An Evangelical Response to the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel

Hey all,

A close friend and I spent a fair amount of time writing a long-form article about the relationship between social justice and the Gospel as a response to the recent Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. If that interests you, check it out here. 

Blessings!

It's Been A While...But I've Got An Article For You!

Hi, all!

At this point, its been a few years since I've put anything up here (I have to be more discerning about releasing my thoughts now that I'm preparing for a dissertation and eventually, hopefully, a few books). But if you want an overview of some work that I've done on the Puritans specifically written for the layman, check it out:

Coming To America : The Puritan Legacy

Blessings!

The Most Obscure (and Most Awesome) Christological Council

Note: Got a long one for you. It's been a super long time so I decided to throw something up. This is an adaptation of a Sunday School class that I recently taught on the two wills of Christ. Hopefully, it gets you thinking and rejoicing! The council in question is the Third Council of Constantinople in 681.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our final Christology class. The premise of this class has been Right Thinking about the Most Important Person in History. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been harping on that first point: Right thinking. Teaching is a deep pervasive concern in the New Testament and in the early church and false teachers are some of the church’s greatest enemies. This is why the first 5/600 years of the church’s history were filled with controversies where the Church tried to truly articulate the faith, whether it was talking about the person of Christ or what followed from Him, the Trinity. But in the background, there was always the assumption that this was a serious endeavor. It’s really important that we see and worship Christ rightly. After all, salvation is at stake. This is why we have emphasized the full manhood and full divinity of Christ. His full humanity was absolutely necessary for him to be a proper substitute for us. This is what we see in Hebrews, specifically chapter 2:9-10: 

We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 

Down to verse 14-15, 17: 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 

Here we see the incarnational theology of the author of Hebrews, which was articulated by Gregory of Nazianzen in this way: What was not assumed was not healed. Meaning this: Christ took up flesh and blood to redeem flesh and blood. If he did not truly take it up, it has not truly been healed. This is why the humanity of Christ is so important. When he took on our sin, he did so as one of us.

But of course, what is perhaps more important is the way in which he was not one of us, namely the fact that he is the Son of God and he never stopped being the Son of God. It is his divinity that soaks the New Testament and it is his divinity that secures our salvation. The human race never could have produced a savior. This is what the virgin birth declares to us. In the Incarnation, God becomes flesh and thus Christ is truly, in every sense, God with us. In the Son of God’s dying a human death, he is able to take the fullness of the penalty of sin for all who would put their faith in him and as a result of who He is, He is resurrected. It is the central Christian claim: that Jesus Christ, the man born of Mary, is and has always been the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God, the Son of God. These are grand statements. But they are grand statements that have been proclaimed in the church throughout its history and we must be willing to proclaim them today.

In our past classes, we’ve discussed a number of heresies. We began with Docetism and Psilanthropism, which denied either the humanity or divinity of Christ. We then dealt with Marcionism and its disjunction of Christ from the God of the Old Testament. Then we moved into Arianism, which sought to separate the Son from the Father and make Christ merely a created being, which would hurl us irredeemably into idolatry. As a response to Arianism, the council of Nicaea happened, which was really a Christological statement that Christ was, is, and always will be as much God as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Then last week, we got into some more intense Christological heresies: Nestorianism, where the idea is that God conjoined himself to a man, Eutychianism where God basically absorbed a man, and Apollinarianism where God basically possessed a man. The response to these was the Council at Chalcedon. Here is the articulation of the full manhood and divinity of Christ, in unity, such that there is only one subject that we read in Scripture. Not a human Christ and a divine Christ, but one Christ.

Now all of that can seem very heady. It can seem very out there. This is why I’ve attempted to emphasize the fact that the Church spent so much time hashing this stuff out because salvation was at stake, specifically that there was a kind of Person Christ had to be in order to save us from our plight. But there is a focus that I have slightly neglected. And it is one that we shall take up today through a very close look at a momentous episode in Christ’s life: the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Some have asked questions about this and you will be pleased to know that there was an entire council that was basically focused on this dilemma.

First, what is at stake? Take a look at Mark 14:32-36.

It’s that last verse that started to freak people out. Jesus says, “Not what I will, but what you will.” What does that mean? Is there a divided will in God? Is our salvation based on a battle of wills within God? The Church would say no and there was a man who suffered greatly to champion this view. His name was Maximus the Confessor. Why was he called the Confessor? Because this was the name that the church gave individuals who suffered for the faith but not unto death, as the martyrs did. Maximus lost his tongue and his right hand, defending the doctrine that I am about to tell you. Here goes.

The Fall really messed us up. It got to us at the level of our will, meaning, quite simply, the things we want. As a result of the Fall, our desires are divided. Vertically, our desires are divided between God and other things, which become idols. As a result, it bleeds into all of our life. Horizontally, we constantly have to deal with the division of caring for the people around us (Who do I prioritize? My family? My friends? My coworkers?) Our wills are even divided within ourselves as we make moral decisions. We’ve got to deal with the constant confusion of choice. For Maximus, Christ also came to save us from that. Confusion. And we see the perfect picture of that in Christ. Specifically in that phrase, “Not what I will”. What does Christ will? That the cup of his suffering be removed from him. What is that cup? Why is his “soul sorrowful, even to death”? Why does Luke record Christ’s agony, as he sweats great drops of blood? Because Jesus knows that he’s about to die. Not only is he going to die, but he’s going to lose everything dear to him. The Incarnation, from his birth to this point, has been the story of loss.

Philippians 2: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant. 

The Incarnation begins with an emptying. The Son of God, in a way, leaves the Father and partakes in flesh and blood. 

2 Corinthians 8:9: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 

He not only took on flesh, but he took on hungry, tired, poor, homeless flesh. And that wasn’t all. 

From Mark 14 on, you see the most harrowing descent in human history. He knows that his friends are going to betray him. His closest buddies who he has been ministering with for years will fall asleep when he needs them to pray and they will run when he needs them to stay. He will be tried and he will be crucified and he will die abandoned. This is the agony. This is the cup that he wishes the Father to take from him. Origen, one of the really Early Church Fathers interpreted this in a macho way, saying that when Jesus said “Remove this cup from me”, he was saying, “Father, is this it? I could take more”. The Scripture seems to explicitly undercut that. This is our Savior at his lowest point. But the upshot is the next part. Not what I will, but what you will. This is the doctrine of the two wills of Christ. That Christ has both a human will and a divine will, but they are never in conflict or confusion. In fact, in Christ, his human will is always perfectly submitted to his divine will. This is how he both willed and worked our salvation. As God, he willed it with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As man, he became, for the sake of that salvation, obedient to his Father unto death, even death on a cross. He accomplished this great feat for our sake.

He did this not only to show us one of the many things that he saved us from, namely the confusion of our own wills, but also to show us what He is shaping us into. The issue with Monothelitism (the teaching that Christ only had one will) was that it meant that salvation depended on the human will being overruled and essentially smashed by God. Maximus’ idea of salvation, in fact the more biblical understanding of salvation, was that it is a rebirth, a regeneration effected by the Holy Spirit. It is a reorientation of our desires over the course of our lives so that they find their greatest joy where they should: in God. It is a reorientation that will be fully completed in the end, when our bodies, our entire selves, are fully and completely redeemed and perfected. When not only will we not sin, but it won’t even be possible for us to sin. This is the day that He is preparing us for. And when we see Christ, we not only see our Savior but we see our Brother, in that when that defeated enemy, Death, touches us, it does so to bring us over the threshold into eternal blessedness that we will share with our God. When we will see His face and His name will be on our foreheads. And night will be no more. We will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be our light, and we will reign forever and ever.

So practically? Christology gives you the reason to persevere. A deep love for the person of Christ reminds you of the depth of His sacrifice and the nobility and the glory that he has prepared for you. It is with this ever before us that I will end with these words of Paul in Romans 8:18-25, which are about you and I:  

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Let our hope be rooted in the person of Christ. Not only what he has done, but who He is. Because it is into His image that we are being conformed. 

Let us eagerly await our adoption.

Matthew 5 and the Gospel of Grace

Ever read Matthew 5 and get angry/discouraged? That’s the natural response when you read it right. Jesus says some incredibly difficult things: Not only is murder a sin, but anger too?! And insults?! Sure, I know adultery’s a sin, but lust is the same as adultery? You’re telling me that not only do my actions have to be completely pure, but also my “motives, aspirations, and the deep recesses of the thoughts of my mind” have to be completely pure? Yes. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying when he says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We can’t water that down. The Pharisees were some pretty serious men. But Jesus’ issue with them was that while they followed the Law presumably to the letter, their heart was not oriented toward God.  God does not desire just our begrudging obedience, but rather He desires our entire self. This is the message that Jesus conveys in his Sermon on the Mount and it’s the sentiment of the Beatitudes. Usually, the “Blessed are…” phrases are taken to be general principles for living a Christian life. The Christian reads them and thinks, “All right, I need to try to be humble and merciful and pure and a peacemaker and all that other stuff. Then I’ll be a faithful Christian.” That sounds to me like we’re still trying to earn our salvation. Paul’s clear about the source of that salvation: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” In other words, you’ve got nothing. That’s what Jesus says in His sermon. You think you’re following the rules? Unless you can do it perfectly with no slip-ups at all, hell is your ultimate destination. Discouraging? Initially yes. And that’s where the fullness of the Gospel comes in.

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, He was able to send the Holy Spirit. So when we read the Beatitudes, we don’t read a bunch of “principles for Christian life.” We see the person of Jesus Christ. When we truly understand that it is purely by grace we have been saved, and that the Holy Spirit that has been given to us continually conforms us to the image of Christ, the true meaning of this sermon becomes clear. As Oswald Chambers says, “The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations – it is a picture of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His unhindered way with us.” The list of Beatitudes is not a set of different rules, but rather a package deal that points to the person of Christ, and therefore the image that we are being conformed to. The same principle applies to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Have you ever noticed that that verse seems completely grammatically out of whack? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.” There’s no “and” in the Greek. In Greek and English (both Indo-European, making translation much easier) , that’s not a proper sentence. Come on, Paul, don’t you know that you just listed 9 different things? Don’t you mean “fruits” of the Spirit? Paul’s response is, “Nope. Those aren’t different at all.” You see, the singular fruit of the Spirit is each of those things and all of those things, intermingled with one another. It is not enough to love, but that love must be a good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, love. That’s not something that you work for. That’s only given as a gift from the Holy Spirit. The same goes for our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification. The message of Scripture is not “This is what you do to be saved.” The message is, “This is who God is. He sent his Son to die to save you. You, His enemy. You, who spit on His bloodied face when you sin. The faithful Triune, covenantal God loved you despite all of that. Throw yourself upon His mercy and His grace and He will bear you up. Hold nothing back. He sure didn’t.”

We are, by grace, the children of God, people! Christ perfectly obeyed. Christ perfectly submitted to the will of the Father. Christ fulfilled the Law, did everything we could not do, and perfectly satisfied the wrath of God that we deserved. By grace through faith, that awesomeness is imputed to us! Thus, “As many as received Him, to them, He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”(John 1:12-13) So when God sees us, he sees the perfect sacrifice of His Son! That’s amazing! Praises be to our God! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his Holy name.

Let’s please our Father. Let us continually depend on, look to and worship Him every day of our lives as His Holy Spirit shapes us into the image of His Son. Only then can our view of the Law change from that of a difficult, impossible taskmaster to a delicacy sweeter than honey. Then, “Do not covet” becomes not an angry God wagging his finger, but a loving, holy God who says, “Why do you want their stuff when you can have Me?” Admonitions against lust are not the raving, nit-picky statements of a micromanaging tyrant, but rather a loving, righteous God who says, “Don’t you know that I am the source of your joy, hope, faith, and love? Turn to Me.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.