Quote of the Week*: D.A. Carson

“We quickly learn that God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort. He more greatly delights in the integrity and purity of his church than in the material well-being of its members. He shows more clearly to men and women who enjoy him and obey him than to men and women whose horizons revolve more around good jobs, nice houses, and reasonable health. He is far more committed to building a corporate “temple” in which his Spirit dwells than he is in preserving our reputations. He is more vitally disposed to display his grace than to flatter our intelligence. He is more concerned for justice than for our ease. He is more deeply committed to stretching our faith than our popularity. He prefers that his people live in disciplined gratitude and holy joy rather than in pushy self-reliance and glitzy happiness. He wants us to pursue daily death, not self-fulfillment, for the latter leads to death, while the former leads to life.” (A Call to Spiritual Reformation, 200)

Carson here does a great job of reminding us of the difference between God’s priorities and those of the world. I hope and pray that my desires (as well as yours) would be in line with the God who made us, than with the world system that has rebelled against him. That he would give you and I the grace to grow in godliness.

*It is my hope to started sharing some of the more thought provoking quotes from my personal reading on a weekly basis.

A Call to Spiritual Reformation

I am just finishing up A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D. A. Carson. It has been a convicting an yet insightful book. Being a person who often struggles to make time for intentional prayer, this book was a great reminder of the importance of prayer in the believers life.

Carson seeks to show from the writings of the apostle Paul, particular those passages in which he is found to be laying out his heart before God on behalf of those whom he is ministering to. Among the priorities in prayer that he draws out from these various passages I might mention only a few here.

1. Paul’s prayers are constantly concerned with the growth and personal holiness of others.
2. Paul’s prayers are constantly full of thanksgiving to God.
3. Paul’s prayers are constantly linked with the purposes of God in redemption.

Another helpful chapter in this book was the section were he highlights the sovereignty of God and our responsibility to pray. In it defends the complete sovereignty of God over all things, and yet shows that God does respond to our prayers. “You do not have because you do not ask.” (Jam. 4:2) Yet it is not as though God is compelled to do simply because we ask. Carson reminds us that God is not a genie that we simply approach to get what we want, but the sovereign God of the universe.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to learn how to pray, especially if you want your prayers to be crafted by the word of God. And if we desire to do all things according to the will of God, how could we not learn how to pray better? And maybe more importantly learn to pray more and more intentionally.

Beholding the Glory of the Lord

Over the last several months there has been one particular verse that I have often found my attention drawn to, especially when it comes to the issue of dealing with sin in my own life. And that is 1 Corithians 3:18. 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Later in 2 Corithians 4:4-6, Paul tells us that the glory of God is beheld in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. It has been a tremendous reminder to me to pursue right behavior not through my doing, but rather through my beholding. The power to life the life that honors God does not come through human invention or adherence to a set of does and don’ts (even if the list is the ten commandments). The life that honors God is empowered by beholding the glory of the Lord in the person of Jesus Christ. It comes through dependence upon “His precious and magnificent promises” which He has given to us by “His own glory and excellence.” (2 Pet 1:2-4)

This morning I was reminded again of one of the most fundamental displays of “His own glory and excellence” in the uniting of two natures (God and Man) in the person of Christ. Why should that seem so amazing? I think it is amazing to think first of the nature of God, who is the infinite, eternal, self-existant, self-sustaining, God who has no need of us and who would be perfectly glorify first without every having created the world, but also in the eternal condemnation of that creation once it had fallen. And then, to think that He would condescend to take on human flesh – not only to further glorify Himself – but in so doing to redeem a part of His creation from their fallen state. And furthuremore, to think that He – The Sovereign Creator – would allow His creation to nail Him to a tree so that He might be able to extend mercy to them and yet uphold His righteousness and His justice. What a great encouragement that is to me that if the One who would undertake such on loving act on my behalf is also the One who governs the course of history and the events of each day of my life.

One Year and Romans

For the last year or so I have been slowly working my way through the book of Romans. It has been at times one of the most humbling studies, while at others the most encouraging and up lifting. Let me share some of the hightlights of my last year of study.

1. Foolishness. For a long time I attributed the foolishness of sin to the harmful effects that it has, such as hurting ourselves or others, but ultimately offending God. After considering Romans 1:22-23, I would suggest that the foolishness of sin does not stem from the consequences of sin, but rather from the surpassing value that we forsake in the act of sinning. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man …” Notice that folly is connected with the exchange of the glory of God for something else. A series contemplation of sin should lead us to realize the vanity, not to mention the offense, of it. We exchange the worship of insurpassible worth of God for the worship of worthless things – or rather things that must derive their worth from the God. We exchange the eternal enjoyment of God for the fleeting pleasure of sin. We exchange Him who is of infinitely good for the partaking of that which is infinitely destructive. No matter how you cut the cake we are fools for having abandonded the God who created us for the creation.
2. Fear of God. While this shouldn’t have really seemed to be such a profound topic, I am some what slow to catch on sometimes. When on considers what the fundamental root of all sin is most people would say pride, the exultation of self, which seems like a fair assessment. But let me suggest we look at it from a different perspective – that the root of sin is ultimately the lack of fear (or reverence) for God. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (3:18) Now if we see God rightly, I think it would total change our perspective on everything. If we saw how holy and righteous and just God is would we not come to hate our sinfulness and rebellion against Him. If we saw how patient and kind and tolerate and gracious and merciful He is toward us would it not lead us to repentance (2:4) and to strive more diligently after personal holiness and devotion to God. If we saw how powerful and wise and good He was would we question His providential workings in our lifes or would we praise Him even in the days of trials and suffering. The way then to deal with sin is to behold more clearly the character of God.
3. Soveriegnty of God and Justice. By far one of the most humbling passages to study was Romans 9 as Paul lays out the sovereignty of God is salvation. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” (9:16) It is an extraordanary thing to consider that ones eternal destiny is not in ones own hands. Or rather that if left to my own will or running that results would be eternal condemnation and God would be right and just and fair in carrying out my sentence. But yet what great encouragement it is to think that my eternal well fair is the hands of an ever faithful and loving God.
4. Great Mercy and Great Love. Let me end with this last consideration, over the last year as I have contemplated the love of God particularly in light of Romans 5:1-11 and 8:28-39, I have been utterly amazed that God’s would show such love and compassion, such mercy and grace, toward one such as I. As I have contemplated this amazing reality even today, I am yet aware that I have only begun to scratch the surface of the “depths of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God.” It is my hope and prayer even for the years ahead that I would be more amazed at who Jesus Christ IS that would cause Him to do what He DID, so I may tell others about this great God and Savior.
5. Christ and the Cross. Ok, I lied, I am compeled to add one more. I have come to realize that the glory of God is not simply found in the Cross (i.e. what Jesus did), but also in the Character of the One who hung upon it (i.e who Jesus is). Without Christ, the God-Man, the Cross is simply and instrument of dead. For it was the very nature of the One who hung on Calvary that gave the cross its meaning. It is Christ who turns a simply blood stained piece of wood into a vibrant demonstration of the glory of God. And without the Cross, we would never have seen the vibrancy and beauty of the glorious God in the person of Christ. For it was by means of the Cross that Christ manifest the glory of the Father in such a way to us that we might come again to fear and adore the one who we had foolishly forsaken. So Christians let us seek to stir one another up not only to love and good deeds, but to the beholding of the glory of God in the Person of Christ and in the Cross of Christ.

Communing with God

I finished reading the chapter on John Owen in Piper’s book Contending for Our All this last week and it has been tremendous food for thought. Particularly thougts like this: “Our happiness consisteth not in the knowing the things of the gospel, but in the doing of them.” Being of a rather intellectual persuasion it is rather easy for me to get rapped up “in the knowing” rather that “the doing” of the thing of the gospel. Now I don’t intent to imply that what we need is to put more effort into “the doing,” but rather to contend that we need the be more persuaded of the things that we claim to believe.

The last few weeks as I have been doing evangelism downtown, I have found myself using this illustration to demonstrate a proper knowing. Suppose I came into your house and exclaimed, “Your house is on fire!” Now I would suppose that unless you were deaf, you would know what I meant by the statement “Your house is on fire!” You would that it was “house”, a building in which be live. You would know it was “your” house and not anothers that was being considered. And you would know what was meant by it being “on fire”, particularly that it was a danger to your home and your being. Now what good would it do you to know all that if it did not beget in you a proper response. What good did the knowledge serve it it did not move you to flee the fire or call for the fire department? So to our knowledge of God and the gospel is very dangerous indeed if it does not beget a proper response in the us.

Owen understood what so much of fail to sometimes. That it is only when the knowing the Ways of God, produce in us a following of the Ways of God, that we find communion with God. Owen writes,

“When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctine that the mind embraceth – when the evidence and necsessity of the truth abides in us – when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides in our hearts – when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for – then we shall be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.”

What a challenge this has been to me, to seek God’s grace to impress upon my own heart the reality of the truths that I believe. So that my life would be more than contending for doctrine, but also communining with God. But it should also be noted that this communion with God is derived, not from personal experience, but rather from doctrine. For it is the doctrines of God, who He is and what He has done, that are set for in Scripture that are the grounds upon which we have communion with God.

In order to commune with the Father we must know the Son for it is the Son who makes known the Father (Jn. 8:19). But to know the Son you must have the Spirit, for it is the Spirit of God that testifies to the Son of God. (Jn. 15:26, cf. 1 Cor. 2:11-16). Yet it must be recongnized that the Spirit of God has chosen to record that which is to be known about the Father and the Son in a written form, the scriptures (Jn. 5:39, cf. 2 Pet. 1:21, 1 Pet. 1:10-12). To put it simply: In order to commune with God we must seek to know the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, through the Written Word, the Bible.

“Once Saved, Always Saved”?

Surely, you have heard someone say, “Once saved, always saved.” But what about those people who come to church for awhile and then decided they want nothing to do with Christianity. Surely, those people who have committed apostasy are not going to go to heaven are they. So then what should we concluded…that they were once saved, but because of their sin they have lost their salvation. May it never be! The very notion that someone can lose their salvation because they committed a certain sin implies that their salvation is contidition on their not committing that particular sin. But that does not square with the rest of scripture: “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). 

As I mentioned yesterday we must remember that salvation is ultimately not a work of man, but a work of God upon the human heart. ”He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6) Because Paul accepted the reality that it was God who had began a good work in the Phillippian believers, he could confidently assert that He would also finish that which He began. So then assert that someone can lose their salvation is at best ignorant and at worst blasphemous. If you believe that a person can lose their salvation, you must either believe that salvation is ultimately not dependent upon God, but upon man (he did something that caused God to withdraw salvation). Or you must believe that God is somehow insufficient for the work of salvation (ironically, either way you believe God is insufficient). You must conclude that God lacks the resource, the will, the power, the desire to finish the work which he began or else you must simply call God a liar. “Yes, God I know your word says ‘He who began a good work in you will perfect it’. But look at all the people who have been Christians and then denied the faith either in word or in deed. Clearly, they cannot be saved. You cannot still be working in their life.”

And to some degree that person would be right, God is not working in their life. However, they have made the wrong conclusion. God is not currently working in their life, because He was never working in their life. “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19) This truth should either be of great encouragement to us or great concern. If God is working in your life to sanctify you and conform you into the image of His beloved Son, you should be greatly encouraged that God is faithful and that which He begins, He sees through to the end (What a great reason to give Him thanks and praise). On the other hand, if God is not currently working in your life, you should know that God has never been working in your life, and you should seek Him for mercy…beg Him to begin a work in you…plead with Him to see the glory of the gospel…ask Him to grant you the repentance that leads to life.

Has God Been Gracious to You?

The more I talk to people about the grace of God revealed in the gospel and about what it means to be a Christian, the more I realize that most people don’t really get the gospel. They don’t really understand the nature of reality. Any professing Christian that has any sort of biblical understanding would readily admit that salvation is by grace. But how is that we recieve grace? How do I know if I have found mercy from God?

The apostle Paul hit the nail on the head when he said, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). The problem is most of professing American Christianity does not realize that recieving mercy does not depend on them, but upon God. What would you say if I told you that reading your bible, going to church, praying, or any other religious duty did not guarantee that God will be gracious to you? Do you think that being a Christian means that God will show mercy to you? Or do you think you are a Christian because God has shown mercy to you?

You see we do not become Christians when we start to do something, but rather when God begins to do something in us “He [God] who began a good work in you” (Phil. 1:6). And so we are called to examine ourselves to see if we have been born of God or whether we are yet in our sins (see 1 John). While I can’t give an exaustive list, let me list a some of the evidences that one is born of God (i.e. that you are not a Christian in name only).

• You have beheld the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4-6)
• You’re life displays the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23)
• You’re life is being conformed into the image of God in Christ, that is, you are becoming more Christ-like. (Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18, 1 John 3:2-3)
• You’re life is being changed not by adhering to a set of rules and regulations, but by beholding the glory of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 3:18, 1 John 3:2-3, 1 John 4:19, Col. 2)
• You crave the pure milk of God’s Word and delight in it. (1 Pet. 2:2, Ps. 119, Rom. 7:22)
• You count all your righteous deeds to be polluted rags and rejoice in the the righteousness of another, “the Lord our righteousness” (Phil. 3:7-11, Jer. 23:6)
• You live a life of ongoing repentence, since “the grace of God has appeared…instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Tit. 2:11-12, cf. Rom. 8:1-13, Heb. 12:4-11).

The bottom line is this: If you have been experienced the grace of God, it will be evident in your life. If your life is not being conformed to the image of Christ, it may be evidence that you have not recieved mercy from God. If you have need of mercy you must come to the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself up as a sacrifice once for all the just for the unjust so that He might bring us to God. There is no other who is fit to be the dispenser of God’s grace, than the Son of God who clothed Himself in likeness of sinful flesh, so that He might glorify the Father through His perfect obedience and His perfrect sacrifice on behalf of those who would trust in Him. “He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4)

Responding to Grace

“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.” (Luke 17:15-16)

Here in Luke 17 we have the account of “ten leprous men” who have come to Christ and have begged for mercy from Him. Christ in His compassion sends them off to the priest to show themselves. I say Christ did this in compassion because as they went they were cleansed. If Christ had not anticipated the grace that He would show them in healing them of the leprosy, then he would have been sending them off to receive a sentence of condemnation and ostracizing.

Yet off all these that experienced the mercy of Christ only one of them responded with a reaction that is fitting for grace. Let me observe the following things about a proper response to grace from this text:

1. Those who receive grace are change. Those who experience the grace of God are not left as they once were they have “been changed” They were once spiritual lepers, but now they have been cleansed by the blood of the lamb. Or in the words of the hymn, Amazing Grace: “I was blind, but now I see. “
2. Those who receive grace seek the true source of mercy. It is interesting that this man, having recognized the change in his life, left of his journey to see the priests to come back to the Great High Priest. Would we be content with those things which were a type of Him who was to come or would we seek after substance of them in the Person of Christ?
3. Those who receive grace glorify Christ. Now some might take issue with this statement, because the text does not read “glorifying Christ” but rather”glorify God“. However, notice that leper does attribute his healing to Christ as is evident by his “giving thanks to Him.”
4. Those who receive grace bow before Christ. The person who has seen the grace of God transform their life by the work of the Holy Spirit, cannot but help fall at the feet of Christ. And how much more for those of us who live this side of Calvary. Should we not be more intimately acquainted with the holes in His feet?
5. Those who receive grace give thanks to Christ. If you have received grace from such a compassionate king, how could you not but give Him the thanks that He so rightly deserves. Oh, how often I have failed to appreciate or even take notice of the grace of God in my life and as a result failed to give Him the thanks that He rightly deserves.
6. Those who receive grace realize God has done all this for a foreigner. “And he was a Samaritan.” Of all those that returned to give glory to God, to bow before Christ, thank Him for His mercy, for His grace, none returned “except this foreigner.” Especially, those of us who are not physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we should recognize how gracious God has been in extending arms of compassion toward us who were strangers and aliens to God.

Canada, Eh!

I just got back from a mission trip to Canada last night. We took a group of about 30 people from my church and went Camp of the Woods near Sioux Lookout, Onatrio. It was a great week of serving and ministrying to the people there. Each morning, we had short chappel time during which one of the staff at Camp of the Woods would share what God had been doing in their life. Then we would helped out around Camp of the Woods cutting down trees, siding a building, cleaning the kitchen, and various other choirs. Then in the late afternoon, we headed to Sioux Lookout to offer a Vacation Bible School, as well as a small adult bible study. It was a great oppotunity to instruct both children and adults in the truths of the gospel.

Then in the evening we would return to camp for dinner and an evening chappel service, which was preached by one our pastors from Omaha Bible Church, Chris Peterson. He did a five part series from Philippians that was just amazing. As we discussed the priority of the gospel, the necessity of grace, the love of Christ, the glory of Christ, and the Lordship of Christ in  our lives. My favorite sermon was Wednesday nights on Philippians 2 as we discussed the glory of Christ in His incarnation/humilation, His substitution, and His exultation.

Then to end each day, the guys (and gals seperately) gathered together for a devotional time, during which each person shared their personal testimony of the grace of God in their lives. The week in general was a testimony of God’s grace in drawing together a group of people who had previously been His enemies to serve together in the progress of the gospel.

What if You Went to Hell?

I was sitting in Panera Bread earlier this evening and working on some homework, and my mind started thinking about eternity. What if I ended up in hell? Normally when I stop to think about the possibility of ending up spending an eternity suffering the wrath of the Almighty God, the thought terrifies me. But for some reason this evening it didn’t, in fact it encouraged me.

Here’s why….because as I thought about my sin and the punishment it deserved, I thought that hell would be a fitting end. Would not God be justified in midigating carrying out such a sentence on a sinner such as I? Even more, would not His righteousness and His justice be rightly displayed for all to see? I thought much like the Psalmist who said,

“Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:4).

And what a wonderful thought that should be! That God will be justified when He speaks. That He will be blameless when He judges. How often to we, even as Christians, think that hell is a bad place? How often do we think about the suffering that will take place there, but not why it is taking place? I think if we thought more often about why hell exists – because of our sin. And we thought more often about the character of God – His righteousness, His holiness, His justice. We would not think hell to be such a horrid place, but rather a most fitting demonstration of God’s wrath and power.

I fear that the reason most of us think hell to be such a bad thing, it is because we don’t think it is fair. And we don’t think it’s fair, because we do not understand the gravity of our sin, of our offense against God. May we all be able to say like the apostle Paul, “let God be found true, and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:3). May we be mistaken, but let God always be right (which He is by the way).

But in the final analysis I should add that hell will not be the perfect demonstration of His righteous condemnation of sin, the cross of Jesus Christ will be. If for no other reason than this: When God poured out His wrath on the Son on Calvary, His wrath was satisfied once for all for those who would believe. Those in hell will never satisfy His wrath, and that is why it is eternal.