Christian-eese

Something that's been bothering me lately is the way we talk about Christian "things." I hear people talking about their "faith story" or their conversion or their interaction with people and it's as if one now-cliche sentiment after another just rolls right off their tongues.

I get that all sorts of fields of belief and work and hobby have their own particular jargon or "talk" the participants use. This is understandable and makes sense, for it helps simplify and condense communication. However, I also have no doubt that some of the jargon we employ in our various groups can get watered down or start to morph in meaning. It can become flat out cheese ball (hence the title of this post), or, worse still, sometimes the jargon can become the full extent of the meaning it was originally intended to condense or simplify. Or it can take on an entirely different meaning--one far removed from its valid origin.

Here's an example. Christians will often ask "Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?" when they are "witnessing" (yet another term that has morphed in meaning). I've heard people ask something like this or refer to "making Jesus Lord of their life" at our chapel services, while those of us in attendance listen on, undisturbed or unperplexed.

But this phraseology is misleading and theologically inaccurate. If Jesus is Lord (and I'm fairly certain he thought and acted and was revealed as if this were so), then how do we make him so? We can't make him what he already is. Period.

Oh, you may be thinking, "Kent. Kent. Kent. You're nitpicking. What the person means is have they accepted him as Lord." Fine. That may be what people mean when they say this, but what is being said and what is meant don't jive. Eventually--and I'm sure we're already in this situation--eventually the inaccurate question or explanation is going to be taken for accurate. In this case, a person's claim to have "made Jesus Lord" reveals something far deeper than poor word choice. It most likely also shows that we think we're independent and that Jesus is of no concern or significance to us until WE make him have concern and significance.

But this just isn't the reality. While we may live and operate within this world as if we are independent, it doesn't mean that we are. What really happens is that we have the metaphorical scales removed from our eyes and hearts--our understanding is broadened or opened up--and we "see" that there is a God and that his Son is Lord. We don't then choose to make him Lord. He is. Rather, we accept that this is so. Or, to put it another way, we receive this as so. Both "accept" and "receive" are terms we use to refer to our coming to faith in Christ; both of these terms can be misapplied as can this "making Jesus Lord" phrase. However, these terms--as they are commonly defined--can also carry the ideas of admission of belief or understanding. In the dictionary, one of the definitions of "receive" is "to accept as authoritative, valid, true, or approved."

This way of putting things is much better than our casually uttered way of asking or stating something about making Jesus Lord. 

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Again, some of you may thin I'm just slicing at words. Maybe I am. But this is only because I DON'T want meaning to get sliced. The gospel isn't that hard to understand or explain, but somehow we've come up with overly-simplistic terminology or jargon to discuss it... and we're losing the truth behind our words. This is a danger. This is bothersome. And, I'm starting to realize that it's making some of our once-sound beliefs seem cheesy. People are being turned off by it--believer and non-believers alike. 

Faith is active... it moves

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.~Hebrews 11:1,6.

27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, "See that no one knows about it." 31 But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
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Faith leads to action. Yes, faith is something that we somehow have within ourselves--in our hearts, heads, imaginations--but genuine faith must act. If we're talking about religious faith, then we can add that faith moves toward its object.

You may have heard the chair faith analogy. It goes something like this: Let's say you have a chair, a dining room chair for example. You might see the chair everyday, walking past it as you go to the kitchen or to the living room to watch television. You may even touch it sometimes as you pass. You certainly believe it's there. However, you don't have faith in the chair until you actually sit in it, moving toward it in response to your belief in its existence and its purpose.

No, this analogy isn't perfect, yet despite its simplicity, we see that for faith to be faith it has to act. In this case, the action is sitting down, letting the chair serve its function. But the chair can't move toward us. It just takes up space or props the door open or dresses up the room or whatever, until we sit down. Jesus, on the other hand, DOES move toward us when we come toward him in faith. We see this time and again in the gospels. A demon possessed person, a blind person, a deaf person, a representative of a dead person will come to him in faith and he will respond to them, come toward them... reward them, as the writer to the Hebrews says. He seems only too glad to bless, to heal, to cleanse of sin.

Some of the time, Jesus will say something like "your faith has made you well" or, as in the excerpt above, "According to your faith be it done to you." Does this mean that the faith heals the person? Not technically. Faith doesn't heal or forgive. Faith moves toward its object, namely Christ, and HE heals.

Remember, a large part of Jesus' ministry on earth (the central part?) was bringing in the kingdom. Faith, which moves toward its object, is the guiding attitude of the kingdom, for by it people come into the kingdom and by it they live within the kingdom.

Also, faith, specifically faith in Jesus and what he can do, is what gives meaning to the many signs that Jesus performs in the Gospels. Otherwise, these signs and wonders and healings are meaningless--unaccountable events without significance. Time and again, those with faith in what Jesus says and can do come to him. They move toward him.

And, time and again, he moves toward them.
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The same is true for us. If we say we have faith, we will exercise it by moving toward him, by responding to his commands. Because faith... is active.

How's your faith? Do you find that it moves you to act?

Guest Post ~ Saved AND sanctified by grace through faith

Today I wanted to share a brief response a friend of mine gave regarding the place of the gospel in both our salvation and our sanctification. As a pastor, Mike Bowen is concerned that his people have a proper understanding of the hope of the gospel, that they might not be crushed by the weight of the law for salvation or sanctification. His hope is that the believer trusts in Christ for salvation and trusts in him for his or her continual growth in grace. The works of obedience flow from the heart of faith.  

What follows are his remarks:

I want people to understand that it is the gospel that fuels our sanctification. We all agree that we are justified by grace through faith, but I wonder if we believe that we are sanctified the same way. My problem is not that people might believe that we are justified by work. My problem is that they may believe they are sanctified by works. I think that has the potential of derailing the train if you will.

 

If I am struggling in the Christian life with temptation or sin--or anything--where does the problem lie? Is it an issue of obedience or an issue of faith? The Gospel reminds me who God really is and it reminds me of who I really am. If I struggle to obey, it isn't because I don't know or understand the law; it is more likely that I don't know and understand the lawgiver. You have often said that we all struggle with authority. I think the problem for Christians who struggle with authority is not so much that we disagree with the law or that we hate the law, but we are suspicious of and don't trust the lawgiver. I think the key to the Christian life is not looking at the law, but looking at Christ and in so doing the law becomes the way the Christian lives. It is, after all, written on the believer's heart.

I obey because I trust God. I disobey because I distrust God. I think it is always an issue of faith. If Christ is becoming lovely to me, and if God is becoming glorious to me, I will delight in Him and in His law, and I will readily and wholeheartedly (in as much as I am being sanctified) obey.

I am not antinomian, nor am I opposed to works. Works are necessary. But I think that what motivates and fuels obedience and what provides the nourishment for fruit bearing is "growing in the grace and knowledge" of Jesus.

Works are for evaluation; they don't bring salvation.

If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've probably heard the expression "Faith without works is dead." (At least, I hope you've heard it.) It comes from the book of James in the midst of a discussion he's having about the nature of faith. He says, quite plainly, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (2:17).

This has caused many people frustration because it sounds like James is at odds with the Apostle Paul. However, I think to see James's discussion as at odds with Paul's numerous explanations that a man is saved by grace through faith, apart from works of the law, is to miss James's point... and maybe Paul's too. (Yes, I know: men far more learned than me have wrestled with this and come up without a sufficient answer.)

Let's look at this from Paul's perspective. Paul says such things as "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Clearly, a man is saved by grace through faith. Salvation is the work of God, not the work a person does to somehow save themselves.

Whe James mentions that faith without works is dead, he is in the middle of a discussion to believers about their showing partiality and not loving one another. He is seeing an inconsistency in what they say they believe and what they actually do in practice. So he gives them a simple example of the possible results of their inconsistency: "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" (2:14-16). His question is a good one: What good IS it to say "I believe" and then not to do anything in response to this belief? He then says, "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

But what's he talking about? His audience's salvation? As I alluded to earlier, some people contend that that is exactly what James is talking about. But, I don't think that's his point. James is not trying to add works to faith. He's trying to say that faith that doesn't act is worthless. Actually, he says, "useless" (2:20). And it is. It does nothing.

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Faith can't be seen, but works can. This is what James is getting at. He is focused more on evaluation than he is on salvation. In other words, he's assuming that works are a sort of evaluation tool, helpful in assessing the faith a person has. He even says as much: "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." A person can't see James's faith, or anyone else's, for that matter. However, a person can see the works James (or anyone else) does as a result of his faith, just as a person could see the "work" that Abraham and Rahab did as a result of their faith (see James 2:21-26).

So then, in sum, Paul is talking about salvation and James is talking about evaluation. We'd do well to not confuse the two.

Ah, but this leaves us open for this scenario: "I don't see any works in you. You must not have faith." Or worse, we could be contemplating our own situation: "I don't see any works in myself. I must not have faith." This sort of thinking is a problem. But James doesn't even take us to this. He concludes his argument by saying, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead" (2:26). Note that he does not say the body ceases to exist when the spirit is seperate from it, just that it has no signs of life. Likewise, he is not saying faith does not exist if we don't see the works. He's simply saying we can't evaluate its existence because we can't see any fruit, any works.

So where does this leave us? We can examine ourselves. We'll use Paul's admonitions in 2 Corinthians as our guide: "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (13:5). How would he have people evaluate themselves regarding their salvation? In terms of their works? No. In terms of their faith? Likely not even that. Rather, in terms of the object of their faith, namely Jesus Christ.

Rely on Christ for your salvation. As that reliance grows, the faith you have in him will bud into visible manifestations of that belief. We'll be able to "see" the faith through the budding works.

One Sentence

“It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.” ~ Tim Keller

Sacrifice... from God's perspective, part 6

Today, we wrap up our study of the sacrifice of Isaac. Over the past three weeks we've looked at it from Abraham's point of view and now God's point of view. Having passed the test, Abraham now stands approved. And, now, God gives Abraham the final evaluation and the final word of revelation for his long life.

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Abraham has believed, obeyed, and seen Christ’s day. Over the course of these many years since his first calling, he has been pulled from a pagan culture, shaped and re-identified as the father of a new people, a unique people of God’s own choosing. He has slipped into the manner of the old way time and again, but by God’s gracious intervention he has had his thinking and actions corrected and reformed. The land has been declared his and his seed’s by promise. Abraham has believed in his heart and acted with his hand the faith that God has declared righteous. Now, the Lord speaks to him for the last time in a sort of capstone declaration that matches closely the initial call that began Abraham’s journey:

By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:16-18)  

This brief word resonates with reminders of the highlights of the relationship that has developed between Abraham and the LORD. When God says, “By myself I have sworn,” it hearkens to the covenant cutting ceremony back in Genesis 15 when God passed through the slain carcasses alone. In that formal ceremony God’s actions declared that the covenant’s fulfillment is certain, else his very character and nature are for naught. Now, he re-confirms that action with a further word of explanation.

Though Abraham did not pass through the pieces, he has taken the covenantal obligations seriously. He bears the mark of covenant in his very flesh, as do the males of his household and his sons. As God declares here, Abraham has not withheld his son: he circumcised the boy, marking him as one of his own and thus one of God’s own. The mark has not proven to be vain for Abraham stands on the mount, knife in hand, ready to offer Isaac unto the God whose mark they both bear. This is an act of monumental faith! He’s been told, “through Isaac shall your offspring be named” (Genesis 21:12). Fairburn comments, “According to this word, God’s purpose to bless was destined to have its accomplishment especially and peculiarly through Isaac; so that to slay such a son appeared like slaying the very word of God, and extinguishing the hope of the world."[1] To slay Isaac the child of promise is to slay the promises that God had given Abraham in the beginning. Without Isaac Abraham will not be a great nation. Without Isaac his name will not be great but a byword. Without Isaac the nations will not be blessed. The hope of what Paul calls the “gospel beforehand to Abraham” will be snuffed out when Isaac’s breath abates and his blood spills on the altar. Abraham is ordered to destroy all that he has hoped for, longed for, suffered for. He has believed in the surety of the promises of God but if God wants to cut off their possible fulfillment, Abraham will obey.

Abraham’s faith has been justly evaluated and proven true and now God reiterates the very promises that had been so desperately threatened. God will “surely” bless him and “surely” multiply him. These promises are certain and, what’s more, they are on a worldwide scale. God extends and compounds two of the metaphors that he had used before—dust and stars. As God had told Abraham when the covenant had been cut (Genesis 15:5), he tells him again: his offspring shall be “as the stars of heaven.” Prior to this God had said they would be “as the dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16); now he says they shall be “as the sand that is on the seashore.” Wherever Abraham goes, that which is most numerous at his head and that which is most numerous at his feet shall picture for him the fullness of his descendants.

God then adds something to the promises that has not been spoken before. Abraham’s offspring shall “possess the gate of his enemies.” This is an image of sure possession of the land. Abraham has been informed that for now and for a few generations to come, he and his offspring are but sojourners in the land. Ah, but someday, they shall possess the land. Someday, their enemies shall not prevail against them. This is God’s reassertion that Abraham’s enemies shall be his enemies. It is, for we the reader, a prophetic image of the coming day of the Exodus and the conquest of the land of promise. Beyond that, it is a picture of the coming dominion of Christ, as the strong man is bound, as every thought is brought into obedience to him, as every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is Lord.

Finally, God repeats the promise that is the gospel beforehand, the promise that is the one hope for all the world: “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Abraham has not withheld Isaac from God and so God proclaims that he will not withhold his blessing to all the earth. God will make good the word and the action that he has bound himself to. God is satisfied in his judgment and satisfies any anxiety or uncertainty that may have crept into Abraham’s soul. The Patriarch turns and heads down the mountain to his servant men, just as he had told them he would. And, the test complete and passed, the band returns to Beersheeba together.

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[1] Patrick Fairbairn, p. 318.

Jesus Journal #8

Profession of faith? What's that mean? Most of us (I assume) think that for someone to make a profession of faith they need to say something like "I believe in Jesus as my savior." Sure, there's more to it, but that's the general gist of it.

With this in mind--with the statement above and maybe the so-called "sinner's prayer" in mind--consider the following from Matthew 8:5-13:

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,  “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Does the centurion's response to Jesus sound like the "I know I've sinned and that you can save me--and want to and died to do so" sort of prayer or statements we think of when we hear the term "profession of faith"? Not really.

So does this centurion make a profession of faith? I think the answer is clearly yes. He knows his need, thus he asks Jesus for help. He knows he's not worthy to even have Jesus in his home. There is no doubt that he recognizes--and submits to--the authority of Jesus, as his explanation authority demonstrates. And, as if these "proofs" weren't enough, Jesus says, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith."

Yes, this is a profession of faith. It may not look like what we expect, it may not have those "key words" that we look for when hearing a profession, but it is, no doubt, a picture of true belief coming to Jesus, the object of that belief.

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My point? Well, belief and admission of it don't always look the same, do they? This centurion's faith IS remarkable. I marvel at it as Jesus did. Would that my faith was as insightful and humble and trusting as his.

Now, how do you stand? What's your profession look like? sound like?

One Sentence

"Faith is not wishful thinking; faith apprehends the promises of God found in Scripture." ~ Douglas Wilson

Got to have faith

Douglas Wilson introduces his book Future Men with a discussion of faith. He says, "Boys take a lot of faith."

We all do, which Wilson knows, but his focus is obviously raising boys into men. Even so, what he says in his second full paragraph about faith is worth considering in full:

"...Unbelief is always anchored to the present, while faith looks at that which is unseen. But even here we only get half the picture. Too often we think that faith only looks at heavenly things, but this truncated approach is really the result of an incipient Gnosticism. In the Bible, faith includes the ability to see that which is unseen because it is still future. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, not the day when he, Abraham, would go to heaven. Faith conquers kingdoms, faith stops the mouths of lions, faith turns armies to flight, and faith brings boys up to a mature and godly masculinity."

He continues further, but I hope you see the future-looking, hopeful, nature of biblical faith. We do not want to live by a "truncated" faith; we do not want to live by a wistful faith that sees the world in merely abstract, ethereal wonder and longing. Biblical faith is assertive and active, standing on the promises of God and reaching toward what will be, toward the God who holds the future itself.

Serve God from where you are.

A quick word: We are to serve God where we are. Period.

Yes, there are times when a person is called to leave one position or place to serve in another position or place. There are times when a person is called to "step out in faith," not knowing where he or she is going. I don't deny that these circumstance can exist.

Still, the truth remains, we are to serve God where we are.

A person DOES NOT have to be a pastor or a missionary or a work in some sort of para-church organization to "serve" God. To think otherwise is ludicrous.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Uh. No duh." Good. I hope you are. I only bring it up because I've met several people over the years who were "looking for God's will," and they kept thinking that to serve God they HAD to be in some sort of formal ministry position. They ended up in deep frustration and confusion because they didn't realize that following their interests, talents and desires into an occupation in the so-called "common" or "secular" sector could lead them to a legitimate place from which to serve God in his kingdom.

But, if we remember We are to serve God where we are--and this includes in all of our occupations and labors--we'll be well on our way to being on "the right track."

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This is overly simplistic, I know. Feel free to complicate matters in the comments. Or tell me I need to wake up.