Justin Taylor's Blog, page 288

The King Jesus Gospel

Trevin Wax is a careful and charitable reviewer.

In his two most recent posts he has looked at Scot McKnight's new book The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Zondervan, 2011). In the first he laid out his Points of Agreement and then in the second he explained his Points of Concern.

Calling the book "one of the most thought-provoking, challenging, and stimulating books I've read this year," he concludes his second post with a summary of how he would differ from McKnight:

The heart of my differences with Scot's proposal is not in defining the word "gospel." It's not in the gospel announcement's need for the Story. It's in the way we read that Story. There's the rub. The reason I think it's ultimately unhelpful to distinguish between a story gospel and a soterian gospel is because I think the story is soterian, that is, the grand narrative of Scripture is telling us about God's glory in saving sinners through the cross and resurrection of His Son. The heart of Israel's story is hope for salvation delivered by the coming Messiah-King.

When I read the Old Testament narrative, I can't get through the Pentateuch and not tremble at the thought of standing before God without an animal sacrifice. I can't read the story of Judges without shuddering at the pervasiveness of sin and the need for a Messiah-King. I can't read Isaiah and not recognize my need for a righteousness that comes from outside myself.

Scot reads the announcement of 1 Corinthians 15 and wants to emphasize that Jesus is Messiah and Lord. I see the announcement of 1 Corinthians 15 as the gospel presentation by which we are being saved. The big story that the Bible is telling is a story of salvation – its promise and provision through the coming kingdom of a crucified Messiah. And this is why pitting the Old Testament storyline against atonement theology makes little sense to me. It's not just that I view the gospel as a soterian. I view the story that way as well.

Both posts are worth reading.

A Dangerous and Forbidden Shortcut

John Stott:

To search for [Scripture's] contemporary message without first wrestling with its original meaning is to attempt a forbidden short cut.

It dishonours God (disregarding his chosen way of revealing himself in particular historical and cultural contexts),

it misuses his Word (treating it like an almanac or book of magic spells) and

it misleads his people (confusing them about how to interpret Scripture).

—John Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982), p. 221.

HT: Doug Wilson

Tim Keller's Foreword to John Piper's "Bloodlines"

Crossway has now posted Tim Keller's foreword to John Piper's new book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian.

I found this to be an especially insightful point by Keller on one of the ways that both "liberals" and "conservatives" get it wrong on sin and racism:

Many have made racism and prejudice virtually the only thing they will still call a "sin," and they often lay the guilt for the sin of racism at the doorstep of those who are social conservatives.

Because of that, many who identify themselves as conservatives simply don't want to hear about racism anymore. They give lip service to it being a sin, but they associate any sustained denunciation of racism with the liberal or secular systems of thought.

John's book, which you have in your hands, is a strong antidote to this misconception. His motivation is simply as a preacher of the Word to bring to light what God says in it regarding race and racism.

You can read the entire foreword here.

You can also read here (PDF) or below Piper's table of contents, his note to reader (on defining race and racism), his introduction (on what it was like in the 60s for those who weren't there), and the endorsements:

Is the Doctrine of Inerrancy a Fundamentalist Invention?

In his essay "Evangelical Self-Identity and the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy" Professor John Woodbridge argues that "biblical inerrancy has been a church doctrine or Augustinian central teaching of the Western Christian churches, including evangelical Protestant churches" and seeks to refute the revisionist historiography that says  biblical inerrancy is "neither an evangelical doctrine nor a central teaching of the Western Christian churches."

He concludes: "The doctrine of biblical inerrancy is no late imaginative creation of A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield in 1881 or of twentieth-century American fundamentalism. Rather, it is an essential evangelical belief based upon a biblical warrant. It resides squarely within the Augustinian tradition regarding the Bible's truthfulness. Both Roman Catholics and the Protestant Reformers affirmed the church doctrine."

You can read his arguments here.

The Trailer for John Piper's "Bloodlines" Documentary

Crossway has just published John Piper's new book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (foreword by Tim Keller).

In the first part of the book Piper expounds "Our World: The Need for the Gospel" and in the second part he expounds "God's Word: The Power of the Gospel." In the former he explains "My Story, My Debt, My World: Why I Wrote This Book."

Crossway and filmmaker Josh Franer traveled with Piper to his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, to make a documentary related to the world he grew up in and the power of the gospel. The 18-minute version—which I found to be deeply powerful—will be posted later this month, but for now here is a 2-minute introduction:

Larry Woiwode's Christmas Book

As the Wikipedia entry for Larry Woiwode indicates, he has "published a dozen books in a variety of genres, six of which have been named notable books of the year by the New York Times Book Review." But until now he's never written a children's story for Christmas: The Invention of Lefse. (Those from Minn-e-so-ta and/or with Scandinavian roots will get hungry just hearing that word; those elsewhere may be confused!)

As Woiwode tells Books & Culture's John Wilson in the short clip below, this is now his favorite book that he's written:

You can preview the book below:

Pastoral Library for Sale

James T. O'Brien, a PCA pastor who has been unable to work for a year due to illness, is trying to sell his substantial theological library in order to pay the bills. You can check out the offering here. And consider stopping to pray for this brother in the Lord.

Tim Keller Explains His Remark on the Exclusivity of Christ

Last week I posted an interview from 2008 where Tim Keller answered questions from Martin Bashir about Christianity and objections to the faith. Several people rightly found one of his answers in particular to be troubling. Mike Riccardi highlighted the transcription:

Bashir: So where does that leave the millions of Muslims, Sikhs, and Jews?  Are they sadly and completely deluded?

Keller: People who never heard about Jesus, or never really got a hearing about Jesus . . .

Bashir: I'm not talking about them, because some of those people have heard (about Jesus). I'm talking about the millions of Muslims, Sikhs, and Jews who have heard about Jesus. Where does your thesis leave them?

Keller: Where they are right now, it means that if there's never any change, they don't get Jesus. If he is who he says he is, then, long term, they don't have God. If on the other hand…all I can always say about this is God gives me, even as a minister with the Scripture, a lot of information on a need-to-know basis. And a need-to-know basis means, "Here's all I can tell you: unless you get Jesus Christ who created you to start with, unless you are reunited with him sometime, there is no eternal future of thriving." It just makes sense. Again, I'm trying to go back to this idea that, that, if he is who he says he is, you've got to have him. If right now a person doesn't have him, he or she needs to get him. If they die and they've never, if they die and they don't have Jesus Christ, I don't know. In other words, I have a need-to-know basis, the only thing I know is you need Jesus. I certainly know that God is wiser than me,  more merciful than me, and I do know that when I finally find out how God is dealing with every individual soul, I won't have any questions about it. . . .

. . . People in other religions, unless they find Christ, I don't know any other way; but I also get information on a need-to-know basis so if there's some , if there's some trapdoor or something like that, I haven't been told about it.

Today at The Gospel Coalition blog Keller posts a brief response, explaining that he knew right away when he gave this answer that it was mistaken, misleading, and unhelpful, and he has since taken pains to clarify his view that salvation is found in Christ alone.

You can read his post here.

Moses's Epic Fail (Or, Five Bad Excuses That Don't Work with God)

The ESV Study Bible has a helpful breakdown of Mose's unsuccessful attempt to persuade God not to send him as a deliverer of Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh:

Who am I that I should go? (3:11).
I will be with you; when you come out of Egypt, you will serve me on this mountain (3:12).


What is your name, that I may tell the people who sent me? (3:13).
I AM WHO I AM: Yahweh, the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (3:14-15).


How would the people believe that you have sent me? (4:1).
Yahweh turns Moses' rod into a serpent then back into a rod (4:2-4); Yahweh makes Moses' hand leprous then heals it (4:6-7); Yahweh instructs Moses to turn water from the Nile into blood (4:9).


I am not eloquent; I am slow of speech (4:10).
I, Yahweh, am the one who made your mouth (4:11).


Please send someone else (4:13).
Aaron will go with you; you will speak my words to him and he will speak to the people for you (4:15-16).

Here is Jared Wilson's more colloquial version:

1. Who am I to go for you?

Never mind who you are. That's irrelevant.

2. Who are you for me to go for you?

I am GOD.

3. What if they don't believe me?

It's not your accomplishments you're testifying to, but mine. Here, have some miracles.

4. Me no talk good.

I use junk and jackasses all the time.

5. Send somebody else!

I'll send somebody with you, not instead of you.

Jared goes on to make some brief application for us today on how to glorify God.

Pride Cometh Before the Bad Sermon

Tim Raymond offers some thoughtful counsel on how preachers can fight pride:

Prayerfully examine your heart daily for pride and repent quickly.
Cultivate distrust for your own evaluations of your sermons.
Grow in your realization that your sermon is entirely dependent upon God's sovereign grace.
Pray desperately for an outpouring of God's Spirit.
Exercise faith in the truth that God's normal means of salvation and sanctification is the ordinary sermon.

Read the whole thing to see an explanation of each point.

HT: Rod Decker