Justin Taylor's Blog, page 361
February 7, 2011
Faithful or Popular?
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL, IVP, 1986), pp. 347-348:
To preach salvation by good works is to flatter people and so avoid opposition.
This may seem to some to pose the alternative too starkly. But I do not think so. All Christian preachers have to face this issue.
Either we preach that human beings are rebels against God, under his just judgment and (if left to themselves) lost, and that Christ crucified who bore their sin and curse is the only available Saviour.
Or we emphasize human potential and human ability, with Christ brought in only to boost them, and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God's love and so inspire us to greater endeavour.
The former is the way to be faithful, the latter the way to be popular.
It is not possible to be faithful and popular simultaneously. We need to hear again the warning of Jesus: 'Woe to you when all men speak well of you' (Lk. 6:26). By contrast, if we preach the cross, we may find that we are ourselves hounded to the cross.
I don't think this should be interpreted to mean that big churches equal unfaithful churches.
But at the very least it means that big churches do not necessarily equal faithful churches.
(And of course the opposite is also true—a small church by itself does not indicate whether a not a church is being faithful.)
No matter what, let's be careful to distinguish being faithful and being popular. We follow a Savior who had the crowds clamoring on occasion—but it ultimately led to Calvary. And a disciple is not above his Master.
HT: Matt Perman
The Modernist Heresy?
Someone asked in the comments to the previous post what Sinclair Ferguson means by "the heresy of modernity." I think he means the pervasive mindset so aptly described by J. I. Packer—namely, a belief that
the newer is the truer,
only what is recent is decent,
every shift of ground is a step forward,
and every latest word must be hailed as the last word on its subject.
—J. I. Packer, "Is Systematic Theology a Mirage? An Introductory Discussion," in Doing Theology in Today's World: Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer, ed. John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1991), 21.
Did We Rediscover and Previous Generations Forget the Holy Spirit?
Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (IVP, 1996), p. 12:
The assumption which became virtually an article of orthodoxy among evangelicals as well as others, that the Holy Spirit had been discovered almost de novo in the twentieth century, is in danger of the heresy of modernity, and is at least guilty of historical short-sightedness.
It forgets that it was with good reason that the Reformation pastor-theologian John Calvin was described as "the theologian of the Holy Spirit."
Moreover, each century since his time has witnessed events which were ascribed to the unusual working of the Holy Spirit.
Even in the late twentieth century, the two opera magna on the Holy Spirit remain the extensive studies by the seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and by the great Dutch theologian-politician, Abraham Kuyper, founder of the Free University of Amsterdam.
Looking back even further, the assumption that the twentieth century had recovered truth lost since the first two centuries displays a cavalier attitude to the material unearthed by H. B. Swete in his valuable series of studies on the Spirit begun more than a century ago. These richly demonstrate the attention which much earlier centuries gave to honoring him along with the Father and the Son.
Dr. Ferguson says that the idea that "the Holy Spirit was forgotten but is now rediscovered" needs to be rephrased:
While his work has been recognized, the Spirit himself remains to many Christians an anonymous, faceless aspect of the divine being. Even the title "Holy Spirit" evokes a different gamut of emotions from those expressed in response to the titles "Father" and "Son."
Perhaps the facts of the situation would have better stated by describing him as the unknown rather than the forgotten (or even "shy," as has recently been done) person of the Trinity.
Ferguson's book is one of the best I've ever read on the Holy Spirit. Along with Graham Cole's work, here are two contemporary Spirit-filled theologians who will help you know the Holy Spirit and his work better.
February 6, 2011
Keller on Jonah and Jesus
Tim Keller, King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, pp. 57-58:
We have a resource that can enable us to stay calm inside no matter how the storms rage outside.
Here's a clue: Mark has deliberately laid out this account using language that is parallel, almost identical, to the language of the famous Old Testament account of Jonah.
Both Jesus and Jonah were in a boat, and both boats were overtaken by a storm—the descriptions of the storm are almost identical.
Both Jesus and Jonah were asleep.
In both stories the sailors woke up the sleeper and said, "We're going to die."
And in both cases there was a miraculous divine intervention and the sea was calmed.
Further, in both stories the sailors then become even more terrified than they were before the storm was calmed.
Two almost identical stories—with just one difference.
In the midst of the storm, Jonah said to the sailors, in effect: "There's only only thing to do. If I perish, you survive. If I die, you will live" (Jonah 1:12). And they threw him into the sea.
Which doesn't happen in Mark's story.
Or does it?
I think Mark is showing that the stories aren't actually different when you stand back a bit and look at it with the rest of the story of Jesus in view.
In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says, "One greater than Jonah is here," and he's referring to himself: I'm the true Jonah. He meant this:
Someday I'm going to calm all storms, still all waves.
I'm going to destroy destruction, break brokenness, kill death.
How can he do that?
He can only do it because when he was on the cross he was thrown—willingly, like Jonah—into the ultimate storm, under the ultimate waves, the waves of sin and death.
Jesus was thrown into the only storm that can actually sink us—the storm of eternal justice, of what we owe for our wrongdoing. That storm wasn't calmed—not until it swept him away.
If the sight of Jesus bowing his head into that ultimate storm is burned into the core of your being, you will never say, "God, don't you care?"
And if you know that he did not abandon you in that ultimate storm, what make you think he would abandon you in much smaller storms you're experiencing right now?
And, someday, of course, he will return and still all storms for eternity.
If you let that penetrate to the very center of your being, you will know he loves you. You will know he cares. And then you will have the power to handle anything in life with poise:
When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of woe shall not overflow;
For I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.
Shine Like the Sun
From NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
"And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good."—Genesis 1:16-18
"[God,] Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun."—Psalm 74:16
"[God made] the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever."—Psalm 136:8
"[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good."—Matthew 5:45
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly."—Psalm 87:4
"{Jesus'] face [will be] like the sun shining in full strength."—Revelation 1:16
"And the [heavenly] city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. . . . And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."—Revelation 21:23; 22:5
"Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."—Matthew 13:43
February 4, 2011
Blessed Exchange
From Trevin Wax, Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope (Moody, forthcoming April 2011):
On the cross, God demonstrated His perfect justice and His great mercy.
He executed justice by pouring out His wrath against sin upon His only Son.
He showed mercy by absorbing that wrath Himself, thus allowing us to escape His judgment.
Because Jesus was filled with horror and cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" we are filled with wonder and cry, "My God, my God, why have you accepted me?"
Because Jesus cried, "Father, forgive!" the taunts we hurled at Him at the cross are transformed into praise for His generous mercy.
Because Jesus said, "I thirst," we can drink from the fountain of living water and never thirst again.
Because Jesus said, "Woman, behold your son" and felt the pain of separation from His earthly family, we can experience the blessing of being united with a heavenly family.
Because Jesus cried, "It is finished!" our new life can begin.
Because Jesus committed His spirit into the Father's hands, God commits His Spirit into our hearts.
Theology and Adoption
Fred Sanders explains why the resurgence of interest in the theology and practice of adoption is so exciting, as witnessed by the new short book by Dan Cruver: Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living through the Rediscovery of Abba Father. An excerpt from the post:
The whole tenor of Together for Adoption's ministry is that "what orphans need . . . is Christians who are deeply theological."
When thousands of orphans are being rescued and supported, it may seem small-minded to say that the most exciting thing about this movement is that it might be moving the neglected theological doctrine of adoption onto the agenda of evangelical systematic theology. But I'll stand by that, because I take theology to be one meaningful indicator of the spiritual health of the church, and an important tether to spiritual reality.
And:
The whole book is guided by the same deep theological insight. And if you consider that this book is going to be finding its way into the hands of people who are child-proofing their houses, working out passport issues, and giving sacrificially to orphanages, you may see why I say there is a movement going on. A book like Reclaiming Adoption is carrying out the theological task of catechesis, teaching Christians in mid-mission to think more, and think better, about the gospel they are living in. That is going to pay off in the quiet halls of evangelical theology.
God-Centered Affirmation of Those Who Are Not God
From John Piper's foreword to Sam Crabtree's life-giving gospel-shaped new book, Practicing Affirmation:
Sam's book is a healing balm for cranks, misfits, and malcontents who are so full of self they scarcely see, let alone celebrate, the simple beauties of imperfect virtue in others.
Or to say it differently: I need this book.
The absence of affirmation for God's handiwork in his people is also a kind of sacrilege—for at least three reasons.
First, it is disobedience to God's command: "A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" (Prov. 31:30). And I can't think of any reason why this does not apply in principle to God-fearing men.
Second, it demeans Jesus as though he were stooping to do something unworthy when he says, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matt. 25:21, 23). If he says it, should we consider it beneath us to say it?
Third, all the works of God are worthy of praise. And there is no good in anyone but by the work of God (1 Cor. 4:7; 1 Cor. 15:10).
It gets deeper. Sam says, "The best affirmation is rooted not only in the character of God, but in the gospel." Which means that every glimmer of good in the life of God's children is bloodbought. Jesus died to make it possible. What does it say about us if he died to bring it about, and we don't consider it worth praising? That is, to say it again, I need this book.
Of course there are pitfalls and problems.
What's the difference between good praise and bad flattery?
What about the fact that in the Bible God's people never say "Thank you" to each other, but only to God for each other?
What about the danger of encouraging someone's craving for human praise, which Jesus so clearly condemns?
Is it okay to want to be on the receiving end of good affirmation?
What about unbelievers who are not "being renewed after the image of their Creator"? When should we praise them? Or should we not?
Sam tackles every one of these issues head on.
It is not a superficial book. But it is practical. Incredibly practical—with dozens of illustrations and applications to the workplace and marriage and parenting and friendships and ministry.
February 3, 2011
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