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Archives For Theology – Christology

Stay There

May 21, 2013 — 1 Comment

The most important thing for a husband to remember is the most important thing for everyone to remember, and that’s the gospel of Jesus. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the most important thing to remember.

This is for many reasons, but take just one. Men were made to be strong and to lead their wives. But men are sinners and foolish, and they marry sinful and foolish women and that’s just for starters. But the gospel is good news for sinful men and women, even the kind who get married to each other. And so you have to remember the gospel.

Paul says as much to the Ephesians: Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. This means that husbands are called to die for their wives in order to be strong for them and lead them. The problem is that dying sounds like losing. Far too many men plunge into a conflict and after suffering for a bit, after they feel that they have felt the sensation of dying enough, jump off the cross and start barking orders and demand to know why no one is listening.

But when Jesus was mocked as weak, Jesus refused to jump off the cross. The problem many men have is that they jump off the cross thinking that the sensation of dying is the same thing as having died. And unfortunately this is the worst of both worlds. Now your wife’s miffed and you feel like you’ve been through death but haven’t actually fixed anything. And so many men, even Christian men, secretly conclude that it just doesn’t work for them. But that’s like shooting yourself in the foot, and concluding that guns just don’t scare bad guys away. Yeah, good luck with that.

Jesus didn’t jump off the cross. He stayed there and suffered and bled until it was finished, until He died. If you have conflict over how to train your children, where to go to church, what your sex life should be like, how to spend your money, how to spend your time, you need to remember the gospel. Not like some kind of mantra. Not like some kind of good luck charm. You need to remember how the gospel works. Jesus died for sin. He took the shame. He took the false accusations. He took the lies. He took your mess. And He died for it. Now that’s your job, husband. Not that you take away your wife’s sin, not that you’re some kind of perfect savior. No, but it’s your job to imitate Christ to and for your wife. So it’s your job to patiently, graciously listen to her, talk gently to her, pray with her, study the Scriptures with her, get counsel with her, and then make the best decision you can muster for her, remaining calm, cheerful, gentle, affectionate, good humored, full of tenderness and kindness. No matter what. And stay there. Stay there. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, Family, Grace, Manalive, Marriage Bed, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Christology, Theology - Soteriology, Wisdom

Jesus is Not the Church

May 9, 2013 — 1 Comment

If the church identifies its structures, its leadership, its liturgy, its buildings, or anything else with its Lord — and that’s what happens if you ignore the ascension or turn it into another way of talking about the Spirit — what do you get? You get, on the one hand, what Shakespeare called, ‘the insolence of office’ and, on the other hand, the despair of late middle age, as people realize it doesn’t work… Only when we grasp firmly that the church is not Jesus and Jesus is not the church — when we grasp, in other words, the truth of the ascension, that the one who is indeed present with us by the Spirit is also the Lord who is strangely absent, strangely other, strangely different from us and over against us, the one who tells Mary Magdalene not to cling to him — only then are we rescued from both hollow triumphalism and shallow despair.

- N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 113.

In Ascension, Bible - Luke, Church Calendar, Theology - Christology, Theology - Ecclesiology

What is a Christian?

April 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

A Christian is someone who believes that the answer to all the brokenness, pain, and evil in this world is the death of a man named Jesus two thousand years ago.

How could the death of one man be the answer to terrorism, abuse, betrayal, cancer, or crime?

The answer is that this man Jesus was not like any other man who has ever lived or ever will live. This man was actually the One who made this world.

Despite the horror, despite the pain, despite the senseless evil that has filled this world, this world is still filled with unexplainable, astounding glory and beauty. From sunsets to galaxies, from laughter to love, from music to dance to ice cream — this world is gut-wrenchingly good.

Christians believe that God made this world and loaded it with glory. He invented this place. He imagined this place. And He filled it with treasures and wonders and pleasure and beauty. But men and women have not listened to His voice. We wanted to go our own way. We wanted to be our own bosses, our own gods. Instead of listening to the words of the Inventor of the universe, we decided to listen to other words, to make up our own words.

This rejection of the Good God who made this good world is called sin. And since God invented life, and His word is what gives life to all things, to turn away from His word, to turn away from His life, is ultimately to embrace death. The wages of sin is death. Sin is asking for death. Therefore sin deserves death. Of course people don’t think that they are begging for death when they sin, when they disobey the voice of God, but still we sin and still death comes again and again and again. Continue Reading…

In Bible, Creation, Evangelism, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Preaching, Theology - Christology, TRC

Jesus is Enough Power: Col. 1:9-20

January 29, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction
Paul is writing the Colossians, a new church in Asia Minor, to encourage them in their new faith in Jesus. He writes to assure them that for all their needs, Jesus is enough.

Summary of the Text:
Following his initial doxology (1:3-8), Paul continues to explain what else he has been praying for (1:9). He has specifically been praying that the Colossians would a) know God’s will (1:9) b) walk worthy of the Lord (1:10) c) increase in knowledge of God (1:10) d) be strong enough to be patient and joyful (1:11) and e) be a really thankful people (1:12). This thankfulness is rooted in the fact that they have received the ability to receive the inheritance of saints (1:12), been delivered from the power of darkness (1:13), transferred into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son (1:13), and have been redeemed and forgiven (1:14). At this point, Paul breaks out into high poetry, perhaps quoting a well known hymn about Jesus (or writing one on the spot), acclaiming Him as the image of God, the firstborn, the creator, the sustainer, the fullness of God, and the reconciler of all things (1:15-20). This poem is carefully constructed in basically two stanzas. The first stanza describes the preexistence and preeminence of the Son in all things since the beginning (1:15-17). The second stanza describes the preeminence and power of the Son through the Church since the re-beginning of all things at the resurrection (1:18-20). There are a number of key terms and titles that Paul gives to Jesus, but the adjectives go a long way to making Paul’s point: all things, all things, all things, all fullness, and all things.

The Firstborn & Beginning
The word “firstborn” is a loaded word going deep into Israelite history. Israel was God’s firstborn (Ex. 4:22), and this was not merely a relational fact but rather a statement of purpose for the future. Israel was to become God’s chosen means of communicating and enacting God’s presence and mission in the world. Firstborn sons received a double portion of inheritance from their fathers because they were the beginning of their strength (e.g. Dt. 21:7, Gen. 25). When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He sanctified them to Himself as His firstborn (Ex. 13:1ff), and the Levites became the specific representatives of this holy calling, keeping the tabernacle and receiving the inheritance of tithes and offerings (Num. 3:12-13ff, 8:17-18, 18:21-26). In other words, Israel was given the authority and means by which they were to present and proclaim the truth of God: the words of God and the sacrifices of God. That was their job. It was what they were for. When applied to Jesus, Paul is insisting not only that Jesus represents what Israel was always meant to be, but that He is the original representative of the truth of God, the perfect Icon/Image of the invisible God (1:15). That’s what He’s for. This authority and power to order and rule the world rests not least upon the fact that He made it all (1:16-17). Paul insists that this authority that Jesus has by right, He has begun to establish in fact through His resurrection from the dead (1:18, cf. Heb. 2:8). But given what we have seen, the fact that Jesus is the “firstborn” from the dead indicates that Jesus is the “head” of this new creation, the new beginning. Paul is piling up words and piling up images: Jesus is the head, rosh (in Hebrew), which is related to the word for beginning (resheet), and just to make it clear, the arxe – the beginning, the pinnacle, the source (e.g. Jn. 1:1). Jesus is the New Adam, and we are Adams and Eves in Him. The world (all of existence) that Jesus made and has ruled on behalf of the Father by right, He is in the process of reconciling to the Father through the blood of His cross – proving His power for all to see (1:20). The cross is our Tree of Life, our source of God’s glorious power. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, bible - John, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, Theology - Christology, TRC

Looking for Jesus: Part 5 & the Gospel According to the Child

December 31, 2012 — 1 Comment

This week in our series, Looking for Jesus: Learning to Read the Bible and the World Through New Eyes, we’re answering the question: What does the Bible do? And our theme is children. These two things actually go together so well, that I’m just going to combine them for today’s sermon rather than taking them sequentially.

The Bible is a Fairy Tale that Creates Children
The Bible opens like a fairy tale, and it closes like a fairy tale. It opens in a perfect, beautiful garden, and it closes in a glorious, towering garden city coming down out of the clouds of heaven. And it’s filled with childish stories. There are talking snakes and talking donkeys. There are old women giving birth to babies. There are old men with sticks that command the forces of nature in the name of the God. Sometimes people walk on water, and sometimes the waters part making a path through the water. Bread comes down out of heaven, water gushes out of rocks, cities fall down when the people march around them shouting and blowing trumpets, men walk in a fiery furnace unharmed. There are giants and dragons and (depending on your translation) unicorns and satyrs. Burning bushes, rainbows, evil spirits, miraculous battles, sometimes the sun stands still, sometimes men pray and it stops raining for three years, and they pray again and the rain comes. One man apparently vanished into thin air because he walked with God, another man was taken up in a fiery chariot, and another man appeared and disappeared and reappeared in various places by the power of the Spirit. Many talked with heavenly beings whose appearance made you want to die with fear. Many people have spoken with angels, seen glimpses of God, and visions of the glories of heaven and the angelic armies. Bread and fish multiply, the dead are raised, men speak in unknown tongues, the lame walk, the blind see, arrogant kings judged, slain, eaten by worms, and the hero is a child born of a virgin, betrayed, rejected, and murdered like a worthless criminal.

This is no reasonable book. This is no book for serious, color inside the lines, paper-clip counters. This is the kind of book to make serious scholars mad. This is the kind of book to make certain kinds of scientists throw it down in disgust. This book is a fairy tale, and it is full of fairy tales. It’s a book of childish stories, beginning in a garden with two innocent, perfect children who break the rules and bring a spell of darkness on the earth. And the story climaxes after many twists and turns with the birth of another child who obeys the rules and breaks the spell that was cast over the earth, and brings light back into the world. The hero-child goes down into the cave of death, slays the dragon, rescues the harlot, making her his virgin bride, and finds the way out again alive. And the story closes imagining the whole world as a cosmic fairy tale, a Marvel Comics meets Beowulf, an apocalyptic vision of the reign of the Child King who is also a Lamb who is also a Lion who goes into battle, slaying the dragon and all his accomplices with the sword that comes out of His mouth while rescuing His Bride through the flames, through the sword, through great peril and bringing her at last to the great Wedding Day, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Continue Reading…

In Advent, Bible, Child Kingdom, Christmas, Sermon Outlines, Sola Scriptura, Theology - Christology, TRC

Two Measuring Tapes for the 4th of July

July 4, 2012 — 1 Comment

OK, since it’s the 4th of July, and everyone is hovering over their phones and computer screens hunting for something else to read, I’ll toss out one more thought and send you back out to your patriotic shenanigans.

I’m fully convinced that lots of the “regeneration,” “rebirth” language in the Bible is way cosmic, political, global, talking about the beginning of the New Heavens and Earth, the New World reborn through the work of the Spirit, the New Eon, the New Era of King Jesus. Yay, and double yay.

The redemption accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is global, cosmic, universal. It’s bigger and more thorough than anything our little brains can even begin to imagine. It extends to economics and foreign policies, science and nutrition, technology and space exploration and much more. So when we zoom in on the question of individual salvation and perseverance, don’t think for a moment that we’re leaving the big picture behind. In fact, we’re talking about the same thing. And double in fact, that’s the way the New Testament talks. The gift of the Holy Spirit to men and women and children is the down payment, the first fruits, a miniature of what will become of the nations, the world, the universe.

And that’s precisely why it’s worth jumping up and down on a bit. And it really comes down to the topics of sanctification and postmillennialism, two measuring tapes that every Christian ought to keep close at hand. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave us our marching orders. He plainly stated that the ends of the earth had been given to Him as His possession and sent us to announce that to every creature, every nation, every president, every slave, every sleazy politician, every blue collar worker. And Jesus told us to make them all disciples by baptizing them in the Triune Name and teaching them to submit to the words of King Jesus in everything. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - 1 Corinthians, Bible - 1 John, Bible - Romans, Creation, History, Pentecost, Theology - Christology, Theology - Pneumatology

Ascension Homily: He is Not Here

May 17, 2012 — Leave a comment

Along with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the most ancient confessions of faith have always also insisted that the ascension of Jesus into heaven, to be seated at the right hand of the Father is essential to the gospel, essential to the good news we declare. But in order for us to be able to declare it as good news, it must be for us good news.

Whenever a people as a whole are reluctant to share the gospel, embarrassed to proclaim the gospel to the world, we must ask whether it isn’t because we’ve gotten bored with the news. Or sometimes it’s just because we didn’t know how good it was.

There are a number of ways we could run with this, but I want to focus on just one. And that is that the ascension of Jesus is good news because it frees us from the tyranny of looking for our god here. This world is full of slavery and lies, and the fundamental source of all slavery and lies is the grasping for security and safety and salvation somewhere, somehow, here and now. Stuff, money, sex, prestige, beauty, health, power, and there are even idols in our good deeds: salvation through rigorous prayer times, long Bible readings, perfect liturgies, family devotions, parish groups, morning prayer, mercy ministry, reading theology books, going to conferences, or sending your kids to classical Christian schools or homeschooling. All good and fine things, gifts of God to be cherished and enjoyed in their place: but if we find our security, our comfort, our joy in them rather than seeing them as the gifts of Jesus to us and for us, then we are substituting something for Jesus. You’re making something else your god, something else your savior. But if Jesus ascended into heaven, then this is good news because it frees us from the tyranny of looking for our god here. It frees us to enjoy life, to receive the gifts of God, to share the abundance of God freely, gladly, because our God is not here. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Acts, Church Calendar, Creation, Sermon Outlines, Theology - Christology, TRC

Resurrection Sunday: Ps. 68:11-25, Eph. 4:1-16, Jn. 20:1-23

April 9, 2012 — Leave a comment

Introduction
The resurrection of Jesus was a Pentecostal event. Jesus was raised from the dead and proven to be the rightful King of the world by the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4). The powerful presence and working of the Spirit in the resurrection is the declaration of Christ’s innocence and glory.

Ephesians 4:1-16
Paul urges the Ephesians to walk worthy of their vocations in Christ by bearing patiently with one another to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4:1-6). This grace for unity is found particularly in the gifts that Jesus gives having ascended on high, leading captivity captive (Eph. 4:7-9). Paul points out that Christ’s ascent is predicated on his descent: whether Paul is referring to the entirety of Christ’s time on earth or specifically to His death and burial, the point is the same: Jesus lived and died so that He might rise from the dead having plundered the grave and received all authority (Eph. 4:10). Jesus rose in order that His Spirit might fill His people to accomplish His mission (Eph. 4:11-12): that the whole world might come to the glorious maturity and unity of Christ through the ministry of the Church (Eph. 4:13-16).

Easter Means Pentecost
Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection as being inextricably linked with His ascension and the gift of the Spirit (Jn. 16:5-7, 20:17, 22-23). In some sense His resurrection included His ascension and culminated in the gift of the Spirit. Though it is absolutely and wonderfully true that Jesus rose up from the dead on the third day, the resurrection was not fully proven and proclaimed until the fiftieth day. This is because the resurrection of Jesus is not merely a man coming back from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is God conquering the power of sin and death and Satan and beginning a new world. This is why we must insist the resurrection of Jesus means radical transformation of lives, families, cities, nations, and the entire course of history. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to leave us or the world unchanged; He rose to renovate everything. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, bible - John, Bible - Psalms, Church Calendar, Sermon Outlines, Theology - Christology, Theology - Pneumatology

Christmas Means We’re All Calvinists After All

December 8, 2011 — 2 Comments

Isaiah says that when God restores Israel, He will go before them and behind them (Is. 52:12). The first Advent of God was the incarnation, when God went before us, leading us out of the dungeon of sin and death. The final Advent of God at the end of history is when God comes up behind us, as our rearguard, finishing what was begun at the incarnation.

In other words, from Advent to Advent from first coming to second coming, God is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega.

Or, in other words, we are all Calvinists after all. The incarnation is God’s decisive, efficacious act of regeneration for the whole world. Because we could not prepare ourselves for Him, He came in order to prepare us for Him. Then He sent His Spirit to comfort, strengthen, and cheer us, continuing the work that was begun in us. And He will come again and finish what He started.

God came in Christ in order to make us into a place where the Spirit could dwell in order to make this world a place that could bear the weight of heaven when it arrives at the end. It’s all of grace from first to last because it’s all of Jesus who is the first and the last. He was and is and is to come.

In Advent, Bible - Isaiah, Bible - Philippians, Calvin, Church Calendar, Grace, Theology - Christology, Theology - Eschatology, Theology - Pneumatology, Theology - Soteriology

Atonement Theories

February 23, 2011 — 1 Comment

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed to Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:14-17)

Seems like this is a key atonement passage. Here, we have shades of substitution, Christus Victor, and the exemplary theories of the atonement.

In Bible - Hebrews, Theology, Theology - Christology