Keller on Christ in all of Scripture

More sermons for you. Tim Keller at the Reform & Resurge Conference 2006:

Is the Bible basically about you and what you need to do, or is it basically about Jesus and His salvation? Which is it?

For example, when you're preaching about David and Goliath, what is it basically about? Is it basically about 'the bigger they come, the harder they fall;' 'if you have faith, you can move mountains;' 'God and you can handle anything;' 'you can face the giants in your life'? That's the way it's usually preached - in which case, it's basically about you.

But, now, if you come with a bias that says every theme, every single theme, eventually comes out in Jesus Christ. You can trace all the threads, whether it's the thread of the temple, or the covenant, or the hero, or every prophet or every priest or every king - every thread, if you run all the way through the Bible, in the end, is Jesus.

We would do well to digest that kind of Christ-centered theology.

Driscoll on the Cross of Christ

(I'm watching a bunch of sermons for a class at seminary, and I get to pick which ones I watch. So, of course, I pick my favorites. And I may have posted on this sermon before, but it's worth quoting again.)

Mark Driscoll, in his 2006 sermon, "Death by Love: Reflections on the Cross":

At any point that we deviate from the cross, or we diminish the cross, what we do is end up destroying ourselves and our church."

The Grip of Fear and the Power of the Gospel

Recently, a beloved friend has been writing me about his fear of terrorism. He related that he believes we ought to "prepare our families to die in mass" at the hands of "Islamofascists." I want to be very clear here, I do not agree with labeling people like that, so I am simply responding to an error here in the kindest, truest way I can. I pray that you read it for your growth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Beloved friend,

It seems that you're not seeing the fear in your own words. I know that when I am afraid, it is because I am not trusting God to take care of me as He sees fit. Look at the early church of Acts 1-4, or the persecuted believers of Hebrews 10:32-39 - they trust God and actually are happy in Him in the midst of heartache and pain and suffering and death. They don't obsess over the pain and the suffering. They feel it and it hurts, so they trust in God and direct their thoughts and prayers and praise toward Him, not toward the persecutors or the persecution.

Hebrews 10:32-39, in fact, is very sobering when it points out that suffering for Jesus can either make us press on in "confidence" or "shrink back to destruction." Then the writer says, "but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." This is a powerful message, because it tells us that pain can lead us to turn away from God forever or turn to Him forever.

So you say that Islam and murder and death are the "greater evil"? Biblically, that is ridiculous. The greatest evil in the world is hatred and unbelief . . . toward God. The Bible says that when you and I hate someone in our hearts, we have already in our hearts committed the murder that you speak of. We ought to take this very seriously, because it tells us that the ugliest evil is within the human heart, not outside in human hands. The greatest evil is disregarding God and worshipping idols, any idols - including our own comfort, which is what we may be worshipping when we obsess about pain.

[Note - he had said I had advised a poor plan of action.] I have not "advised" any plan of action except believing the Gospel first and foremost. All who trust in Jesus have their minds in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), so if we're not in perfect peace then our minds are not fixed on Him. You and I should start with Jesus and stay on Jesus and look forward to meeting Jesus - whether death and disease and famine come or not.

I for one will not be teaching my family or anyone else to live in fear of Muslims, and neither should you. There are two good reasons for this:

#1 This "fear" of Muslims is just another excuse for hatred toward them. God teaches us to love all people, even our enemies, even when they kill us.

#2 This fear of Muslims ends up being an idol in many hearts that will keep people away from truly trusting in Jesus Christ for their salvation, now and forever.


You and I simply do not have the promise that God will keep us from physical harm in this life - it's simply not true. In fact, He
promises persecution for all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 3:12), as all Christians do desire. So let's not kid ourselves that death and destruction won't come to us - they surely will, but not forever. That is the Gospel, not that we escape pain and sin in this life but that we escape it through Jesus forever in the next life. Our pain in this life makes our redemption in Christ all the sweeter. Praise Him who saves us forever!

Trust Him tonight, tomorrow, and forever, dear friend; I love you,

Britt

Packer on the Gospel of God

I noted the helpfulness, strength, and clarity of J.I. Packer's introductory essay to John Owen's classic The Death of Death in the Death of Christ a few posts ago, but I wanted to give you a better taste of Packer's insights. Bible study guys, here you go:

The old gospel was “helpful,” too — more so, indeed, than is the new — but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern was always to give glory to God. It was always and essentially a proclamation of Divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace. Its centre of reference was unambiguously God. But in the new gospel the centre of reference is man. This is just to say that the old gospel was religious in a way that the new gospel is not. Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach men to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and His ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him. There is a world of difference. The whole perspective and emphasis of gospel preaching has changed.

From this change of interest has sprung a change of content, for the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interests of “helpfulness.” Accordingly, the themes of man’s natural inability to believe, of God’s free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for His sheep, are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not “helpful”; they would drive sinners to despair, by suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. (The possibility that such despair might be salutary is not considered; it is taken for granted that it cannot be, because it is so shattering to our self-esteem.) However this may be (and we shall say more about it later), the result of these omissions is that part of the biblical gospel is now preached as if it were the whole of that gospel; and a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. Thus, we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time; we speak of His redeeming work as if He had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing; we speak of God’s love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust; and we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence “at the door of our hearts” for us to let them in. It is undeniable that this is how we preach; perhaps this is what we really believe. But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. The Bible is against us when we preach in this way; and the fact that such preaching has become almost standard practice among us only shows how urgent it is that we should review this matter. To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need. And it is at this point that Owen’s treatise on redemption can give us help.

There are some incredible lines in there, and the whole thing is worth the 30-45 minutes it will take you to read it. Please drop me a comment or an email if you have any questions or comments, because knowing what Packer means will likely be the difference between being a serious Christian or a lightweight - and it could be the difference between knowing Christ or not knowing Him at all.

Ascol on True Church Discipline

Pastor Tom Ascol responds to the recent Wall Street Journal article on church discipline. He notes the always-extreme nature of their news coverage and includes this direction for churches seeking to practice truly Biblical and loving church discipline:

One of the first things a faithful pastor must do when he finds that a church has neglected the practice of corrective church discipline is teach. He must carefully explain passages like the one cited above [Matthew 18] and 1 Corinthians 5. Then he must teach some more. And then some more. He must lead the membership to see and embrace what the Bible says about the integrity of a church's identity and testimony as the body of Christ. Only after a congregatoin has been adequately taught can they be expected to properly carry out the practice of church discipline.

May the Lord bring His Word and His purity back into our local churches.

The Faithful Lover

We are reading through the Gospel of John in family worship, and a few weeks back 13:1 struck me:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Now, John's narration here is obviously referring to Christ's earthly ministry to and love for His disciples when he says "having loved his own who were in the world," all the way to the cross and beyond when he says, "he loved them to the end." Christ's ascension, and, consequently ours, is even in view when John writes, "Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world."

This, then, is truly an incredible statement about the faithful love of Jesus Christ for His people. He loves His own who are in the world to the point that He will bring them out of the world. He loves His own to the very end.

Let us be very clear here: this is not His general love for the whole world, but His particular love for His people. These are those sheep for whom He died, not the "not-sheep" who are not chosen (see John 10). The Good Shepherd lays down His life particularly for the sheep. He buys and redeems His chosen people and loves them until the end.

What a faithful Lover He is! He loses none and keeps all that the Father gives Him! How deep and vast and costly is His love! He does not let up! When we desert Him as the disciples did, how He continues to love His own!

A Simple Primer on the Biblical Gospel

For my friends with whom I never seem to have the time or setting to discuss this, please read J.I. Packer's introduction to John Owen's classic, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. This is most practical, simple, and clear explanation of the importance of a Biblical understanding of the Gospel that I have ever read (and I do a good bit of reading on that subject).

God, Money, and the Good Eye

Lately I've been reading Pastor John Piper's short book on Jesus' commands, In Our Joy, (which is itself a distillation of Piper's longer book on Jesus' commands, What Jesus Demands from the World) and I came across this excellent paragraph on God, money, and the good eye. Piper, expounding Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-34, writes:

You have a good eye if you look to God and love to maximize the reward of his fellowship—that is, lay up treasure in heaven. You have a good eye if you look at Master-money and Master-God and see Master-God as infinitely more valuable. In other words, a “good eye” is a wisely valuing eye, a discerning eye, an astutely treasuring eye. It doesn’t just see facts about money and God. It doesn’t just perceive what is true and false. It sees beauty and ugliness; it senses value and worthlessness; it discerns what is really desirable and what is undesirable. The seeing of the good eye is not neutral. When it sees God, it sees God-as-beautiful. It sees God-as-desirable.

Please pray with me that we would see God as infinitely more valuable that all the riches of this world. Pray that we would love Him more than money and comfort and safety and our own lives!

Maybe I'll post more on this later - Jesus makes so many eye-opening, earth-shattering statements in the Bible that it would take several lifetimes to discuss them all.

Desiring God: Free Books Online

Here are some of my favorites:

• A God-Entranced Vision of All Things
• A Hunger for God
• Counted Righteous in Christ
• Desiring God
• Don't Waste Your Life
• God Is the Gospel
• God's Passion for His Glory
• The Passion of Jesus Christ
  
• Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
• When I Don't Desire God

Read them online or print them out on your own paper - free!

Why So Much Bible and Prayer?

Is that really the way to God? Pastor John Piper says, "yes."

This was helpful to my soul.

So This is Why I Go to Bojangle's

Look, unless you don't know me at all, you probably already know that I love hanging out at Bojangle's. I love the tea, I love the biscuits, I love the chill atmosphere, I love the free refills and the hours spent with my friends there (you know who you are) - but this is what I hadn't realized so fully until minutes ago - I love hanging out there for the glory of God in meeting whoever He sends my way.

It's like I set up shop there. I take my Bible, another good book or five, maybe my laptop, a pen, and a notebook and sit down at a table in the corner near a power outlet and a window. I go through the line and get my sweet tea and maybe a biscuit, and then I'm off to work. I even try to meet people as they come and go. Novel idea, huh?

What I didn't know is that, this whole time, I have been trying to hang out for the glory of God because I believe it is important to be out in our real world and meet real people, many of whom are really lost.

This is what JT's post on Jim Eliff's article taught me. "Hanging out for the glory of God" is - yes, actually is - a valid means of ministering to the lost and dying all around us. So pick a spot - go ahead. It doesn't have to be Bojangle's, but it should be somewhere in public.

One of My Favorite Verses in All of the Bible

. . . is Isaiah 35:10

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

What a beautiful promise for God's elect! Return to Zion with singing! Neverending joy on our heads! Obtaining gladness AND joy! Nevermore again to be sad or sigh! All of the depressing feelings of this fallen life to forever flee from us! To enjoy God forever in His place with His own happiness! What costly, bountiful, incomprehensible blessings Jesus bought for us God-hating sinners on the cross!

Octavius Winslow on Following Christ's Example

Pastor Tom Ascol is always raving about how good Octavius Winslow's Morning and Evening Devotions are, so I decided I should read them for myself.

Today's morning devotion just happens to be on John 13:15, "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you."

After noting Matt. 11, Rom. 15, and Phil. 2 as places the Bible calls us to follow Christ's example, Winslow has come lucid applications:

• Look not every man on his own circle, his own family, his own gifts, his own interests, comfort, and happiness; upon his own Church, his own community, his own minister. Let him not look upon these exclusively.
• Let him not prefer his own advantage to the public good.
  
• Let him not be self-willed in matters involving the peace and comfort of others.
• Let him not forLm favorite theories, or individual opinions, to the hazard of a Church's prosperity or of a family's happiness.
• Let him yield, sacrifice, and give place, rather than carry a point to the detriment of others.
• Let him, with a generous, magnanimous, disinterested spirit, in all things imitate Jesus, who "pleased not Himself."
• Let him seek the good of others, honoring their gifts, respecting their opinions, nobly yielding when they correct and overrule his own.
• Let him promote the peace of the Church, consult the honor of Christ, and seek the glory of God, above and beyond all private and selfish ends.

He explains in closing:

This is to be conformed to the image of God's dear Son, to which high calling we are predestinated; and in any feature of resemblance which the Holy Spirit brings out in the holy life of a follower of the Lamb, Christ is thereby glorified before men and angels.

I found it especially helpful that Winslow points out the danger of forming one's own opinions and doctrines. "Let him not form favorite theories, or individual opinions, to the hazard of a Church's prosperity or of a family's happiness," he writes. It is for lack of following Christ that people come up with hazardous doctrines. It is their failure to submit themselves to His own Word that allows their minds to invent false teachings.

And it is our job as His followers to follow Him in life and thought, teaching what He teaches and protecting those whom He protects.

Drink Deeply of Jesus Christ

Having read the SBC resolution on alcohol consumption from last year's SBC convention, and then receiving an email announcement from my seminary president addressing that very resolution, I quickly became aware of the foolish legalism of this call for alcoholic abstinence. I mean, there are many, many things I love about the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches, but I love God and His Word more. So it's time to call it out:

This foolishness, this ugly Phariseeism, must stop.

The Southern Baptist Convention, its churches, and every believer in Jesus Christ would do well to pay attention to the commands, logic, and implications of Colossians 2:16-23

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

It says in essence, "Church, let no one judge you! Christ is the substance, not fleshly practices! Church, let no one cheat you! They will try to pull you away from the Head, from whom you are supplied with life!"

I preached on this passage last night at our local rescue mission and actually resisted the urge to call out the SBC on this one. I thought it was my sinful, critical nature trying to exalt myself over the convention; but it was nothing of the sort. My urge was from the Holy Spirit, because this anti-alcoholic legalism is a dangerous and deadly deception. And it is hurting, not helping, local churches.

I was reminded of this fact when I read this article from Christianity Today about the Missouri Bapist Convention and its fight against a local church who uses a local bar (gasp!) to meet people and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In response to the Journey Church's practice of utilizin a St. Louis pub in order to "become all things to all men, so that by any means (they) might save some" (1 Cor. 9:22), the MBC has mandated the teaching of the false doctrine of alcoholic abstinence. One board member, Michael Knight, has even proposed that the MBC cut off all ministry partnership with Acts 29, the Mark Driscoll-founded organization that helps and funds many church plants, including the Journey.

With this idea, the MBC risks building folly upon folly. And it all comes from really bad theology:

• God is not honored when people imply that alcoholic abstinence is a way of gaining His approval.
• God is belittled when His Word is pushed to the wayside while we make rules that have nothing to do with it.
• When we first appeal to personal experience and cultural evidence, God's Word has become of no effect.

Let us not build houses upon sand, but upon the rock of Christ's Word. Please join me in calling for a return to the God of the Bible.

God-Centered Lessons from Ray Ortlund, Sr.

Thanks to JT's blog, I learned of the recent death and heavenly happiness of the Jesus-loving pastor, teacher, and writer, Ray Ortlund, Sr, and subsequently found his grandson's "lessons learned." The whole thing is a gem, and I have copied most of it (with slight reformats) here:

My grandfather is, with a few possible exceptions, the most remarkable man I’ve ever known. As my dad put it yesterday, he is the definition of a godly man. If I could choose words from all the hundreds of languages of the world, I would never come close to communicating the weight of what my grandfather has taught me about God and faith and "going hard after God," as he would say. And I know only one language. But despite the frustration of not adequately doing justice to God's abundant work of grace in his life, I list eight things I've learned from Grandpa--and am still learning.

My goal in listing these is not to erect a picture of a perfect man (which would only discourage us), but to “consider the outcome of his way of life, and imitate his faith.” I want others to feel the weight of what God did with this very ordinary man and, with me, to be stirred up. This is not exalting a man instead of Jesus, but exalting a man because of Jesus. Grandpa is the last person who would want his own name to overshadow that of Christ.

1. The Centrality of Love: when he came and spoke to the pastors of Missouri Presbytery of the PCA in 2004, with the chance to pick any text he wanted, he chose John 13: "A new commandment I give you: that you love one another." It was vintage Grandpa when halfway through his message he stopped and instructed the guys present to go around and tell their brothers that they loved them. A simple "I love you" from one pastor to another, face to face. Imagine!

2. The Importance of Joy: Nothing was more tragic, to Grandpa, than a morose believer. He was himself one of the happiest people I've ever known, and that is not without a good deal of heartache of his own.

3. The Bible as Food: Grandpa did not read the Bible mainly for information, but to feed his soul. In one of his books he writes, "You don’t get food for your soul by osmosis! You can hear others talk of it; but until you yourself regularly take in that delicious Word of God, you’re undernourished!” I possess a Bible of his from the late 80's - every page is marked. Including 2 Chronicles and the second half of Joshua.

4. The Critical Place of Prayer: Often we would be together as a family and Grandpa would say, “Let’s stop and pray about this.” And there was no spiritual gamesmanship with the man--just honest, earnest talking to and pleading with the Lord.

5. The Secret Value of Repentance and Humility: One evening in Nashville when we were together as a family Grandpa had been telling me about how Fuller Seminary started in his church, and mentioned some of the big-wigs involved. The next morning, the first thing he said to me was: "Dane, I need to apologize to you about something. I was putting myself forward last night when I was talking about Fuller and those guys, and it was prideful, and I want to tell you I'm sorry and ask you to forgive me. I don't want to be a self-promoter." He was 82, had spoken to crowds of 100,000 in India, had had an interational radio ministry, and written over 20 books. And he wanted to apologize to his grandson for being a self-promoter.

6. The Importance of Loving My Wife: In 2004, sitting in a booth at Chili's in St. Louis, Grandpa gave me a stinging rebuke for not studying Scripture with my wife. That day was a turning point for our marriage.

7. The Incomparable Worth of Singlemindedness: Some of Grandpa's favorite phrases were “tiger for Jesus,” “great exploits in Jesus’ name,” “there’s nothing in life outside of Jesus,” and “go hard after God.” He was a tiger for Jesus, he did great exploits' in Jesus' name, and he did go hard after God. He also eschewed normalcy. He wrote: “Your danger and mine is not that we become criminals, but rather, that we become respectable, decent, commonplace, mediocre Christians. No rewards at the end, no glory—“saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15)! The twenty-first-century temptations that really sap our spiritual power are the television, banana cream pie, the easy chair, and the credit card. Christian, you will win or lose in those seemingly innocent little moments of decision.”

8. Strength in Weakness: Grandpa exemplifies the counterintuitive biblical truth that when we are weak, then we are strong. He was dyslexic and therefore a very slow reader, often felt huge waves of insecurity, and wrestled with what he called an "inferiority complex" early on in life. Yet God used him remarkably, and I believe it was not in spite of his weaknesses but because of them. They forced him to yield himself to the Lord in utter dependence. And I take much consolation in that, as a weak person myself. Grandpa knew that to say “I don’t have what it takes” is exactly what it takes.

I summarize the life of this man with Jesus' words to Peter in Matthew 16: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Grandpa lost his life. And therefore found it.

I love you, Grandpa. Thank you for exalting and enjoying Christ and Christ alone. What a work of grace he did in your life. The joy was yours. The honor was his. The blessing is ours. I can't wait to enjoy the new earth with you.

What a testimony to leave his children and grandchildren! What lessons we all should learn! Let us aspire in Christ to such faithful, Biblical, sacrificial lives by the power of His Spirit!

The "Sweet Flame" of Christ's Love

Here is a beautiful Jonathan Edwards quote, with introduction from Thabiti:

On Nov. 28, 1751 Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter to a Lady Mary Pepperrell. Lady Pepperrell had recently lost a son and Edwards wrote to offer Christian comfort. For my money, Edwards is at his best when he meditates on the person and work of Christ. In the middle of his letter to Pepperrell, his thoughts land on the work of Christ for us. Here's an excerpt quoted from A Sweet Flame: Piety in the Letters of Jonathan Edwards.

It is a work of love to us, and a work of which Christ is the author. He loveliness and his love have both their greatest and most affecting manifestation in those sufferings, which he endured for us at his death. Therein, above all, appeared his holiness, his love to God, and his hatred of sin, in that, when he desired to save sinners, rather than that a sensible testimony should not be seen against sin, and the justice of God be vindicated, he chose to become 'obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.' Thus, in the same act, he manifests, in the highest conceivable degree, his infinite hatred of sin and his infinite love to sinners. His holiness appeared like a fire, burning with infinite vehemence against sin. At the same time,... his love to sinners appeared like a sweet flame, burning with an infinite fervency of benevolence. It is the glory and beauty of his love to us, polluted sinners, that is an infinitely pure love. And it is the peculiar sweetness and endearment of holiness, that it has its most glorious manifestation in such an act of love to us. All the excellencies of Christ, both divine and human, have their highest manifestation in this wonderful act of his love to men--his offering up himself a sacrifice for us, under these extreme sufferings. Herein have abounded toward us the riches of his grace, 'in all wisdom and prudence' (Eph. 1:8). Herein appears his perfect justice. Herein, too, was the great display of his humility, in being willing to descend so low for us. In his last sufferings appeared his obedience to God, his submission to this disposing will, his patience, and his meekness, when he went as a lamb to the slaughter, and opened not his mouth, but in a prayer that God would forgive his crucifiers. And how affecting this manifestation of his excellency and amiableness to our minds, when it chiefly shines forth in such an act of love to us. The love of Christ to men, in another way, sweetens and endears all his excellencies and virtues; as it has brought him in to so near a relation to us, as our friend, our elder brother, and our redeemer; and has brought us into an union so strict with him, that we are his friends, yea, 'members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones' (Eph. 5:30).

We see then, dear Madam, how rich and how adequate is the provision, which God has made for our consolation, in all our afflictions, in giving us a Redeemer of such glory and such love, especially, when it is considered, what were the ends of this great manifestation of beauty and love in his death. He suffered that we might be delivered. His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, to take away the sting of sorrow, and to impart everlasting consolation. He was oppressed and afflicted, that we might be supported. He was overwhelmed in the darkness of death, that we might have the light of life. He was cast into the furnace of God's wrath, that we might drink of the rivers of his pleasures. His soul was overwhelmed with a flood of sorrow, that our hearts might be overwhelmed with a flood of eternal joy.

Luke Admits He Was Wrong

I was reading the ESV's Bible Reading Plan feed on my Google Reader the other day and once again came across an instructive narrative in the book of Acts. Acts 21:15-21 reads:

While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” (italics mine)

The setting here is Paul's return journey to Jerusalem with Luke and other disciples. Luke is the writer of the book of Acts and thus its narrator. When he writes "we," he is including himself. But, according to this story, these disciples did not see it that way at the time. They even had witness from the Holy Spirit that Paul would be bound at Jerusalem. So they pled with him, they begged him, they urged him not to go. And Luke was doing it right there with them.

Yet Paul's steadfastness to the name of the Lord Jesus demands that he go and be bound and die, if necessary. He loves Jesus in this kind of sacrificing, giving, suffering way that the Bible requires of all of us who are Christ's.

So Luke, along with the other disciples, was urging Paul not to go to Jerusalem, where he would providentially be arrested and sent on to Rome, as God would have it. And this and subsequent narratives makes it clear that this was, in fact, God's plan to send His Gospel to the ends of the earth.

As Luke writes these narratives, then, looking back (since the book doesn't close for a few more chapters and likely months, we can safely assume Luke had some time to reflect on these events before his Holy Spirit-breathed writing of the book), he realizes and admits that he was wrong. He was, though well-intentioned, very mistaken in begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem and suffer for Jesus. Luke - the inspired writer of two hefty books of Scripture - was wrong, and he tells his readers that very thing. "I was wrong," he is saying, "to beg Paul like this. God's plan was bigger and harder and better than I could see at that time, and I'm so thankful."

We ought to be humbled that this wonderful, God-given writer has grace to admit his mistakes, and may we magnify God as we admit ours, as well.

Recent Reading

Some good recent articles in the world of blog:

• Honest to God - Michael McKinley at the 9Marks Blog, Church Matters, takes a look at the pride and hypocrisy in his own heart, challenging us to take a look at our own, finally pointing us to the cross of Christ where we find the grace and forgiveness that empowers us to be truly honest with ourselves, each other, and God Himself.
• Thabiti's series on The Mereness of Church - Thabiti takes a look at how the Church must be simple and clear in her mission and message. These are convicting, challenging, helpful posts, as most all of Thabiti's are.
• Martin Graham's two most recent full-length posts - Fathers, Be Your Child's Advocate! and the Greatness of God and the Meaning of Tender Mercy - are both devotional and God-centered. I am often helped by this dear brother.
• Justin Taylor's three recent devotional articles - one and two from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Christian's inner life and one from Jerry Bridges on legalistic fences - are all worth the short, thoughtful read.
• Tom Ascol at the Founders Blog is keeping us up-to-date on the life of the SBC in Florida. Powerful convictions and heartfelt love abound.

Praise God for the internet! I learn so much from so many more learned men than myself, all while pointing me to the Bible and the Central Character of it!

Is Inclusivism Compassionate?

John G. Stackhouse Jr. is a professor of theology and culture at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He writes in a recent Christian Vision Project essay that, "it is obvious that one does not have to know about Jesus to adopt this posture that results in salvation." Doug Wilson's response to John Stackhouse's inclusivist essay is excellent. In it, he makes the strong point that:

Ironically, this is why the inclusivist position requires us to start minimizing (in our own imaginations) how screwed up the world actually is. If we believe that millions of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists are groping their way to God in the dark, then we have to look out at the world as though it were jammed full of good intentions. And the problem is that it isn't.

So we don't proclaim Jesus because we are fixing the problem of "not having heard about Jesus." We proclaim Jesus because we are addressing the problem of death, genocide, hatred, murder, rape, slave prostitution, senseless war, snarling greed, and as they say on television, much, much more. The problem with the inclusivist position is not that it is eager for the people to be included -- every Christian wants that. The problem is that when we define the standard downward like this, at the end of the day we find that we have included much more than the people -- we have opened the door to great wickedness as well. This may sound outlandish, but there it is. Tender-hearted accommodation leads to great hardness of heart. And a hardline conservatism at this point, ironically, is tender-hearted.

So when I feel like being compassionate, do I point people to Jesus, or do I pander around their sin? What do you do? What do you believe? Let's expose the heretic inclusivist within and kill him by the Spirit of Jesus.

(HT: JT)

PS - Stackhouse's essay is just another reminder that not every writer (especially on the internet) who has cool graphics, an ultra-hip swagger, and a penchant for nifty God-monikers is telling the truth. Deceivers can take all kinds of forms. Emergent readers beware.

My Bad Theology of Forgiveness

Reading Pastor Chris Braun's excellent article on atonement and forgiveness, I realized that I have been believing and practicing a false theology of forgiveness. It goes like this - when I feel ready, then I will forgive.

What I fail to see is that the cross is absolutely nothing like this, and it demands absolutely nothing short of completely committed forgiveness from me, the believer. God made a plan, He acted on it, and He forgave! Once and for all! All of His chosen!

God forgive me for thinking that my forgiveness of someone else is dependent on my feelings more than the cross where You forgave me! May I not read such therapeutic, flimsy-handed "feelings" into the atoning death of my Lord!