The Blog of Toby J Sumpter
While it’s a blustery spring day outside here in Moscow, I just wanted to make mention of some of my favorite Lenten cheer every year: the opening day of Major League Baseball. Just warms my heart.
I wish you and your team the best in this new season, and may the coming months be full of warm evenings with the comforting sounds a baseball announcers calling out the litanies of the game.
And go Mariners!
The gospel is not a way to get people into heaven; it is a way to get them to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. -John Piper
… if you believe that God is sovereign and that he will never let anything into your life unless it can be used for good, you will see conflicts not as accidents but as assignments…
-Ken Sande, The Peacemaker, 64.
Premillenialism teaches us to long for the return of Christ and the consummation of all things. Amillenialism teaches us that the Kingdom is not yet fully here and that we struggle and suffer in the midst of sin and death. Postmillenialism teaches us that the Kingdom has been established already in Christ and to work and pray for its completion.
-anecdotally attributed to John Frame
Because Christ is Risen, we fast, waiting for the coming return of the Bridegroom.
-Bradley Nassif
It’s sometimes easy to think that the Church is a club that meets on Sundays and perhaps once or twice more during the week. We’re all friends so we hang out together and share meals from time to time. It’s sometimes easy to forget that the Church is the invasion of this world by heaven. The Church is the colonization of this planet by its Creator.
We are not here as tourists. We are not here for the great hunting and fishing. We aren’t here for a cultural experience. We are here to teach the nations obedience to King Jesus. We are here to bring the peace and justice of the cross to the world. We are here to teach Republicans and Democrats that their military industrial complex is a holocaust machine and to lay down their arms. We are here to teach the Wallstreet tycoons and middle class yuppies that godmoney will not save them. We are here to teach the pot smoking liberals and sexy American icons that their peace and happiness is illusory and empty. We are here to teach the world to obey the Lord Jesus.
The way of justice, the way of peace, the way of freedom and equality in this world is through the crucifixion and resurrection of a Jewish man two thousand years ago. That is the folly that we preach. And that is the folly that we are called to live in order to show the world what it might look like, what the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven might be.
This means that the Church is politics. The gospel is political. The gospel is a plan for society. It is a civil and international agenda. It imagines and proclaims peace to the warring nations. It hopes for and proclaims mercy and freedom to the oppressed and downtrodden. The Church declares the way of justice through the cross of Jesus.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of bylaws for a club that meets on Sundays; the Sermon on the Mount is the blueprints and charter for this world remade. It is the constitution of the Kingdom of God. In the one, true sacrifice of Jesus, sin has been dealt with, the power of death has been undone, and by the gift of the Spirit, all people are called to offer their own bodies as living sacrifices. This is the way of the Kingdom, the politics of Jesus, our rebellion against all of the powers of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
When we gather together as believers, God promises to be in our midst, and when we gather here together at His table, God promises to meet us. But this table is always a table of judgment. Here at this table, God judges sin and darkness in order to forgive sin, in order to shine His light on the darkness, in order to restore brokenness. But our temptation is to fear or resent sin that comes to light. In our folly, we sometimes think that we would be healthy if we just didn’t go to the doctors so much. Of course there is some quack medicine out there, but our God is the great physician. And His Spirit makes no false diagnosis. And God does not point out sin because He is out to get us, out to ruin our lives. God points out sin because sin is out to get us, and sin is out to ruin our lives. But Jesus has come so that we might have life, and life overflowing. God meets with us here, and the Spirit wields His scalpel on our lives, but this means that God loves you. It means that God is out to free you, out to bless you, He is intent on healing you. So do not draw back, do not harden your hearts, if God strikes you now, it is because He would forgive you. If God points out your bitterness, confess it with all your heart and be healed. If the light of God shows you the sin of lying, take and eat and then go confess it all. If the Spirit convicts you of biting and critical words, then God loves you, and He wants to set you free. The proof of all of this is the cross itself: there our Lord was struck and pierced so that we might be healed and delivered. So come eat, drink, and rejoice, this is the good news of Jesus for you.
One of the most important doctrines in Scripture is the doctrine of original sin. The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes this teaching of Scripture saying, “I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.” But because we have this tendency inherited from Adam we take precautions against having this doctrine have its free way in our hearts. The point is not to drive every member of human society into eternal depression and hopelessness. The point is to drive every member of human society to their knees and to the cross. The biblical teaching that we all naturally hate God and our neighbor is part of the good news, the gospel that sets people free. Just as the diagnosis of a disease is very important and helpful information if you want to have any hope of treating it and being healed. But in the Church it is not too hard to learn ways of sidestepping the full force of God’s Word. Frequently it is easier to apply man’s natural hatefulness to other people, but we give ourselves a pass. Other times, we hide behind other true doctrines: now we are forgiven in Christ, now we are delivered from sin and wickedness in the cross. But when we are translated to the Kingdom of Light, when Christ frees us from sin and the flesh and the devil, He does so by taking our guilt and self-reliance away. But as long as we are in the flesh, that natural tendency is never completely obliterated, and we must constantly turn to God honestly whenever that hatred appears. Sometimes we blunt the force of this grace merely by going through the actions of confessing sin and asking forgiveness. And we wonder why we’re making no real progress. Do you want to be free of that sin or do you just want to get out of that awkward situation? But there is grace for those who want to be free.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-29).
Friends have recently recommended this book on foreign missions. You can currently request a free copy here.
