4 posts tagged “love”
"When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."
-Martin Luther, first of the Ninety-Five Theses
The beginning of the Reformation was a call to repentance. This is hardly a realization that I came upon, but I want to take this to heart. Indeed, the very beginning of the teaching of Jesus, the first recorded word in Matthew as Jesus begins his ministry is "repent." (Matthew 4:17) Indeed, as Martin Luther teaches, our entire life needs to be one of repentance. Indeed, when Jesus said "repent," it was not a request. It was a command. In the KJV, it says, "repent ye," showing it clearly to be in the command (to be sure, the greek verb is in the active imperative, meaning that it is a command that should keep happening continually). With that in mind, I know that I cannot call others to repentance until I myself do, or else I am guilty of the plank-speck folly (Mt. 7:4-5).
I want to publicly repent of:
Pride: too often I turn my nose up at someone because they don't read as much as I do, or they don't know a certain theologian, or this or that. I rate myself compared to others in many ways, but always giving myself the vast benefit of the doubt. I repent. I ask you (the three people who read this) to hold me to it. I do not want to be arrogant. I know I have been in the past on this blog and in real life. I am truly sorry. I repent.
Lust: This is particularly painful, because there is the easy excuse that almost every guy suffers from it. But I know that Christ calls me to a higher standard, the standard of Job 31:1 ("I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman") and the standard of Ephesians 5:3 (" among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality"). Also, I am hoping and praying to one day (by God's grace) be a husband and a father. And this sin especially is so often generational, I do not want my kids struggling as I do. And so I repent and walk away from this publicly. With God's help I can overcome this.
Hypocrisy: Because of the above two, I have sometimes been a hypocrite. I call others to account, knowing that I have crap in my life. I repent also of this. For this is the most vile, and has its root in pride. I have made my knowledge and my relative "goodness" my functional savior, which is also Idolatry, the most heinous of sins. I repent of this as well.
I stand (actually, I am sitting, but you know) before you a sinful man. Desperately in need of grace. If it just ended here, it would be a sad story. But it isn't. Because Jesus is the end of this story, and indeed the story of the whole universe. You see, Jesus of Nazareth lived the life I could not live, and died the death I should have died, so that I might be forgiven, and walk in the newness of life (Romans 6).
And now to HIM, who can do immeasurable more than we can ask, think, or even imagine, in his great and glorious name, the name by which men are saved, the powerful name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, and to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. So help us. Amen.
I seem to remember promising to break down God's wrath and propitiation (Jesus' atonement for God's wrath) at some point, so I wanted to get that out of the way now that I have some time. Here goes.
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First of all, the attribute to describe God the most is holy. In Leviticus alone, it is used 123 times, usually in the refrain, "be holy, as I am holy." (i.e. Leveticus 11:44) This means that God is sacred, and cannot be in the presence of sin. He is holy.
But the problem is that we sin. This requires a response from God. It is not just that we sin, but that we reject God altogether (Romans 1:21), refusing to give him the worship that he deserves. Truly, anytime we sin, we sin against God. (Psalm 51:4) Being holy and righteous, God hates sin, as Psalm 5:5 says, "The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong." Sin as an affront to God's holiness is justly condemned, for God is also a just God (Deuteronomy 32:4). God's just response to this affront of God's character and God's creation is wrath.
While not dealt with much in most mainstream churches, it is dealt with quite prominently in the Bible. Actually, God's wrath is mentioned over 600 times using 20 different words in the Old Testament, while it appears prominently, but less frequently, in the new testament. Most often in the Old Testament, anger and wrath are used jointly, such as in Deuteronomy 9:19, 29:28, and Psalm 2:5. Some people see God as a God of wrath only in the Old Testament, but God does not change. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and he has wrath today as well. Prominent examples in the Old Testament are 2 Chronicles 28:13b, which says, "Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel." Also, the prophetic book of Nahum opens up with a description of God, saying, "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies." (Nahum 1:2) Too often we read these passages and make a mental list of all the people who are God's enemies. But if we sin, against God especially, we are God's enemies. I just realized I have been throwing around this term wrath without really defining it, so allow me to provide the defenition that John Piper gave in his sermon on Romans 1:18-32. "The wrath of God is the settled anger toward sin expressed in repayment of suitable vengance on guilty sinners."
At first glance, this doctrine of God's wrath seems in conflict with His love. But if we reject God's personal wrath towards us, we also must reject his personal love towards us. A loving God's response to the destruction of his creation is wrath, for he not only loves the destroyer, but the destroyed, and therefore is wrathful at its defilement. Too often, we picture God as one of senile benevolence; but God's love is a fierce love, and He is wrathful when His creation, which He loves, is being destroyed.
Furthermore, God's anger and wrath are expressed in the New Testament as well. For if Jesus was not wrathful, and Jesus was God incarnate, then truly God cannot be wrathful. But in Mark 3:5, it says that Jesus was truly angry. Additionally, Jesus is described as wrathful in Revelation 6:16, when a chorus of voices cried out, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" Also, God's wrath is described in Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:6, and throughout much of the earlier part of Romans. Additionally, Romans 3:5-6 reports that God's wrath is deserved. It is described in Matthew 25:41-46 as an unquenchable fire, and as eternal in Mark 9:43.
If this is where we stand, under God's wrath and just condemnation, how shall we be saved? Where is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Indeed, if I simply had told you that Jesus died for you, without showing you why that was so significant, you would not have listened. It would not have been good news, simply ok or apathetic news. But we are under God's wrath, and at this point, Jesus steps in and takes God's wrath on himself, in our place. This doctrine, known as penal substitutionary atonement, is the good news.. Many people want to reject this doctrine because of certain philosophical presuppositions that they carry with them. But you reject this, and it is no longer fully the gospel. This is the most beautiful part of the gospel.
In Romans, Paul writes, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith" (Romans 3:23-25, NASB) The word "propitiation" literally means a satisfaction of God's wrath, a clearing of his response, as Jesus bore God's wrath in our place.
Jesus' propiatory sacrifice atoned for our sins, allowing the possibility for us to be at one with God. But that is not the end of this process. You must believe in Jesus Christ, and follow him and obey him. Jesus proclaimed in John 3:36 that, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." In order to participate in the riches of God's grace, you must believe in Jesus. The death, burial, and ressurection of Jesus. No other religion or ideology. Jesus. You might tell me I am narrow-minded. But I am just as narrow-minded as Jesus was, no more, no less.
Do not be fooled. Do not think that this is a free ticket out. That everyone is cleared just because Jesus died. Some might say that this is errant, but "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient." (Ephesians 5:6) Also, "for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." (Romans 2:8)
Truly God is holy. Truly God is just. And truly God is merciful. He has extended to us a way out, in Jesus and his death on the cross. But we must not stop there. It requires action on our part, a turning towards Jesus and away from sin. A.W. Tozer notes that "the hope that God will not carry out his wrath because he is merciful is a deadly opiate to many people" (Paraphrase of Knowledge of the Holy). Do not be lulled in thinking that God's wrath will not be carried out because his love trumps all. Instead, let us fall to our knees, and proclaim:
O God, truly, you are holy, and just, and mighty, and merciful and loving. And we thank you for your good news, and for giving us a second chance. Truly salvation is of the Lord, and we thank you. O Praise Him, who sacrificed himself for us, so that we might be reconciled to God. Amen. So be it. Amen.
I was recently at a coffee shop catching up with an old friend who has departed from the Christianity of her parents. My heart bleeds for her, and I have a deep pain in seeing her abandon God for a life of death and loneliness. One of the things has stuck with me, as I asked about the situation with her parents. She said it was ok, but that her parents “Wouldn’t accept my lifestyle.” My retort was, “why should they?”
Why should her parents, who love her deeply, accept the destructive life that she has chosen? Can their love allow them to stand on the sidelines and simply hope for the best? Although this story is about just one particular person, it speaks to our entire culture. Cries such as, “That’s just how I am,” and “It’s a natural impulse,” are plentiful, as our culture strives for a limp-wristed love of a grandmother, who never disapproves of anything and bakes you cookies at the day’s end. Too many people live with the false hope that the perm sky-fairy Jesus won’t condemn them, that he lacks the conviction and hopes everyone can stand in a circle and sing Kumbya. This hope will eventually destroy us.
Our hope that the wrath of God is not coming stems from a pithy saying that is quoted even at Bible studies as Scripture. This quote is that “God loves the sinner and hates the sin.” Oddly enough, this does not appear anywhere in the Bible, but instead is from the mouth of Gandhi, not exactly the most biblical of theologians. Its like we are over here, and our sin is over there, and God looks at our sin and says, “I really hate that, but I love you.” This is no new heresy, but began as early as whenever 2 John was penned. At the time, the Gnostics, and later the Armenians and Manicheans, proclaimed that there was an essential divide between soul and body, so that Death Cab for Cutie would have been yelled at for deciding that indeed, “Soul Meets Body.” This allowed them to say that the body was sinful, but since it did not interact with the soul, it is not dirtied by the actions of the body. There are a few problems with this view. Primarily, it views Sin (big S) as a set of actions instead of a condition. Sin as a condition is a separation from God, who alone is our life. And so our soul is dead, and so it matters very little what happens with our body, since our immortal soul is eternally dead. Also, where does our soul reside during our life? In our body. Our body is our tent in this life, where our soul resides, and so the dirtiness of the body dirties the soul. Furthermore, this boils down the an essential distinction. The question is this: whether we are what we do, or do we do what we are? If we are what we do, then by changing actions, we can change our identity. If we do what we are, our bad actions stem from our badness, and there is no hope. Truly, the heart is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23) and so we do what we are, thus we are left hopeless without the cross.
We also think that hate and love are mutually exclusive. But this is only because our definition of love is not sufficient. We think of love as sentimental, where you are in love and you write love poems to each other and that is it. But true love, fierce love, demands amendment of disgusting things. This is the fierce love of a parent: that they do not accept the life they know is bad for their child. This is the fierce love of a spouse: the anger that is experienced when they see their wife or husband sleeping with another person. The burning anger is only present with the burning love. The soft fluffy bunny love of the grandparents that no one has is a horrible heresy. As long as we see Jesus as the guy strolling through the temple tipping over tables and cages, we will never understand the wrath of God. When we see Christ on the cross, we can understand both the love and the wrath of God. That we would not settle for what is our “character,” but instead what God has for us after he has redeemed us. When we stand at the foot of the cross, we know that we are not good enough. Not only should your friends not accept your problems and sins; you shouldn’t accept your problems and sins, but instead turn to Jesus, as he proclaims, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
When I came to Lewis and Clark, I was not a big fan of hippies. I didn't like liberals very much, nor conservatives that much either. I stood in condemnation of alternative lifestyles, sneering openly at whoever semi-endorsed it. I made fun of people in the dining hall with my friends, and certainly did not show the love of Christ. I was, and am, a horrible missionary and missiologist. I wish I could have this semester back. Until tonight, hearing Tim Keller speak about the Sufficiency of Christ in a post-modern world, I stood in contempt of most of the college. I rolled my eyes at the hippies and liberals in my economics and core classes. And then God spoke to me through a man named Tim Keller, who I have never met, when he said, "We [the church] are in the city, but we do not love the city." I was listening to it and just got stunned. I couldn't believe it. That was me. I didn't love the city I have been placed in. I have no doubt God wanted me here at Lewis and Clark. But I haven't loved the city.
On another note from the same lecture by Keller, he noted that the entire gospel and Bible can be summed up in Jonah 2:9, which says, "salvation is of the Lord." Keller said that he was describing the gospel to a woman and she said, "that seems so dangerous. If it was works based, it would be like I had payed him, and so God could only ask so much of me. But if God just gives us salvation...there is no limit to what he can ask of me." Do I really understand that salvation is from God? Do I? If I did, I wouldn't have been dissapointed when a ministry I tried to start, the bridge, barely got off the ground and had at most 10 people show up, 4 of them leaders. I was trying to be saved through my work for God. But if I have already been saved, then attendance wouldn't matter. Keller described religion as obedience and then acceptance. But in Christianity, first you are accepted through the atoning work of the Jesus Christ on the cross, and then you obey. I was looking around the coffee shop, thinking to myself, "what does God want me to do that I wasn't listening too?" I love God. But I don't understand the good news of the Gospel. I need to rediscover its glory and power and sufficieny. And LOVE PEOPLE. I apologize to the three people who are reading this: if you are from Lewis and Clark or I have met you at some point and did not love you to the utmost, I am fallen. I am insufficient. Know that Christ alone is sufficient.
