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Archives For Theology – Soteriology

Stay There

May 21, 2013 — 2 Comments

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

Untimely Birth

May 10, 2013 — Leave a comment

Paul uses an unusual phrase hosper ektroma “untimely birth” to describe his vision of Jesus and conversion to Christianity (1 Cor. 15:8). N.T. Wright points out that normally, ektroma refers to a miscarriage or abortion, and clearly Paul doesn’t mean the word in it’s normal, literal usage since the result of such a birth is death. But it could refer to the timing of his birth into Christ, referring to “his not being ready to be born.”

Wright notes that this phrase might also refer to the drama of the event: “He was, as it were, ripped from the womb in a traumatic way, blinded by the sudden light like an infant whose organs had not yet developed sufficiently to cope with the demands fo the outside world… Paul explains the difference between himself and the others not in terms of his seeing Jesus being a different sort of ‘seeing’, but in terms of his own personal unreadiness for such an experience. It took an emergency operation, he may be saying, to bring him into the list of witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection; his ‘seeing’ of Jesus was the same as theirs in terms of the Jesus they saw, but it was radically different in terms of his own experience, being ripped from the womb of zealous Judaism, to come face to face with the crucified and risen Lord.” Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Corinthians, Bible - Job, Bible - Numbers, Theology - Soteriology

Witnesses of the Resurrection

April 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

We’ve just celebrated Easter yesterday, proclaiming Christ is risen! and in many of our communities and churches we will continue to celebrate over the next number of weeks proclaiming this truth, singing this truth, sharing this truth with neighbors and family members and friends. This is the good news, the gospel, that Jesus is risen from the dead, according to the scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4ff).

But when it comes to evangelism and sharing the gospel with unbelieving friends, neighbors, and family members, we often get hung up on the peripheral details. How do we explain why homosexuality is sinful? Why do we believe in creationism? Why should abortion be illegal? I’m not saying those aren’t hugely important questions, but we oughtn’t get sidetracked from the central question which is: Who is Jesus and what happened to Him? And why does it matter?

Fundamentally, we are testifying to the truth that Christ is Risen. That’s the bottom line. If that’s not true, then we’re still in our sins and all our preaching and evangelism and witnessing and apologetics is worthless (1 Cor. 15:14). But Paul knows that Jesus really is risen from the dead because he saw Him. Paul got his life interrupted by Jesus. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Corinthians, Church Calendar, Culture, Evangelism, Grace, Theology - Soteriology

3-2-1 Gospel

October 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

I already linked this on twitter/facebook, but I really think this is a helpful summary of the gospel, so I’m posting it here as well.

In Church, Evangelism, Grace, Preaching, Theology - Soteriology, TRC

God Never Saved A Friend

October 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me.”

Here, in our sermon text for today, God is speaking of Cyrus in particular. God is raising up Cyrus, a foreign, gentile king to perform His salvation for Israel. But Cyrus is a type of every true believer, every Christian. God reveals Himself, God reveals that He is unique and there is none besides Him by saving strangers. God never saved a friend. God never saved someone because they had done their part. God never saved by giving a helping hand. God saves sinners. God saves His enemies. God rescues those who don’t know Him and don’t know they need Him. And He does that by sending Jesus to die for us, in our place. Some men and gods might die for good men, but our God died for bad men, our God died for enemies and strangers and traitors. God clothes strangers and enemies with His glory, so that the world may know that they have never seen a love like this. They have never met a God like this. They have never known grace like this. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Isaiah, Bible - Romans, Exhortations, Grace, Theology - Soteriology, TRC

Jesus Died with You in Mind

July 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

This meal is a covenantal meal. Jesus said specifically: this cup is the new covenant in His blood. A covenant is a real, personal relationship, sealed in blood, with blessings and curses attached to it. Keeping covenant results in blessings while breaking covenant hauls out the curses.

But how do we keep covenant? How do we embrace the blessings and flee the curses of the covenant? The Bible says that we keep covenant by faith. The just live by faith. This is the work that God requires of us: to believe on Him whom He has sent. Jesus has kept covenant perfectly. He obeyed His Father perfectly, He obeyed even in the face of injustice, in the face of shame and pain and suffering, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. And God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

This is what faith does: Faith looks at sin, at brokenness, at hurt, at shame, at pain and then looks to Jesus crucified and risen. Faith sees in Jesus, in His death and resurrection the promise of God to put all things right. Are you a failure? Have you sinned? Have you let others down? Have you been hurt? Have you been stabbed in the back? Are you facing sickness, pain, confusion, death? Jesus died with you in mind, with your circumstances in mind. And God raised Him up with you in mind, with your whole life in view.

This table is for those hungry for glory and beauty, for those who are not satisfied with the status quo, who will not make peace with sin or brokenness or death in any form. So place your trust in Jesus. He is your glory and beauty.

In Eucharistic Meditations, Theology - Sacraments, Theology - Soteriology, TRC

Jesus & the Bikinis

July 26, 2012 — 14 Comments

There’s hardly any way to talk about the way women dress without coming off as the voyeristic pervert, the old cranky prude, or the fire-eating, Bible-thumping legalist, but whatever, there is a verse in the Bible somewhere that says Christian girls shouldn’t dress like harlots. And every once in a while someone should say so.

Now let’s just work through the basic structure of the thing. First, we keep our priorities straight: Jesus didn’t condemn prostitutes for dressing like prostitutes. We assume that there were cultural cues in the first century just like there are today. Just like always, there have been some women kidnapped, enslaved against their wills, and forced into prostitution, but there have also always been some women tempted toward that kind of abuse and oppression. For some, there’s a sick sort of security in being used and abused; ‘my life may be a chaotic mess but at least I know he needs me,’ the battered wife assures herself, the molested daughter tries to convince herself. But Jesus came proclaiming freedom to every slave. And He did this by proclaiming forgiveness and healing. Jesus came to disarm the Accuser and all accusers and send abused women out in peace saying, “Go and sin no more.”

But this does not change the fact that the way a woman tends to dress is tied directly to the state of her heart. An unforgiven, guilty conscience will tend to dress in certain ways to compensate, distract, and lie about that inner state. But the lies remain lies even with nice-Christian-girl smiles. And not only can God see through the lies, wise fathers and mothers and pastors start to see the tell-tale signs, and pretty soon it’s just like putting a sticker on your shirt that says, “Hello, My Name Is ______. And I’m insecure.”

In Church, Creation, Culture, Evangelism, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Pneumatology, Theology - Soteriology, Wisdom

Girard on the Atonement

July 25, 2012 — 1 Comment

In an interview published in Touchstone, Rene Girard, explains his understanding of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:

You have advocated what is seen as a “non-sacrificial” reading of the death of Christ that is significantly at odds with the usual understanding of that death as a “hilasterion” that satisfies the wrath and justice of God. Could you describe that view and how your study of the formation and maintenance of human cultures has led you to it?

RG:Oh, this is a question that will require a long answer! It is not quite true that I take what you have called a “non-sacrificial reading of the death of Christ.” We must establish first of all that there are two kinds of sacrifice.

Both forms are shown together (and I am not sure anywhere else) in the story of Solomon’s judgment in the third chapter of 1 Kings. Two prostitutes bring a baby. They are doubles engaging in a rivalry over what is apparently a surviving child. When Solomon offers to split the child, the one woman says “yes,” because she wishes to triumph over her rival. The other woman then says, “No, she may have the child,” because she seeks only its life. On the basis of this love, the king declares that “she is the mother.” Continue Reading…

In Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Soteriology

Mark & Hannah

July 14, 2012 — Leave a comment

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:6-8)

Mark & Hannah, it’s pretty sexy these days to talk about justice. It’s like apple products and skinny jeans and organic produce. And of course there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of those (except the skinny jeans), but ever since Adam and Eve sinned, there’s been a deep current, a gravity in the world, that pulls people toward hypocrisy. We call these people posers, fakers, Pharisees. And it all goes back to Adam and Eve in the garden: naked, ashamed, hiding from God, trying desperately to be cool, to be safe, to just be OK.

People who are guilty need a covering. People who are insecure and fearful look for something safe, someplace shady. In Micah’s day, instead of black rimmed glasses and hipster tattoos and piercings, people went in for big sacrifices. You have to realize that sacrifices usually included a big feast, so it was more like throwing a huge bar-b-que party in the name of Yahweh. They could invite all their friends and be really popular, and hey, there was a Bible verse on the napkins, something hip and trendy like doing justice. And meanwhile the poor around them were getting crushed, theft ran rampant, and the innocent and weak were despised and forgotten and killed. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Micah, Justice & Mercy, Theology - Soteriology, Wedding Exhortation

Preaching into the Grave

July 11, 2012 — 5 Comments

I tweeted yesterday something to the effect that all true repentance begins by being struck down by the fact of the prodigal son’s confession: I’m not worthy to be called your son. This really is the heart of my concern for how we talk about salvation in relation to the sacraments, pastoral theology, covenant theology, federal vision, etc.

The short hand of this is: I want to be able to say everything that the Bible says. A longer version is that pastorally, we want to see people gripped by the grace of God and transformed by that grace. I know there are all kinds of cliches and overused mantras in every tradition, but I just mean that we want to know God and walk with Him together. But from Genesis to Revelation, one of the fundamental obstacles to walking with God is idolatry. And it is idolatry that arises in the heart, in individuals who prize their own understanding, their own wisdom, their own instincts, their own pleasure and apparent security over the Word of God, over and in place of Jesus.

This means that one of man’s most basic problems is that we don’t think we’re as bad as we are. We’re “pretty bad” “sort of bad” maybe “kind of bad,” but one of the most offensive aspects of the Gospel, the Good News, is that people apart from the grace of God are sick, disgusting creatures. Our hearts are infested with the foul maggots of lust and lies. Paul says we were dead in our sins and trespasses. Apart from Jesus commanding us to rise up and walk, we are corpses, complete with the stench of death. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Evangelism, Federal Vision, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Sacraments, Theology - Soteriology, Wisdom