I LOVE THE GOSPEL, and yet I’m amazed at the areas of my life that it has yet to truly touch.
For instance… parenting.
Hope and I try to teach our children to obey THE VERY FIRST TIME. We feel that, from Scripture, it is important that we teach them to obey us, as their parents because in it there is blessing, and we want them to develop a spirit of trust in their parents, that it might spill over to their walk with God. However, being smaller versions of us full-sized sinners, they don’t obey all the time.
So what do we do?
For the longest time, we have used the law of “obey your parents” to show them their sin, that they might repent and do better next time. Nothing wrong with that, except that we stopped there. I stopped there. I was, for the longest time, teaching them to obey, and when they didn’t they would receive correction. But God in his mercy reminded me that THE LAW WAS GIVEN THAT GRACE MIGHT INCREASE.I missed the opportunity to show them that Christ was given BECAUSE they can’t obey all the time. Let me illustrate what I mean…
Me: Nora, why did I discipline you?
Nora: Because I disobeyed (in a cute, Nora voice)
Me: Yes, you did. What does the Bible say?
Nora: Childwen, obey you-uh parwents.
Me: That’s right, please obey next time.
Did you catch it. It was okay, but missed a great gospel opportunity. Let’s try again…
Me: Nora, why did I discipline you?
Nora: Because I disobeyed (in a cute, Nora voice)
Me: Yes, you did. What does the Bible say?
Nora: Childwen, obey you-uh parwents.
Me: Right. You know, sometimes I disobey too, but you know what?
Nora: What?
Me: Jesus obeyed for me, even when I don’t. He obeyed for you too, even when you don’t. Isn’t Jesus great?
Nora: Yeah.
Me: Yeah, he is. Now, please obey Mommy and Daddy.
IN MY PARENTING AND IN MY LIFE, I WANT THEM TO KNOW GRACE WHEN THEY BREAK THE LAW, because they simply will, and so will I, and so will you. That’s why we need Jesus.
Some of you know that I proudly wear the label REFORMED CHARISMATIC.
I was having a discussion with a pastor the other day about this very topic, and something occurred to me. To be Reformed is, among other things, to believe that God is monergistic in the way he saves people. We don’t help God save us, He simply does it, on his own, by his power. Therefore, the person and work of the Holy Spirit is CRUCIAL for people to be saved and changed. To be Charismatic is, among other things, to believe in the “charis”-”mata” or, “grace gifts.” We Charismatics believe that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and gives gifts of grace to the church, even some that seem weird to us. These “grace gifts” are CRUCIAL for us to have the power to tell people the gospel.
So, as you can see, these two camps are worlds apart. I mean one believes the Holy Spirit is very important, while the other believe He’s very… um… Well, wait a minute…
Sad HOW DIVIDED WE BECOME OVER NOTHING. To be sure there are MASSIVE cultural differences between the Reformed world and the Charismatic world. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a see-through podiums in a Reformed church, and I guarantee that no one in the Charismatic church is wasting their time arguing over infra vs. supra lapsarianism.
But, you show me a man who understands God’s sovereignty and deeply feels his dependence on the Holy Spirit for ministry, and I’ll show you a world-changer.
If we can get the BEAUTIFUL TENSION of pursuing the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD and the PRESENCE OF GOD then I believe we’ll start bringing real GLORY TO GOD.
Seriously?! Is there any command of Scripture that’s more detatched from reality? How can God expect us to actually obey that command when we live in world with real pain, death, sin, and struggle. How can a woman who has just lost her child, a husband who lost a wife, someone who is dying of cancer, rejoice? How do you do that?
My daughters and I play a game called “Jesus is better than…” Here’s how the game goes: you think of something you really like, and then say, “Jesus is better than that.“ In my kids’ case, that is often ice cream, barbies, or their favorite movie. Why do we play this game? Because in this little game is the secret to joy that never fails.
If Jesus is really better than all your favorite things, then you can’t have your joy taken when you lose them. We suffer when we lose what we love. If we love what we can’t lose, then suffering will only be momentary, light, and passing, because no one can ever take Jesus from you.
For all the books written about God, all the doctrines defended, all the churches planted, and all the degrees awarded by seminaries, you’d think that we’d have this God fellow down to a pretty sure science. To be sure, we can know Him, and know a lot of true facts about Him. But, let us never think that we have him tamed.
See, I do this all the time. Just today, I was thinking about my money, thinking how faithful I’ve been to tithe, pay down my debts, and be transparent in my dealings. Then, unexpected expenses come up sapping all of my resources. ”Why would you do that, God?” I accuse. ”I’ve been faithful, do your part!” Then, the Holy Spirit firmly reminds me, “Could it be that I’m doing something in you that requires this? Could it be that I know what I’m doing, and you just didn’t see this coming? I did, trust me.”
Rebuked by a God that I cannot predict.
Sometimes I (and I think we) confuse God for a force, like gravity. God has a personality, likes and dislikes, and a will. Forces have none of these. We prefer forces, though, because we know how to manipulate them. Not so with God. Not so.
He is untamable, and not subject to my will. True his character never changes, but his methods may. His goodness is never in question, but neither is his sovereignty, which gives him the right to do whatever he would like.
Being offensive is the highest of cultural sins. Bad news for us Christians, because the gospel is offensive.
Now, let’s be clear, it is the gospel that’s supposed to be offensive, not Christians. I’m not talking about license to be a jerk, but as a matter of fact, the gospel is deeply, deeply offensive. In fact, the Bible tells us that it’s offensive here, here, and here. But why?
The gospel tells people, amongst other things, the following…
If you’re preaching a gospel that’s not offending, then you’re not preaching the right gospel. The results of gospel preaching will always be drastic, in that they will either result in radical life change or deep anger and persecution. Having both is a good sign that you’re doing it correctly.
There’s a myth out there that you can just tell people about the benefits of the gospel without ever talking about the offensive parts mentioned above. That’s world-class nonsense, and any attempt to coax people to faith through dangling the pork-chop of blessing in front of them turns out to be the old “Jesus-will-improve-your-life” lie. He didn’t come to improve your life. He came to give you a new one, and to receive a new one, you must understand that you need to give up your old one. See, we must be offended by the gospel, in the hopes that we’ll be jolted from the sleepiness of satisfaction in our current sinful, broken state, that we’ll be awoken to the greater glory and joy of God himself, which is only available through the gospel.
He told Lazarus to wake up because Lazarus was dead. It’s not pleasant to hear that you’re dead, but it’s the first step to getting up out of the grave.
It is a day to remember the great and terrible death of Jesus on the cross, in our place, for our sin.
It is a day to recount the great and terrible sin of a humanity that sent him there.
It is a day to rejoice that the great and terrible wrath of God was diverted from us to him, displaying God’s love infinite love mingled with infinite justice.
It is a day to repent, turn from sin, and return to a great God who loves a broken humanity enough to overcome terrible wrath with great grace.
Good Friday to you on this great and terrible day.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…
In addition to the gospel being the most important, most central message of Scripture, we see here that the gospel is primarily about Christ being our substitute sacrifice for our sin. He bears God’s wrathful anger at sin in our place, so that we don’t have to. Not a popular idea these days. Let’s look at a popular British preacher’s opinion of this doctrine:
The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offense he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement that “God is love.” If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to reply evil with evil. (Steve Chalke, “The Lost Message of Jesus”)
I wonder what you think of that quote…
The fact is, the Christ’s death for our sins is not divine child abuse, because God is both one and three. God didn’t just punish his Son for our sins, He punished Himself. That makes his sacrifice nothing like abuse, but everything like love. I cannot say enough about this, but before I go on, I’d like your thoughts…
Have you ever wished you could be a fly on the wall just to hear what some people talk about?
D.A. Carson, John Piper, and Tim Keller recently allowed their conversations on various things biblical, missional, and theological to be taped and broadcast for all to see. This triumvirate of gospel wisdom covered some cool stuff. I hope you enjoy.
It used to be the case that the best-known bible verse was John 3:16. These days its 1 John 4:8, “God is love.”
The love of God is not the gracious, compassionate, determinative love that Scripture describes…at least not in the mind of culture. To many people, the love of God is the rug under which they sweep their lifestyles, expecting “ol’ man God” to give them a wink and a nod, because he’s just so loving.
Wrong. Deadly, deadly wrong.
The simple truth is this: God does not love everything, and he does not love everyone in the exact same way.
God does not pour out his love in the same way on all people. While its true that God loves the world generally, he loves certainly people and groups differently than others. The Church, for instance, is the bride of Christ and he loves her more than any other group of people. In the OT, God set his love on Israel in a different way than any other nation.
Here’s the deal: God is love, but he is not only love. God is also many other things, just as much as he is love. God is not mostly love, and then a bit less of justice, wrath, mercy, etc. He is infinitely love, infinitely holy, infinitely just. Follow?
What’s that mean: woe to us if we lean so much on some general, cheap love, which is less like love and more like some blind force like gravity. Woe to us if we preach that cheap, costless love to people. Woe to us if they believe it.
