy Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel, by Andreas Köstenberger and Scott Swain (IVP, 2008), esp. 166-179.

Did Mark Make a Mistake in His Opening Quotation?

A reader wrote in to TGC:

The Gospel of Mark begins, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.’” Only problem: that quote is from Malachi, not Isaiah. Did Mark just fumble the ball here? How do we make sense of this apparent error in Scripture?

Rikk Watts, professor of New Testament studies at Regent College in Vancouver and author of Isaiah’s New Exodus in Mark, provides the response. In short, “So what initially looks like an error turns out, when viewed in the light of ancient literary practice, to be a highly informative summary of Mark’s Gospel.”

God & Sinner Reconcile

Stephen Miller, from the title track to the album God & Sinner Reconcile:

You for our sake have died and raised

And we for your sake are recreated

Your love compelling us

And overwhelming us to worship You, Hallelujah

God and sinner reconcile

The sacred covers the defiled

Your righteousness for ours

We are wounded by Your love

But we are mended by Your blood

You are righteousness for us

You for our sake became our sin

And we through Your death have life beginning

Your love compelling us

And overwhelming us to worship You, Hallelujah

All glory to You God, our rescue from the fall

All glory to You God, once and for all

All glory to You God

God and sinner reconcile

The sacred covers the defiled

Your righteousness for ours Jesus

God & Sinner Reconcile by Stephen Miller

Sexual Design Lectures and Gay Protestors

What happened when Doug Wilson went to Bloomington, Indiana (home of Indiana University, the Kinsey Institute, and the fourth most gay city in America. He was warned against possible protests and violence but went anyway. You can see some sample clips below of what happened, and after that you can watch the full lectures and the two hours of Q&A he had with those who strongly disagreed.

You can watch both lectures—including the protests and the Q&A—here.

Two Hebrew Guys Named Smith and Brown on the Night of the Passover

A very helpful 2-minute illustration from D.A. Carson: