Justin Taylor's Blog, page 303

Community in the Ballpark

Guest Post by Robert Sagers

Those seated out by left field at AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants, could teach us a lot about the church and the people who compose it. Seriously.

There's a diverse crew of fans seated out there, fans who've been taking games in, together, for years. None of them knew one another before they started watching these baseball games, writer Tim Keown notes, but "now they celebrate births, mourn deaths and mark the passage of time by baseball milestones."

Nowhere else, the writer seems to imply, could such community, such "camaraderie," be found.

Where else can you find camaraderie like this? Where else can people gather and share this much life? In your neighborhood? Chances are, the folks next door and across the street are too consumed with their jobs and their kids and their bills to sit around together for three hours 81 times a year. At the office? It's unlikely that corporate hierarchies and petty infighting could ever be dropped long enough to foster the kind of egalitarian bonhomie found in and around (section) 135.

Separate, these fans are individuals, but when they come together for a game, they are a unit, a unity. "Together they're a collection of Everybodies—professors and lawyers, retirees and Little Leaguers—who come together during every homestand to become a collective Somebody," Keown writes. "It started with baseball and spilled over into life beyond the ballpark."

It can be easy, in our sin, to allow such "a common interest" as baseball—or a favorite television show, or a favorite outdoor activity, or a favorite theologian—to take the place of the One who made us. "You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself," Augustine said, to God, "and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

But the reality of the church—true community, true fellowship—means that we can stop searching around in the darkness for some common interest to unite us, for a sort of pseudo-church (to borrow Russell Moore's phrase). In Christ, a common interest—the common interest—has already found us.

The gospel, as Moore says, is the lowest common denominator for those who know Christ—and the fact that you may have two people spending time with one another who have nothing else in common but their faith in Jesus is a sign of Christ's lordship.

To borrow, and alter, Keown's words above: Together, the church is a collection of Everybodies—professors and lawyers, retirees and Little Leaguers, stay-at-home moms and web designers, high school students and nursing home volunteers—who come together in Christ to become a collective Somebody. It started with the gospel—with the kingdom, and a common King—and spilled over into life beyond Sunday mornings.

In the body of Christ, we're no longer fans; in the church, we're family. And that's something far more lasting, much more life giving, far more community building than anything at any ballpark anywhere.

I hope those "in and around 135″ find true community, if they haven't already. The article makes it seem as though they are longing for something—even if they don't yet know what it is.

And I hope those within our own churches might learn something from these baseball fans—something about the longing to belong, to commune, to be known. They're no different than we were.

After all, apart from Christ, we'd all still be searching for something out of left field.

(Image Credit.)

Life's Biggest Questions

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

When I pick up a book advocating robust evangelical belief and find an endorsement from a leading, published atheist, that's a book I'm intrigued to read.

Heather Campbell, Vice President of the Atheist Coalition of San Diego, writes of Life's Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says about the Things that Matter Most by Erik Thoennes:

Socrates' well-known statement, 'The unexamined life is not worth living,' sets the premise for this book, which clearly, concisely, and thoughtfully presents answers, and also helps readers think through the implications for their own lives.

Erik raises 16 questions (Does God exist? Who is Jesus? What is a human being? How will it all end? etc) and in under 200 pages gives biblical, lucid answers, providing many charts and other illustrative material. An ideal book to work through with a new believer, or someone genuinely exploring Christianity.

More info on the book here, including a downloadable PDF of the first three chapters.

Facebook, the Fear of Man, and the Gospel

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

B.J. Stockman, citing a few paragraphs from Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker's new book Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying, helpfully reflects on the skewed personas Facebook encourages us to generate.

An excerpt:

Facebook tempts us to post things that increase the currency of our like-ability and indulge in the fear of man. The gospel of Jesus rescues you from the need to show how "hot" you are in whatever area of your life you deem important enough to be publicly personified so that people will "like" you. No matter what your Facebook page reveals about you, your life is messy and in desperate need of the life-changing grace and love that Jesus freely gives to those who trust him. The good news is that if you die to yourself and your identity and trust who God is for you in Jesus he gives you a glorious identity.

Read the rest.

A Prayer about the Boss of My Heart

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15

Gracious Jesus, every day somebody or some entity is going to claim "dibs" on the attention, allegiance and affection of our hearts. Our hearts are constantly being wooed, swayed and ruled; something will be the functional "boss of me" today.

It could be bitterness, pettiness or cowardice. It could be anger about the collapse of Wall Street and the diminishing value of investments. It could be the shaming power of darkness or fear of encroaching aloneness. It could be overbearing or aggravating people. It could be lust to have a little more success or an obsession to have a lot less heartache. It could old regrets or new fantasies. It could be the titillation of a new romance or the approval of a dead parent.

Therefore, Jesus, by faith and in obedience to this great Scripture, I choose your peace as the ruler of my heart; as my centering power for this one day; as my sovereign, king, and boss. With palms up, I surrender gladly. Grant me fresh grace, gospel sanity and transcendent peace.

No one knows peace better than you, for you are the Prince of Peace. On the cross you secured God's peace with us and our peace with God. The enmity and hostility between us have been obliterated forever. Peace with God is now our legal right—a done deal, a settled issue. How can we not overflow with gratitude and humility?

Jesus, please make this legal right a personal delight today—a transforming power mightily at work in my heart, and in all my relationships. You're writing a much better story than simply a tale of calming my restlessness. Yours is a story of healing and reconciling love. You humble stubborn people. You soften hard people. You free stuck people. You gentle angry people. You turn enemies into friends and strangers into family.

Because you've forgiven me, I will choose to forgive others today. Because you've forgiven me, I will choose to ask forgiveness from others. Because you've at peace with me, I will do everything in my power to make and live at peace with others. And where peace is not possible yet, I will rest in your love and wait on your timing. So very Amen I pray, in your praise-worthy and persistent name.

Taking Dominion

Guest Post by Robert Sagers

Mark Chanski, author of Manly Dominion and Womanly Dominion and the pastor of Harbor Reformed Baptist Church of Holland, Mich., was kind to answer a few questions about what it means for men and women to be men and women of (biblical) dominion.

Robert Sagers: What does it mean to be a man of dominion?

Mark Chanski: A man of dominion seeks to boldly subdue and rule over the circumstances of his life, instead of passively permitting the circumstances of his life to subdue and rule over him. He dominates his environment instead of letting his environment dominate him.

The cornerstone passage is the Dominion Mandate found in Genesis 1:28, the Lord's first recorded words to his image bearing creatures: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over everything living that moves on the earth."

God had just taken the chaos of a formless and void world, and in the space of six days, fashioned it into an orderly and "very good" creation. An image bearing man of dominion imitates his God. He subdues (brings into bondage, makes to serve him by force) and rules (governs, reigns, and holds sway over) the spheres (earth, sea, sky) around him. A man of dominion is boldly active.

In contrast, a billiard ball is timidly passive. It allows itself to be acted upon and pushed around by cue sticks, fellow balls, and bumpers. Not so the billiard player. He assertively imposes his plans on the table configuration by the forceful thrusts of his cue stick. He subdues and rules.

On the table of life, many men today function more like passive billiard balls than like active billiard players. This is seen in family life where many men act like couch potatoes failing to husband, father, and rule; in vocational life where many are sluggards failing to plan ahead, labor, and drive to excellence; in church life where many are AWOL: failing to lead, direct, and serve; and in personal life where many are weaklings failing to exercise self control, kill sins, and manage priorities.

Whenever God speaks and assigns, the serpent slithers and whispers, "Yea, has God said?" And so, many of us believe his lies, and adopt a posture of helpless victimization instead of bold dominion. One says, "I'm a genetic victim with bad DNA, and that's why I'm obese, an alcoholic, or tranquilizer dependent. I can't subdue and rule." Another says, "I'm an emotional victim who's been badly treated by significant others, and that's why I can't hold a job, control my sexual life, or stay off of drugs." Still another, "I'm a circumstantial victim whose boss, wife, or government makes it impossible for me to succeed." So instead of exercising dominion, we give excuses.

When faced with a daunting challenge (i.e., losing weight, disciplining our children, organizing our day), our motto should be: "I can, and so help me God, I will!" But at many times it becomes: "I probably can't, so I won't even try!" I confess my own struggles here.

But the Bible is full of men who were given daunting assignments, and found a way get them done. Noah built a freighter-sized ark in the face of a laughing world, with a 500 year-old body, in a pre-Home Depot era. Joseph overcame abusive brothers, a seductive temptress, and depression-provoking disappointments to become the prime minister of Egypt. Nehemiah fought through backbreaking rubble piles and sinister enemy conspiracies to finish the Jerusalem wall in 52 days. Paul endured brotherly rejection, Jewish persecution, and Roman incarceration to finish his missionary race.

The mightiest of all men of dominion is Jesus Christ Himself. Though he had poor parents, was called illegitimate, was ridiculed, entrapped, betrayed, scourged, and even crucified, he stayed at his post until he was able to shout regarding his epic errand, "It is finished." Hallelujah, what a Savior!

A man of dominion seeks to imitate his Lord and Savior in every life assignment, whether it's in school, at work, in marriage, in parenting, in churchmanship, or in personal godliness. So help him God, with no excuses, he seeks to subdue and rule in every sphere to the glory of his Maker and Redeemer.

RES: What does it mean to be a woman of dominion?

MC: Women have received the same dominion mandate as men. "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule . . .'" (Genesis 1:27-28).

So women too need to fight off a sinful propensity toward timid passivity, and put on a dominion mindset of bold activity. Women are faced with daily life challenges just as daunting as men's:

—Shall I apply for acceptance in the university's highly competitive nursing program, or passively concede failure without even trying?

—Shall I surrender under the crushing pressure of term papers and final exams, or find a way, so help me God, to study my way through, and pass these classes?

—Shall I get romantically involved with a man of poor character because I'm afraid of becoming a spinster, or shall I faithfully stay the course and wait for a true man of God?

—Shall I permit my family's home to fall into chaotic disarray, or resolve to labor diligently to maintain an orderly household?

—Shall I passively watch my children be swallowed up into the vortex of a godless culture, or valiantly fight the good fight to raise them in the fear of the Lord?

Godly women, made in the image of God, must daily tell themselves to subdue and rule, to the glory of God.

But women, unlike men, are faced with an additional fierce life challenge. They've also got to "play their position." Coaching our daughter's soccer teams found me constantly shouting to my players, "Play your position!" If I have a goalie who's not convinced of the importance of guarding the goal, but is convinced that the only important contribution is scoring goals, that roaming and undisciplined player will do great harm to the team. Imagine the damage done when a girl assigned to play goalie leaves her post to make a long and exciting dribble run up the field, only to be stripped by an opponent who's able to dribble back and to score into a goalie-less net! I'd shout, "Jessica, you're a goalie, not a forward. Play your position! Everybody's counting on you! Play your position!"

On the field of life, women not only have to play boldly, but they've also got to play their position. God hasn't positioned women in such "forward" positions as Family Leader, Breadwinner, and Pastor. Eve was positioned by her heavenly coach as a "helper suitable" (Genesis 2:18), a child nurturer (Genesis 2:16), and a submissive learner (1 Timothy 2:11-15). But women hear shouts from unprincipled sideline voices telling them to leave their God-assigned posts, much like a misguided parent might tell his goalie daughter: "Get the ball, honey, and try to score!"

—The army recruiter at the high school tells her that women are well suited for military combat.

—Her college professor insists that she should pursue a Ph.D. and not let her pursuit be derailed by the patriarchal institution of marriage and childbearing.

—Her magazines tell her that her husband has no right to expect her to abandon her career to stay home with the children, while he continues to climb the corporate ladder.

—Her own inner voice tells her that selflessly serving her husband and her children is a thankless waste of a life.

—And her neighbor friend tells her that her spiritual maturity merits her being recognized as an elder in her church.

Godly women, made in the image of God, must daily tell themselves: "Play your position! Stay at your assigned post, to the glory of God."

So a woman of dominion must have "a gentle and a quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4), as she must play her position. But that's not the whole story. She must also boldly subdue and rule in her challenging assignments.

The Bible is full of bold women. Zelophehad's daughters boldly brought their grievance to Moses and won their case, and God's commendation (Numbers 27:1-7). Deborah "quit herself like a man" when passive billiard ball Barak refused to do his duty (Judges 4). Abigail saved her family by virtuously outmaneuvering Nabal and deftly advising David, to the admiring delight of the latter (1 Samuel 25). The lady of Proverbs 31 is a lovely subduer and ruler par excellence. Priscilla, whose name precedes her husband Aquila's, helped teach the great Apollos the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:24-28). And Phoebe is saluted as a strategic and influential helper of the church at Cenchrea (Romans 16:1-2).

Such female heroes rightly brighten the eyes of Christian women!

So a woman of dominion is more than a gentle and quiet spirit. She boldly subdues and rules in her God-appointed positions to the glory of God.

RES: How can the church best equip its members to be men and women of (biblical) dominion?

MC: First, by being unapologetically countercultural in our teaching of the Scriptures. Our people are daily the targets of high octane media propaganda that promotes relativism, liberalism, feminism, and excuse-ism. The faithful declaring of the whole counsel of God should perceptively expose the subtle lies of the journalist, therapist, panelist, novelist, artist, feminist, etc.

Second, by modeling biblical manhood in church life. For example, men should:

—make their families' consistent attendance a principled priority, not a feeling-driven option.

—step up to the plate in Sunday School classes and prayer meetings in such a manner that their verbal contributions lead the way, and not leave a void, provoking the women to take over.

—engage in spiritually-minded conversations that spur each other on to love and good works.

—go home, and throughout the week lead their families in consistent family devotions.

—work hard and with excellence at their vocations, enabling them to support both their own families and kingdom endeavors.

Third, by modeling biblical womanhood in church life. For example, women should:

—relish their God-honoring roles as submissive learners and followers.

—take up their strategic opportunities as strategic teachers. The church is teeming with needy women and children, and a wise Apollos will hear a discreet Priscilla.

—extend hospitality in its countless forms. A Christlike, foot-washing, servant-hearted woman is a mighty kingdom weapon. Think of Edith Schaeffer at L'Abri. Women are the church's infantry.

—go home, and boldly mother their own children. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

—commit themselves to being passionately dedicated helpmeets to their own husbands.

Fourth, by praying with dependence on the Spirit. We can't subdue and rule over anything apart from our Savior's power. Apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

(Image Credit.)

John Flavel on the Importance of Gospel Delight

John Flavel (English Puritan – 1630-1691), was one of the main influences in Charles Spurgeon's spiritual formation in the gospel. This quote will let you know why.

"Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer's soul and they promote sanctification. We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration, and the Christian who goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as he ought, from the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones. The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior's presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers. By the enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart of a believer, we mean an experience of the "love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us" (Rom. 5:5). Because the Lord has made himself accessible to us in the means of grace, it is our duty and privilege to seek this experience from Him in these means till we are made the joyful partakers of it."

The Story of Everything

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

One need not agree with every implicit theological subtlety to appreciate this helpful brief overview of the Bible's narrative framework (HT: Z).

See also some related videos and resources based on the "Two Ways to Live" material out of Australia, which also places the gospel in its whole-Bible framework, just made available today at the Westminster bookstore.

Disability and the Goodness of God

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

A deeply moving 20-minute conversation between John Piper and John Knight.

Awakening. Stabilizing. Strengthening.

Transcript here.

Fiction and the Big Picture

Guest Post by Robert Sagers

Jayber Crow, a fictitious character in Wendell Berry's novel by the same name:

But I feel that I have lived on the edge even of my own life. I have made plans enough, but I see now that I have never lived by plan. Any more than if I had been a bystander watching me live my life, I don't feel that I ever have been quite sure what was going on. Nearly everything that has happened to me has happened by surprise. All the important things have happened by surprise. And whatever has been happening usually has already happened before I have had time to expect it. The world doesn't stop because you are in love or in mourning or in need of time to think. And so when I have thought I was in my story or in charge of it, I really have been only on the edge of it, carried along. Is this because we are in an eternal story that is happening partly in time?

—Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow: A Novel (New York: Counterpoint, 2000), 322.

C. S. Lewis, in the concluding lines of his fictitious The Chronicles of Narnia:

"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

—C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle.

How the New Testament Writers Understood the Old Testament

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

In his brief article "Did Jesus and His Followers Preach the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts?" in this book, Greg Beale identifies five hermeneutical presuppositions with which the New Testament writers read their "Bibles"–our Old Testament. By "hermeneutical presupposition" we mean a lens that colors how we interpret the text of the Bible every time we read it.

Nothing, perhaps–certainly nothing in such short compass–has influenced my understanding of the macro-structure of the Bible as much as this short list, digested and implemented as a lens for text after text.

Well worth unhurried reflection.

Dr. Beale writes:

Jesus and the apostles had an unparalleled redemptive-historical perspective on the Old Testament in relation to their own situation. . . . This perspective involved a framework of five hermeneutical and theological presuppositions:

1. the assumption of corporate solidarity or representation;

2. that Christ is viewed as representing the true Israel of the Old Testament and true Israel, the church, in the New Testament;

3. that history is unified by a wise and sovereign plan so that the earlier parts are designed to correspond and point to the latter parts (cf. Matt. 11:13-14);

4. that the age of eschatological fulfillment has come in Christ;

5. as a consequence of (3) and (4), the fifth presupposition affirms that the latter parts of biblical history function as the broader context to interpret earlier parts because they all have the same, ultimate divine author who inspires the various human authors, and one deduction from this premise is that Christ as the center of history is the key to interpreting the earlier portions of the Old Testament and its promises.

–G. K. Beale, "Did Jesus and His Followers Preach the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts?", in The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts? Essays on the Use of the Old Testament in the New (ed. G. K. Beale; Baker, 1994), 391-92; italics original.

Each of the five points above is footnoted with various supporting literature and can be consulted for further exploration.

The one phrase that might be unfamiliar to many readers is "corporate solidarity" in the first point. This refers to the assumption in ancient Jewish thinking that the one stands for the many and the many are included within the one, particularly when it comes to a representative leader of a people. The most obvious example is the way Paul speaks of Adam, Christ, and their respective followings in Romans 5:12-21. For those in Adam, or in Christ, what is true of him is true of them. This interpretive lens demystifies text after text.

For example, how is it that Isaiah 49 can speak of Israel as Yahweh's servant in verse 3 and then speak of the servant bringing back Israel three verses later, in verse 6? We cannot make sense of this apart from the hermeneutical presupposition of corporate solidarity.