Soundbites from 2 Corinthians: Truth not Deception

'we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.' 2 Corinthians 4:2

What a challenge this verse is! How often, in conversations with work mates or family, do we try to 'cover up' the bits in the Bible we find difficult or that we know they will find offensive? Do we only give them half the picture, talking about God's love and never His judgement? Paul's letter to the Corinthians has much to teach us about genuine gospel ministry. Paul was being compared to so-called 'super apostles' and showy men who were more impressive with their speeches, and yet preached a different gospel. He makes a genuine defence in this letter that he is the real deal! He has been faithful to God's truth in the gospel, and he has not used deception in order to pander to his audience.

Paul had to tell the Corinthians some hard truths. Many of them were from a totally pagan background, and he had to call them to repent from their sinful ways in order to enter genuine relationship with God. In 1 Corinthians 6 he wrote:

'Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.'

Paul did not simply tell the Corinthians about God's love for them in Christ; he also taught them that genuine faith was always accompanied by genuine repentance from former ways of living that were against God. Note his phrase 'Do not be deceived'. Perhaps some false teachers were telling the Corinthians that they could live however they wanted to- it didn't matter to God. Sometimes it's easy to leave out of our gospel presentations that God calls for His people to live holy lives that stand out from the crowd. But we have to give people the full picture. We can't pretend that the Christian life is easy- it's not! It's a struggle against our own desires, particularly if in the past we've been used to living how we wanted to.

But here's the point: if we don't set forth the truth plainly, we actually lose our impact as Christians. Why would anyone see the need to be a Christian and trust in Christ, if they feel they are 'good enough' by themselves? Without the whole gospel, we end up with no gospel at all. We need to remember that we will stand before God one day and give an account for how we have represented Him and His message to the people around us.

Soundbites from 2 Corinthians: The New Covenant

'He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.' 2 Corinthians 3:6

Paul rejoices in this letter that God has not only saved us and restored our relationship with Himself, but He has also entrusted us with a ministry for Him. When we come to trust in God and our sins are forgiven in Christ, we are reconciled to God as our Father. As Christians, we are then given a ministry of reconciliation- to lead others to know God as their Father too. This is the 'new covenant'- Jesus Christ died, and His blood enables us to be at peace with God.

In the old covenant, as given to Israel through the Law of Moses, the people sacrificed animals and used the blood of bulls and goats to make atonement for their sins. This was a temporary system that ultimately pointed forward to the way God would send Christ to die, the Lamb of God, taking on the sins of the world.

The Law of Moses is represented in this verse by 'the letter'. Perhaps you've heard the phrase 'the letter of the law'. It's a phrase that's usually associated with strong enforcement of rules or regulations. Paul was a Jew obsessed with trying to keep the Law of Moses, before He met Christ on the road to Damascus. He, better than anyone, knew that the letter 'killed', because it condemned mankind. No one could stand up before God and honestly claim to have kept the law to the letter.

But in the new covenant, Christ's obedience provides a better way for us. Our disobedience can be nailed to the cross, and we can receive the Holy Spirit and true 'life'. Instead of living tied to rules and regulations, we are freed by the power of the Spirit to live to please God. It doesn't mean that we do whatever we like; it means we are able to choose the path of holiness instead of by default the path of sin.

We can offer people the chance to be freed from the power of sin and its punishment, through Christ. God has made us competent to share the message of His grace. So whenever we feel incompetent, or like our words never come out right, we can be encouraged by this verse that God has enabled us to do this for Him. We have an amazing message to share through the new covenant, so we should rejoice in boldly proclaiming it to our friends and family.

Soundbites from 2 Corinthians: Relying on God not ourselves

Over the next few posts, I'm going to pick out my favourite verses from 2 Corinthians and share the challenges and encouragements I've received from them. This letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth is possibly my favourite NT letter- whenever I read it, in whatever circumstances, it speaks to me so strongly about persevering through suffering and rejoicing in our salvation and the fact that we've been reconciled with God.

So here's my starter:

'We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure... But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.' 2 Cor 1:8-9

Paul and his ministry team had really been through a tough time. In Ephesus, they faced huge opposition and riots, and were driven out of the city. Paul was hearing reports about the church in Corinth being full of sexual immorality and division, due to false teachers, and faced the personal pain and humiliation of the Corinthians being swayed by the persuasive words of men who did not have the apostolic authority that Paul himself did. Paul describes how they were in such a difficult situation, and yet God put them through it for a reason: so they would rely on Him, not on themselves.

How often do we need to be reminded of this lesson! Time and time again, we fall back on our own resources and forget to trust in God to provide us with everything we need. Paul reminds us in this verse that God raised Christ from the dead- therefore He's not going to find it too hard to help us out in our difficult situations!

I always find that at this time of the year it's natural to reflect on the year that has passed- 2010. And I can really testify that this year God did take me through some times where I felt I was completely beyond my own ability to endure- particularly in my time of extreme sickness where I had about two months off work, and I just didn't think I could take it any more! But I knew God's faithfulness in that time, especially when I was in hospital, much more than if I had been 100% healthy and well. God really does know best, and I pray that this year I'd learn to rely on Him way more!

A Christian Evaluation of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham and his protegee, John Stuart Mill. Ethical theories deal with the reasons which justify moral rules, and for Bentham and Mill, the moral worth of an action could be determined by how much happiness or pleasure it produced. The roots of utilitarianism can be seen, therefore, in ancient hedonistic philosophy, as developed by Democritus and Epicurus. Democritus identified the supreme goal of life as "contentment'. Epicurus believed that the goal of life was to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear and pain, though he advocated a simple life of abstaining from bodily desires, which gives quite a different flavour to hedonistic views.

Utilitarianism, like hedonism, bases itself around the contrasting experiences of pain and pleasure, and puts these at the centre of human experience. The moral worth of an action should be judged, according to Bentham, by the 'greatest happiness principle'- whatever brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people is the morally right action to take in any given situation. Bentham wrote that mankind is 'under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure', though Mill made some distinction between higher and lower pleasures: 'better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.'

There is no doubt that utilitarianism remains one of the most influential ethical theories affecting society today- one could argue that most democracies are based around utilitarian principles. As a major ethical theory, utilitarianism has been criticised and evaluated by many different philosophers and ethical writers, both secular and Christian. One of the major criticisms of the theory lies in the fact that it is teleological- based on the consequences of an action, which are in the future and impossible to predict with certainty. GE Moore argues that it falls into the naturalistic fallacy, because the theory assumes that goodness and pleasure are the same thing. This is not always the case. Finally, Ayn Rand points out the danger of utilitarian followers making ethical decisions based on nothing but 'emotional whims'- hardly a desirable ethical standpoint.

But in order to make a Christian evaluation of this theory, we must firstly take its guiding principles and compare them to God's values as articulated in Scripture. Logical criticisms of a theory have their place, but as Christians we are not simply concerned with whether utilitarianism is logically flawed or not. At its core, utilitarianism expresses that man is chiefly concerned with a desire for pleasure, and that pleasure is the nature of goodness. This is far more reflective of the Bible's definition of sin, than it is of the Bible's definition of man's true purpose and what goodness is.

If we examine Genesis 1, we notice that 'good' is a key word, repeated throughout the poetic pattern of the narrative: 'And God saw that it was good.' What does the word 'good' mean in this context? How does the Bible define it? The central teaching of Genesis 1 and 2 is that God creates the universe with a clear order and purpose. God rules over His creation -after all, He spoke it into being with just words- and places man on the earth to 'Rule over... every living creature' (1:28). The universe is in absolute harmony. Therefore 'good' is associated in the Bible with the person of God Himself -His creation is good because He is good- and with every being in its rightful place, under God. God gives Adam and Eve a rule (not to eat from the tree of knowledge), so from this we see that a truly happy state is not one without rules and without God. Adam and Eve live in paradise because they live under God's rule. The final verse of chapter 2 -'The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame'- emphasises their 'goodness' and happiness. They have nothing to be ashamed of.

The 'goodness' of God's creation quickly comes under threat. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Eve to doubt God's words. He tells her she will 'not surely die' from eating the forbidden fruit, and tells her that she will be 'like God, knowing good and evil', if she takes it. Again the word 'good' becomes very prominent. The knowledge of 'good and evil' is desirable for Eve, and she sees that the fruit 'was good for food'. The narrative deliberately uses this key word to emphasise the deception that Eve falls under. The fruit is not 'good'- as soon as they eat it, they experience shame, and quickly work to cover their nakedness. They hide from God, and they are punished for their disobedience. The whole of creation is fractured and fallen because of the fall of man: 'Cursed is the ground because of you' (3:17).

According to these first chapters of Genesis, man's desire for pleasure and to set his own moral rules is at the very heart of sin and our fallen nature. Eve listened to her appetite, not to God's word. Eve and Adam rejected God's rule and decided they wanted to make up their own rules, and know about good and evil for themselves. However, they discovered that only God can define what is good and what is evil. They instinctively knew that their disobedience was evil- why else would they have hidden from the One who created them? In trying to assert that taking the fruit was good, they only discovered that it was sin. They couldn't go against God's definition of good and evil.

Utilitarianism has a worrying correlation to this story of Eden. In creating the 'greatest happiness principle', not only does the theory pander to man's inherent selfishness and desire for pleasure, but it gives man an authority which is not rightfully his: to determine the morality of an action. An action is good if God says it is, and if God says it is not good, no amount of logical argument or ethical theorizing by man will change this. This is portrayed clearly throughout Genesis- after Adam and Eve's attempt to set their own rules, Cain murders his brother Abel and discovers he cannot get away with this. Men begin to increase in number and in sexual immorality, pursuing pleasure, and God judges them with the flood. Men decide to build a tower for their own glory, and God scatters them all over the earth. There is a pattern of man's rebellion, and God's judgement upon them, but there is always a note of God's mercy or grace too. God saves Noah and his family, and God chooses Abram to make a covenant with him and his descendants forever.

By Genesis 6, the Bible clearly establishes the fallen nature of man: 'every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil all the time' (6:5). This fallen nature, this total depravity, renders us unable to discern what is good, and equally unable to actually do what is good. Jesus described it as slavery to sin: 'everyone who sins is a slave to sin... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.' (John 8:34-36) He also taught that 'out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit' (Mk 7:21). Paul continues this teaching in Romans 1, establishing that since the creation of the world, God's power is clearly displayed, and men are without excuse when they exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship created things rather than the Creator (v 25). The picture is clear: men know there is a God, but they don't want to acknowledge Him. They want to live life their own way. But this brings God's judgement upon them. Utilitarianism simply doesn't acknowledge man's inability to keep to his own moral standards, let alone man's accountability to God for his actions on earth.

Scripture is God's revelation of Himself to man. In His grace, God revealed Himself and His will to man over the years- because we would never have known what is 'good' otherwise. The covenant with Moses and the Law at Sinai clearly show a God who makes His will known to the people, but the people are unable to keep His commandments. Even after receiving the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, Moses comes down the mountain to witness the people worshipping a golden calf. The whole of the Old Testament, and its story of Israel's exile and return, leaves us in no doubt as to the fallenness of mankind and our inability to obey God's laws.

The Bible teaches, then, that we need God to reveal what is good to us, and even then we do not have power within ourselves to obey. This is why Jesus Christ was sent into the world. He was the only man to never sin, to never break God's word, and He died as a sacrifice to make atonement for our sins ('by His wounds we are healed' Isa 53).

The Bible teaches that God has man's best interests at heart. The whole story of God's salvation plan clearly illustrates that He is a God of compassion, slow to anger and rich in love (Ps 103). But it is in eternity, in the new heavens and the new earth, that we will experience a life with no suffering (Rev 21). On earth, we have no right to expect a life free from pain and suffering, because of the model of Christ. Peter calls Christians to embrace suffering for doing good (note that what is good is certainly not equatable with what is pleasurable), because 'To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.' (1 Pet 2:21) The Biblical view of life on earth is not that we should seek pleasure and avoid pain, but that we should imitate Christ. Christ's death on the cross, followed by His resurrection glory, provide a pattern for our own lives: we will suffer, die, and then be raised at the resurrection for an eternity of bliss.

Jesus made it clear to His followers that the world would reject them (John 17). If you seek to follow God's way of life, you will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). But the glory of eternity that awaits us make our suffering on earth worth while (1 Pet 1). Whilst on earth, we must seek to obey the clear commands of God in Scripture (a prescriptive approach to making ethical decisions), whilst also seeking personal guidance from God through prayer and the Holy Spirit, particularly for choices which Scripture does not make clear for us (a relational approach). As William Paley wrote: 'Whoever expects to find in the Scriptures a specific direction for every moral doubt that arises, looks for more than he will meet with.' However, the answer is not to form a Christian version of utilitarianism, as Paley did in 'Moral and Political Philosophy' (1785). Although there is some truth in his identifying a motive of 'the expectation of being after this rewarded... or punished', the danger is that this leads to man trying to win God's favour and earn his own salvation by his own works of 'goodness'. We must trust that our righteousness comes from Christ, not ourselves ('He made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God' 2 Cor 5:21). Then in response to God's grace and salvation, we should seek to live our lives for His glory, not our own, to 'make our calling and election sure' (2 Pet 1).

New Breed Conference - Taking No Man's Land

Yesterday we gathered at Highfields Church, Cardiff for the New Breed conference 2010. Last year, Andy went along, and there were a total of 15 blokes there. This year, there must have been 50 people -mostly in the 20s-30s age bracket- and there were a group of around 10-15 wives, fiancees and single women. New Breed is growing! But I guess you might be asking, 'What is it?'

'Working in partnership with Acts 29, New Breed seeks to strategically plant churches, to assist in the training of individuals who feel called to church planting, and to provide a supportive network for those who have already planted churches.'

(http://newbreed.wordpress.com/introducing-new-breed/)

Set up in 2008 by Dai Hankey (pastor of Hill City Church, Trevethin) and Peyton Jones (Pillar Church, Swansea), New Breed's vision is for a new breed of churches to be planted in Wales, churches that are biblical, missional and radical. New Breed isn't a denomination, it's a network where people who are starting and leading churches in areas of social and economic deprivation can support each other and use each other's experience.

The guest speaker at the conference was Steve Timmis, co-author of 'Total Church' and leader of a network of churches called 'Crowded House', based in Sheffield. Steve gave two talks based on Romans 14-15, and he sought to define church planting and look at what these chapters teach us about being a gospel church.

What is church planting?
Well it's not service starting. You could go to a town, hire a venue, and put on a service, and that isn't necessarily a church plant. Steve defined church planting as 'starting a new community, living for Christ'. As church planters, you go to a needy area and you are there to build a community by the gospel, for the gospel. The gospel was designed to go out, to cross frontiers, to go where it hasn't been before. It has global ambitions, and it is not satisfied until everybody has heard about Christ. The words of Paul in Rom 15:20, 'It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known', is really at the heart of what church planting is all about.

Why do we need new churches to be planted in Wales?
Perhaps you're thinking, well that's great for obscure tribes of people in Africa or South America, but why do we need new churches to be planted in Wales? Surely our land is full of chapels and church buildings, after the great revival of 1904, and many of these buildings are nowhere near full on a Sunday. Even in our own locality, there are churches with no pastor, and congregations of about 6 people. So why plant a new church?

The answer really lies in two pictures: the lighthouse and the torch. Many of our churches are lighthouses- they shine the gospel out to the rooftops of our towns. But there are many dark nooks and crannies which are untouched by the broad beam. And we need people with torches to scatter out and head for these dark places.

In our society and culture today in Wales, many people do not feel comfortable going into a traditional chapel building for a traditional church service. It's not something they did as a child, it's not even something they did if they got married -they probably went to a hotel or a registry office. The appearance of these old buildings can be very intimidating, and if people have to come inside to hear the gospel, they will probably never hear it.

New Breed's vision is to plant churches very much at a 'grass roots' level- meeting in homes, then moving to a community centre or school when numbers grow.

The New Breed idea of a church plant is that a community is created where the broken outcasts of society can find the love of Christ. In today's society, the 'middle class' is perhaps a much broader group of people than in the early 20th Century. More and more people are going to university, and I think the middle class is in some senses defined by empowerment. A middle class person is empowered -by education, financial resources, confidence- to solve their own problems. If a middle class person wants to find out more about Jesus Christ, they have the means and the resources at their disposal to do so. They can use the internet, they can find someone who knows more, they can find a church. But today's 'underclass' of people who struggle with serious addictions, depression, can't hold down a job, are not empowered to do this. If someone needy lives in Trevethin, and the nearest gospel church is in Pontypool town centre, that's 2 miles too far! They need a gospel church in their own community. And here's the big twist: who is the most responsive to the gospel? Is it the secure, well educated middle class? Generally, they're not interested. They don't feel a need for Christ. It's the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the homeless, the messed up people who do. If you're unsure, read the gospels! The sorted people rejected Jesus. The broken people came to Him and found life and healing.

What are the characteristics of a gospel church?
Steve drew out from Rom 14-15 that a gospel church is a place where outsiders, those who are different, are welcomed in, because in the gospel, that's what God has done with us. We were all once outside God's kingdom, but He made it possible for us to become His children, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. The situation of the church in Rome was that there was serious division between Jews and Gentiles- to do with eating customs. Paul teaches them that their priority needs to be to serve one another, and accept each other.

In a community, it's never about 'ME'. Christ didn't please Himself, or put His comfort and safety first. Passion for God's glory consumed Him. The gospel calls us to have a zeal for God and His church, because in His church, His glory resides.

The passage emphasises the quality of 'endurance'. Community takes endurance. Enthusiasm may take you to 'no man's land', but only the gospel will keep you there. Paul highlights the need for 'hope' (Rom 15:13). Biblical hope is firm confidence in God's ability to keep His promises. Paul could see in the gospel age that God's promise to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through him, was being fulfilled, as Gentiles from every nation were hearing the gospel and becoming part of God's kingdom. This is a task that is still unfinished and still going on today. Paul prays for this hope, that the gospel will not just save us but grip us and give us missionary hearts. Only those who abound in hope will do the work for Christ.

Our Call to Garndiffaith
Since we moved to Wales for Andy to be trained and equipped, we have been praying for God to lead us to wherever He wants us to go. And it seems that now, the dots are being joined up, and it has become clear that God wants us to go to plant a church in Garndiffaith.

It's been a long journey and there isn't space here to give every single detail, but here are the main 'dots' which make up the picture.

God led us, through various ways and means, to see the need of churches to be planted in the deprived areas of the South Wales valleys.
God led us to Dai Hankey and his team in Trevethin, and we got to know them and built good relationships with them.
God led Dai to the conviction that Hill City needed to send a team to Garndiffaith, and plant a church there.
God led Dai to ask us to be part of that team.

And here's the really crazy part- we'd been praying over several months about the Garn church plant and whether it was right for us to be involved, and then I became really ill in the first trimester of my pregnancy. I was admitted to hospital and Psalm 63 was one which constantly comforted me. In fact, Andy had felt God give him this Psalm for me, and he was the one who had read it to me and marked it out.

At the New Breed Conference, we were prayed for, and a Welsh-speaking guy called Derek came up to us and said that Psalm 63:1 was going round in his head in Welsh and he felt he should share these verses with us. In English, it's 'You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.' I chuckle when I remember how I was admitted to hospital because I was dehydrated! But anyway, in Welsh, it's “O Dduw ti yw fy Nuw fe’th geisiaf di – Mae fy enaid yn sychedu amdanat a’m cnawd yn dihoeni o’th eisiau – fel tir sych a DIFFAITH heb ddwr.” Salm 63 Note the emphasised DIFFAITH which I think refers to the 'dry and parched land'. Dai translates 'Garndiffaith' as 'the rock of desolation', so it's a similar theme. We were just blown away because God had given us this Psalm so recently, and it just seemed a wonderful confirmation that this is the place where God wants us to go.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that need to come together in the next couple of months. We are just trusting that if God is in this project, it will work out. Please join with us in praying for this church plant!

The concept of Home

My husband and I were talking about this and it made me think through what a Home is in the Bible. Why are we so obsessed with creating a home for ourselves? Is it right to do that?

The overall conclusion I came to is that the reason we are home-makers is that

we seek to recreate Eden, our Paradise that was lost.

In Eden, as described in Genesis 1-2, we lived in a perfect world, in a perfect relationship with God. There was no danger, there was no bloodshed. But man's sin in Genesis 3 broke that perfect safety. Adam and Eve were cast out into a lonely and scary world with predators. Their son Cain became a murderer, and he himself needed God to give him a mark of protection as he feared for his own safety. The world had become brutal.

And so, ever since then, human beings have sought to create a home for themselves, as a haven of safety and domestic security. Our home is where we retreat at the end of the day, where we feel safe from the insults and attacks of others, where we can really be ourselves. It doesn't matter if it's a tent or a red-brick building, its function is the same.

In the little vignettes and stories we have in the Bible, we catch glimpses of people's homes. Isaac is deceived by Jacob in the security of his home, Joseph is welcomed into the home of Potiphar but his master's wife tries to seduce him then falsely accuses him, King David calls for Bathsheba to be brought into his home so that he can sleep with her. In a fallen world, the home has become a place of corruption and sin, just as much as the outside world. And the devil loves to attack the homes of believers, because a home where God is at the centre is a piece of Paradise which magnetically attracts those seeking love and friendship.

But we mustn't forget that home can become a fatal trap of comfort, too. Abraham and Sarah were brave enough to leave their home to follow God's calling on their lives. Ruth left her home in Moab to make her home with her mother-in-law Naomi. Israel had to leave their homes in Egypt in order to escape slavery, and it took 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land.

We, like them, need to hold onto the promises of God. Our homes on earth are temporary; our real home is in heaven and it is eternal (John 14:2, Heb 11:15-16). Let us uphold marriage and the family as the foundation units for a solid society, and our homes as places where we welcome the stranger, the needy, the vulnerable (Lk 14:13-14). Our homes can be for them a taste of the new heavens and the new earth that will one day come, where there is no pain, suffering or danger anymore (Rev 21). Let us not seek to create a nice home as an end in itself, but in a blazing signpost that we were made for greater things.

Seeking Spiritual Experiences

In our Church Bible study last night, we looked at Revelation 1 where John is 'in the Spirit' and sees the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. He receives a message for the church, given by an angel, from Jesus and ultimately from God the Father. Someone pointed out that John was probably doing hard labour each day as part of the penal colony on Patmos. It wasn't perhaps the place where you would expect such a revelation to occur. We thought then about Paul and Silas in prison, and the whole place shaking with the power of God (Acts 16). The point was, that you can experience God anywhere and in any circumstances.

It made me think about the tendency towards pilgrimage in Christianity as well as other religions. Last week we were on holiday and went to St David's in West Wales, where there is a cathedral and many stories of Saint David (apparently when he was baptised there was a great light). People go to these places because they want a spiritual experience.

We could also think about Elijah- after the great victory over Baal at Mt Carmel (1 Kings 18), Jezebel sought his life and he fled to Horeb, that great mountain where Moses had experienced God. God appeared and asked 'Why are you here, Elijah?' In His grace, God revealed Himself again (and not in the great wind, but in the still, small voice), but the point remained that Elijah shouldn't have been afraid and run there seeking a spiritual experience. He should have trusted in God.

Jesus appears to John in Revelation to give seven letters, one for each of the seven churches referred to in Chapter 1. And the letters seem to warn the churches not to get caught up in 'being spiritual', but to seek more of Jesus. The church at Ephesus is told not to lose their 'first love' (Rev 2:4). It doesn't matter how many good deeds we do, or how hard we work- if we do not do them out of love for Christ, they are worthless (see also 1 Cor 13, where Paul suggests that even martyrdom itself is worthless if I have not love).

It can be tempting, then, to seek after a spiritual experience of God- perhaps at a certain church, or a certain type of meeting, or on a mountain top, or amongst certain people. But the Bible tells us that God is with us wherever we go, and we just need to seek Him. If Jesus' walk on earth took Him from the affirmation of God at His baptism to the loneliness of the wilderness and temptation, and from the shining beauty of His transfiguration to the rejection of the cross, we cannot expect every day to be a Mount Carmel. But if we learn obedience in the tough places, our joy will abound even more. (Rom 5:1-11)

By Faith Alone... how important are our good works?

In thinking about the Reformation teaching of salvation by faith alone, I've been thinking about how important our 'good works' are as Christians. The following is adapted from a long email conversation with a friend on this topic.

The main idea of reformation thought is that the Bible teaches that God created man to be in perfect relationship with Him and give Him glory. The fall has severed that relationship, and when man is fallen, even his best efforts cannot please a holy God. Man's fallenness completely incapacitates him. Calvin writes: 'Therefore, since reason, by which man discerns between good and evil... is a natural gift, it could not be entirely destroyed, but... a shapeless ruin is all that remains.' He quotes from Paul's letter to the Romans to give a scriptural basis for this:

'none is righteous, no, not one (which is a quote from Ps 14)... whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.' (Romans 3:10, 19-20)

Paul's letter then continues with one of the great 'turning points' of the Bible:

'But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law... the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.' (Romans 3:21-26)

So the main idea here is that Christ's death was a sacrifice of atonement for sins past, present and future. His death was the great act of redemption, even greater than the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt at Passover. He was the Passover Lamb, sacrificed to pay the price for sins. This satisfies God's justice: there must be a punishment for sin, and Christ took it.

But our justification is not just that Jesus paid the price for our sins. His perfect obedience to God, His perfect law-keeping, is credited to our account when we trust in Him. So when God looks at us, He sees the perfection of Christ. Therefore we have total assurance of our salvation, because it depends not on anything we do, but on Jesus, and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). Heb 7:25 says that Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, and this is supported by Jesus' words to the dying thief on the cross next to Him: 'Today you will be with me in paradise'. (Lk 23:43)

Now, what is our response to being justified? It is to now live in a totally different way. Before we were justified, before we came to know and trust in Christ, we were slaves to sin. We were incapable of doing good, even if we wanted to (see Romans 6). But because God has worked a miracle in our hearts to make us 'born again', that is spiritually renewed with real faith, we are now enabled to live in holiness in a way that we were not before. A non Christian has no power to resist sin. A Christian has the Holy Spirit! (See Galatians 5:16-25). We are told to 'walk by the Spirit' and not 'gratify the desires of the flesh' because they are 'against the Spirit'. If we have truly been saved and come to love God, then we will want to give our whole lives to Him to please Him. We will want to walk in purity, rather than pursuing the things that God's Word makes clear are wrong. We won't want to live selfishly anymore. I don't think someone who is a genuine Christian can at the same time not care how they live and what God thinks about their life. I don't see how someone can really understand the cross and God's grace towards them, if they basically reject everything God says in the Bible about the way we should live.

We don't obey God's Word to earn our salvation; we obey because it's right. God knows what is right and best for us, so therefore we follow His way. We uphold marriage, we don't steal, we don't lie, we try to put God first in everything (I'm roughly paraphrasing the 10 Commandments here- see Exodus 20), because this glorifies God and it's the best way to live! And God has promised to 'sanctify' us- every day, we're becoming more and more like Christ. We still fall down and stumble over our old ways of sin, but God promises that sin no longer has mastery over us (Romans 6:12-14).

So much of the New Testament is Paul or other apostles writing to young churches, telling them how important it is for them to live in a way that pleases God. Not to earn their salvation, but as the only proper response to their salvation. And also to make an impact on the world around us. Here's the opening of Paul's letter to Timothy:

'I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.'

Notice here how Paul says how important living in godliness is: it pleases God, and it leads others to know the truth and be saved themselves. But look how they must be saved: through the mediator of Christ, who gave himself as a ransom. He's not saying 'live godly lives in order to win salvation'. It is clear that salvation comes through Christ alone.

I think the major difference between Roman Catholic teaching and evangelical teaching is that we are saved by faith alone in the latter. I recently read 'By Faith Alone' by RC Sproul and found it very helpful in explaining this difference.

He highlights the key questions:

Does faith enable us to become actively righteous so that God will declare us righteous? Or does God declare us righteous before we actually become actively righteous by imputing to us the righteousness of Christ?

Sproul argues that the Bible teaches the latter, and I would definitely agree with this.

Catholicism teaches that the sacraments are the instrumental means by which we receive grace, whereas the reformers argued that faith is the instrument by which we are linked to Christ and receive the grace of justification. Sproul also writes:

For Rome the righteousness of Christ is not imputed to the believer, but infused into the believer. When the believer cooperates with this infused righteousness, the believer then possesses an inherent righteousness, which then becomes the ground of justification.

Since the infusion of Christ's righteousness is initiated by faith, Rome can say that justification is by faith. However, since the infusion of Christ's righteousness does not complete our justification immediately, we are not justified by faith alone.

...

Rome declares that sin has a 'double consequences': eternal punishment and temporal punishment. Forgiveness involves the remission of eternal punishment, but temporal punishment remains and must be purified on earth or in Purgatory.

The sacrament of penance and the doctrine of the treasury of merit (that is, Christ's merit plus the merit of Mary and the saints) cast a heavy shadow over the sufficiency of Christ's saving work. According to this doctrine the prayers and good works of Mary and the saints are added to the merit of Christ. In a broad sense the saints contribute to the redemption of others. The expiation of sin accomplished by Christ must be augmented by expiation in purgatory to satisfy temporal guilt.

...

Calvin rejected the RC distinction between mortal and venial sin. All sins are mortal in that they deserve death. No sin is mortal in the sense that it destroys the grace of justification.

I think that the Bible clearly teaches that God saves us by grace alone, but then gives us power to be righteous because we are then regenerated and made new. But the good things we do as Christians aren't really anything we can take credit for, because we are only able to do them by the grace of God working in us through His Spirit.

Let's look at some "controversial" Bible verses with regard to this teaching:

"We can be sure that we know God only by keeping his commandments. Anyone who says, ’I know him’, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, refusing to admit the truth. But when anyone does obey what he has said, God’s love comes to perfection in him. We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the same kind of life as Christ lived." (1 John 2:3-6)

I think this is teaching us that we can have assurance of salvation ('by this we know') by giving ourselves an 'ethical test'- have we got a changed life? Has our behaviour been transformed? I don't think this is to save us, because 1 John 2:2 refers to Christ as the 'propitiation for our sins'- a sacrifice that bears God's wrath and turns it to favour. So our assurance of salvation comes from
1. Knowing that Christ died for us, taking God's wrath for us
2. Seeing our own lives transformed by the grace of God.

Next let's look at James 2:

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 So you can see that his faith was working together with his deeds; his faith became perfect by what he did.
23 In this way the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was considered as making him upright; and he received the name 'friend of God'.
24 You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified.

I think it's important to see how James is writing from a different angle to Paul here. Paul is talking to legalistic law-keepers, telling them 'you are justified by Christ!' James is talking to libertines, telling them 'God cares about what you do!' James is looking at someone who professes faith but doesn't back it up with their lifestyle. He makes it clear that simply saying you believe does not result in salvation. If your life remains unchanged, then there's no use in saying you believe. Effectively, you don't.

It may seem that James is contradicting Paul. But I also think it's important to look at how they both use Abraham. Paul quotes from Gen 15:6 about Abraham's faith being 'counted to him as righteousness'. James looks at the incident in Gen 22 where Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac. I think they are using the word 'justify' in different ways. Paul is talking about being declared righteous by God through faith, on the basis of Jesus' atoning sacrifice, whereas the primary way that James uses the word 'justify' seems to emphasise the way in which works demonstrate that someone has been justified. 'Justify' in James means to declare someone righteous because, at the final judgement, the person's works give evidence of true saving faith.

I think James is a fantastic book and definitely meant to be in the Bible! And I do think that in evangelical Christianity, we err on the side of under-emphasising the importance of how we live our lives as Christians. We are not as good as secular charities at caring for the poor. And James speaks a very relevant word for us.

Sex before marriage: what does the Bible say?

Some people think that the Bible doesn't say much about sex. Other people think the Bible is really negative about sex. I was asked by a Christian friend recently how I would go about explaining what the Bible says about sex before marriage to someone who is a Christian and sleeping with their boyfriend or girlfriend. This post is really my response to that question.

Summary:
God has such a high value on sex that He designed it to be just for marriage.

The argument starts in Genesis. God makes Adam and Eve, marries them, and they enjoy sex as an expression of their unity: 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.' Gen 2:24 The implication is that you can't become one flesh physically (ie in sexual intercourse) without first being joined before God in marriage. This makes sense in that sex is a picture of giving yourselves completely to one another- this just isn't appropriate outside the safety net of marriage, where you have made a lifelong commitment to each other.

The high value God places on sex within marriage is emphasised throughout the Old Testament- most notably in the command against adultery (Ex 20:14). If you engage in pre-marital sex, you are in one sense being unfaithful to your future spouse. If the person ends up being someone you marry, you have still spoilt something special and unique meant for marriage only.

There are people in the Old Testament who disregard God's design for sex and marriage, and the result is always spiritual disaster. Look at Solomon: he had a ridiculous number of concubines (300!), and they had a terrible influence on him. He also married 700 women, and they 'turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God' (1 Kings 11:4). Solomon had built the temple and was gifted with wisdom from God, and yet in this matter he was blind to the warnings he was given, and so his kingdom was torn away from him (1 Kings 11:11). This ties into the idea that Christians going out with/marrying non Christians is spiritually damaging, because you are essentially uniting yourself with someone who is spiritually dead (see Ephesians 2 for the strong contrast between Christians and non-Christians, and 2 Cor 6 for instruction on not being 'yoked' with unbelievers).

The New Testament letters speak a lot about sexual purity. There are several key passages where 'fornication' (ie sex before marriage) is condemned (1 Cor 6:12- 7:40; Eph 5:1-7; 1 Thess 4:1-8), and in Hebrews 13:4 it says that the marriage bed should be kept pure, for God will judge the sexually immoral. The key emphasis in all these passages is that we've been saved by God's grace and set free from the crippling, disabling power of sin over our lives. Therefore our whole lives as Christians are about using that power to resist sin and live 100% for Jesus instead of being ruled by passion just like non-believers are.

When people have problems with what the Bible teaches on sex, it actually points to a bigger problem: their attitude towards God. Too often we are driven by our own desires for a relationship or physical intimacy, instead of putting God's agenda at the top of our priorities. If you're a Christian and you know another Christian who is struggling in this area, encourage them to draw closer to God. If you can, suggest meeting up together to read the Bible. Working through a short letter like 1 Thessalonians would only take a few sessions, and all you'd have to do is read it and discuss it. If they're really serious about being a Christian, they have to accept that it intrinsically means giving up what you want, and going God's way instead. And the joy of being a Christian is that God's way is so much better!!! As Paul writes, those things (sexual immorality included) lead to death. Why would we want to go back to them? (Romans 6:21)

Ultimately, we need to realise that God loves us far more than we comprehend. He loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us. Won't He give us anything that's good for us? Would He with hold the best from us? Of course not. (see Romans 8).

Therefore the Bible's teaching on sex and marriage is there to help us. God is FOR sex (he invented it!!!) and He has such a high value on it that he reserves it for those who are married. People who sleep with others before marriage are de-valuing sex. God's way is best because it preserves society and the family unit- look at the result of people sleeping together outside marriage: STDs, AIDS, broken homes, kids without fathers... And I hate to say it, but usually the girl in the relationship is the one with everything to lose and nothing to gain. A guy can sleep with someone and walk away; the girl ends up way more emotionally scarred and potentially with a baby to look after.

I think if a guy really loves you, he'd be willing to wait : Christian OR non Christian. But the real sticking point about Christians going out with non Christians is that they can't be a gospel team, working together to serve Jesus. One serves Jesus; the other belongs basically to the devil and is spiritually dead. I think one of the greatest blessings of Christian marriage is that you keep each other going with Jesus, pick each other up when you're down, lead each other back to the cross. However attracted you are to each other, it's the spiritual bond you share that will keep you going in the tough times.

The Teaching of the Reformation

In my last post, I looked at Luther's discovery and his desire to spread the message that the Bible was actually about God saving humans by His grace, not about humans earning God's favour through their own works. Now I'm going to look in more detail at Luther's key teaching, and the teaching of the Reformation as a whole.

Luther developed three key slogans:

BIBLE ALONE- as the sole source of teaching authority

FAITH ALONE- as the only way to be saved, not through works as well

CHRIST ALONE- as the head of the church, not the pope

Luther realised, as a pious priest, that he could never confess enough. He saw the utter sinfulness of humans, and our inability to be perfectly pure, despite our best efforts to do so. In studying the New Testament, he suddenly saw the Christ offered free forgiveness for those who would trust in Him. This both liberated Luther's sense of guilt of fears of hell, but placed a burden on him: to spread this message.

Initially, Luther acted against corruption within the church. He didn't really see that his complaint (that no extra grace could be bought or sold) attacked the whole system of church ceremony, which was designed to dispense grace. The medieval church had seven sacraments (which the Catholic church still have today), designed to impart grace in a definite, obvious activity. This is the reason the Eucharist became so important, as the sacrament which all could share on a regular basis as a church community. But it had become something almost magical, where the "host", the bread, was stored in an expensive vessel and venerated in front of the whole congregation. The idea had developed that the bread and wine, once blessed by the priest, actually turned into the body and blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantion) in a mystical re-offering of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Luther, as an early reformer, held a strong belief in the presence of Jesus Christ within communion. Other reformers like Zwingli stressed that the Lord's Supper was meant to be a memorial of Christ's death, and nothing more. All the reformers rejected the idea that the Mass was a sacrifice. This became one of the major contentions of the Reformation, because it stemmed from a deeper doctrinal issue. Reformers were teaching that men couldn't do anything to be saved, and Catholics were teaching in their use of sacraments that men obtain grace by offering God the Mass/devotions/penance.

There were certainly issues with the teachings of the Reformation. Some felt that the emphasis upon salvation by grace alone meant that the reformers were de-valuing the importance of holiness in Christian living, and loving your neighbour. Revolutionary reformers, such as the Anabaptists, stressed personal discipleship and sought to establish a church that was distinct from the state and uncontaminated by the world (the violence of Munster in 1534 showed the more extreme radicals in their worst light). But Calvin emphasised sanctification as well as justification. He taught that we are saved, and then the rest of our life is spent being renewed by the Holy Spirit and striving for holiness. Alistair McGrath points out that one of the major problems was that Catholics used the word 'justification' to mean both salvation and whole-life experience, whereas reformers used it in a narrower sense. Calvin himself wrote that "bad Christians" were the worst enemies of the gospel:

"Of what use is a dead faith without good works?"

Calvin here paraphrases the book of James, a book which Luther had problems in understanding. James' main point is that true faith shows itself in the lifestyle of the Christian. Can someone truly come to accept their sinfulness and trust in Jesus' death for them, without coming to hate their sin and striving to overcome it? Whilst we are not saved by what we do, if we truly believe, we will seek to change the way we live. This was part of Calvin's teaching, and is still part of Protestant thinking today.

Why did the Reformation happen?

I'm currently studying Reformation Church History, so I'm hoping to post on this topic to help me to understand and revise it.

The Reformation was a huge change within the Church in the C16th. Whereas the Church during the medieval era was led universally by the Pope, the Reformation marked a separation between "Protestants" and "Roman Catholics". Many people today complain about the division of the Christian church, and many non-religious people find the number of Christian denominations overwhelming. How can one faith cause so many arguments, serious conflict and even wars? Why can't Christians just belong to one church globally?

In looking at why the Reformation happened, these issues become very important. Was Martin Luther simply a man with an axe to grind against the pope and Catholic authorities? Was John Calvin a heartless leader who relentlessly pursued for his own interpretation of the Bible to be accepted?

To start with, both the Catholic church today as well as the Protestants admit to various problems within the pre-Reformation Church. Christianity dominated the world all over the Roman empire, and part of the method of the medieval church to "convert" pagans was to incorporate some of their festivals, practices and superstitions into Christianity. Our main Christian festivals, Christmas and Easter, are timed with the pagan festivals which used to be celebrated at these times of year. Priests would chant and bless various objects or places much like a witch casting a spell, and so increasingly lay people were confused as to how to distinguish between "magic" (which was forbidden) and legitimate religion.

Another major problem within the medieval church was corruption. The huge influence and wealth of the church had made it a lucrative business for men to pose as holy friars and keep several mistresses. The practice of indulgences was widely used and many priests abused the trust of poor peasants who were desperate to avoid purgatory or help their loved ones get to heaven.

After Luther's 95 Theses were nailed to the door in Wittenberg, the Catholic church underwent a "reformation" of its own, to deal with the abuses of authority and to tighten up the discipline system of church leaders.

However, the major concern of the Reformation was not church practices, but doctrine. Because doctrine (beliefs and teachings) was the root cause of many of the practices which the reformers spoke against. And key elements of doctrine are the reason why Catholics and Protestants are divided to this day.

The disputed doctrine is not simply a secondary issue of robes or no robes, candles or no candles. The big question of the Reformation was:

How can human beings find salvation and be accepted by God?

The medieval church had come to the understanding that humans were fallen and sinful, but rational and able to respond to God through reason. Life as a Christian, to them, was all about receiving God's grace and doing your best to love God and your neighbour. They believed God would grant eternal life as a just reward for this. Mystics also emphasised religious, spiritual experience.

Martin Luther, through studying the book of Romans in the New Testament, came to the understanding that God's righteousness is His gift to humankind. He has acted to rescue sinners and bring them justification. Salvation is something God has already done for us, outside us, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luther realised, after all his soul-searching and rigorous cycle of confession and penance, that humans cannot earn their own salvation. This has been achieved for us through Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Our proper response is to believe, and the experience of the Christian life is one of struggle, as our sinful nature battles against our new identities as children of God.

For Luther, the Reformation had to happen, because the eternal destiny of souls depended on it. If people did not know the liberating truth of the gospel, they would die without knowing Christ. They may attend church every week, but if they didn't understand GRACE (God's Riches At Christ's Expense), then they had no real hope. Luther tried to avoid conflict but it became impossible for him to stay silent. The far-reaching implications of his discovery were only just becoming apparent.

Reaching the Unreached

I've just read Paul Bassett's chapter called 'The Inner City' in a book called 'Social Issues and the Local Church'. It was published back in 1988, but Bassett's challenge rings in my ears as urgent and relevant for Christians today.

There is a whole section of society in the UK that is unreached. I'm not thinking about a particular ethnic minority group (although they do feature in this picture), or a particular county, but the vast numbers of people who live on council estates, in inner-city tower blocks and are largely excluded from mainstream Christian churches and church culture.

The Church in the UK has become dominated by the middle class. For example, most ministers are expected to study for a three-year theological degree before they take up leadership roles. There's nothing wrong with a theology degree, but it's meant that there's a generation of church leaders who are nearly all middle class.

And the sermons they preach are middle class too. They involve long words, complicated trains of thought, philosophy and intellectualism. How would an illiterate person off the street cope in one of our church services today? They wouldn't.

Does that mean we should shut down all the churches? Of course not. But I think we need to open our eyes to the sections of society that we're not reaching through our apologetics talks and wine-tasting evenings. We need to look at working-class people and their culture of interaction, at the benefits sub-culture that's arisen and how people communicate. If we can't preach the gospel in a language that they can understand, we're failing in our basic mission, as given to us by Jesus (Mt 28).

Paul Bassett, who is still working in Melbourne Hall Evangelical Free Church, Leicester, gives a big challenge to middle class Christians in middle class homes and middle class churches.

'It is in our inner cities that we generally find the red-light areas, where crime and prostitution abound. The inner-city dwellers are mainly poor, whereas the challenge comes to a church that is chiefly middle-class. Never was there a time when we needed more to remember that “God is no respecter of persons” and that “the common people heard him gladly.” (Acts 10:34; Mk 12:37)

It is a hard and unglamorous work.

'We must begin by living there. This is far from easy; it demands a real sense of calling, and a certain degree of sacrifice. It involves the whole family, and it may affect the education of the children. It may also demand adaptation to a very different environment, possibly a violent one.'

But God is there! God is concerned for the lost! When we prayerfully seek Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to people, He hears us.

'We need to remember that men of God have stood where we now stand and, with God-given courage and indomitable spirit, have tackled the seemingly impossible task of winning wicked cities for God.'

May God give us the courage we need to get out there into the tough places, and take the gospel to reach the unreached.

'How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"' Romans 10:14-15

An Overview of 2 Corinthians 1-6

Here's a quick overview of the first six chapters of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, written around 55 AD.

Chapter 1

God comforts us in all our troubles. Paul endured distress for the Corinthians' salvation. Paul went through times of despair, but this happened so he'd rely on God. Paul reiterates that God makes him and the Corinthians stand firm in Christ, sealing them in His Spirit.

Chapter 2

Paul thanks God for leading them in triumph in Christ. They are the aroma of Christ: death to the unsaved, but life to the saved. Who is equal to such a task? He asks. He emphasises his own sincerity. They did not go to Corinth for profit- quite the opposite.

Chapter 3

Paul derives encouragement for his ministry from the genuine faith of the Corinthians. Paul doesn't claim to be competent; his competence comes from God. Their ministry is the new covenant, of life and the Spirit, not the law and death. This ministry is glorious! And we reflect God's glory, and are being transformed into His likeness every day.

Chapter 4

Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Paul says they don't use deception, or distort God's word. They set forth the truth plainly, fully aware that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot understand the gospel. Paul doesn't preach himself, but Jesus Christ. He's just a clay pot, with the treasure of the gospel shining out of him. They've gone through huge troubles and persecution, but they're not defeated. Jesus is being shown more clearly in them through their suffering. They are confident that they will be raised up with Jesus. Their troubles are temporary, but there's an eternity of glory ahead of them that they keep their sights set on.

Chapter 5

This life is tough, Paul says, because we're longing to be where we really belong: heaven. So we live by faith, not by sight, and make it our goal to please God in everything. One day He'll judge us for what we do. In light of this, we try to persuade men to take Jesus seriously. He died for all, and His love compels us. We don't see people through the world's eyes, because we know that if they come to Christ, they will be made a new creation. God reconciled the world to Himself in Christ when He died on the cross, and so we are Christ's ambassadors, taking this message of forgiveness and friendship to all.

Chapter 6

This means we don't put any stumbling blocks in people's paths. As servants of God we commend ourselves by being pure, patient and kind, even in severe suffering: physical beatings, hard work, sleepless nights and hunger. We stick to the truth and we cling to the power of God with weapons of righteousness in each hand. We don't have anything, yet we possess everything. It's a topsy-turvy world we live in as Christians, but we're called to open our hearts to those we are ministering to.

Predestination

Wow! I've been looking at this controversial topic for Doctrine 2, and it's great to read what others have written and to take joy in those passages of the Bible that teach about God choosing people for salvation. That's what predestination is: God choosing people, before they were even born, to be part of His kingdom. He doesn't choose people according to any merit in them, but only because of His sovereign and good pleasure. God was pleased to choose people like you and me to be part of His eternal plan of redemption. It really is mind-blowing!

Romans 9

The really central Bible passage that deals with this whole topic is Romans 9. But you can't really take Romans 9 on its own without the context of the rest of Romans. It is a weighty letter of Paul's, and it deals with massive subjects such as the way humanity has rejected God, the way we all stand guilty before Him, and the way we have been redeemed in Christ. In Romans 8, Paul assures us that NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. ALL THINGS work together for good for those who love Him. And yet, from the amazing high of this truth, Paul then moves to the agonising question of what has happened to Israel, his own people.

Many of Paul's generation, as of our own, did not accept Jesus as their Saviour. And Paul felt terrible grief for them, knowing that they were not righteous in God's sight because they sought to establish their own righteousness on the law, not on the work of Christ. Paul knew that it was a hopeless pursuit (see Rom 9:30-32)

But in Romans 9, Paul reminds us that God has been a God who chooses from the beginning. In the Old Testament, He chose Abraham (Neh 9:7). He chose the people of Israel (Deut 14:2). But even within the nation of Israel, He chose some to truly know Him and follow Him whilst others disobeyed Him and were destroyed.

God didn't choose some and not others because of moral goodness. He chose Jacob rather than Esau while they were still in the womb and had not done anything good or bad (Rom 9:11). He chooses simply for His own good pleasure. John Piper emphasises that God's electing love is absolutely free. 'It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness guided by his infinite wisdom.'

Is God fair?

This obviously raises the question, is God fair? As David Seccombe writes, Paul's answer is that salvation operates in the realm of mercy. As in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, God is master of his own generosity and mercy and will exercise them at his own pleasure. God is free to exercise his mercy as he sees fit.

But it is also important to note the way that Scripture emphasises that God chooses so that He gets the glory. In Luke 10, Jesus rejoices that the Father has revealed the truth of salvation to 'babes'. In 1 Cor 1, Paul emphasises that 'God chose what is foolish... weak... low and despised in the world... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.'

As Piper writes, 'the goal of God in election is the elimination of all human pride, all self-reliance, all boasting in man.' That's why God has pleasure in election: it magnifies His name!

What about those who aren't saved? Does God delight in their condemnation?

Piper argues that there is a complexity in God's emotions that we cannot understand. At one level, God does not delight in the death of the wicked. Yet at another level, he does delight in the justice that ordains the judgement of unbelievers. He has a real and deep compassion for perishing sinners. But he is governed by his wisdom through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive.

Perhaps the greatest illustration of this is in the death of Christ. It involved great sin, putting an innocent man to death, and Judas was influenced by Satan to betray Jesus. And yet, God planned it. As Marshall writes: 'We must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen.'

Piper uses the illustration of God's narrow and wider lens. When he looks at tragedy and sin through the narrow lens, he is angered and grieved. But in the wider lens, when he sees it in connection with everything before and after it, he delights in the mosaic of eternity.

Does this make us puppets?

Well, the Bible presents the entire outworking of our salvation as something brought about by a personal God in relationship with personal creatures. God's act of election was permeated with personal love for those whom he chose (Eph 1:5; Grudem).

We need to challenge the idea that a choice is not genuine if it is not absolutely free. We might ask where Scripture ever says that our choices have to be free from God's influence or control in order to be real or genuine choices. It does not seem that Scripture ever speaks in this way. (Grudem again)

Why does it matter?

Many Christians see predestination as an optional extra. But Piper puts forward strong arguments why it is important that all Christians embrace the sovereign right of God to choose those who are saved:

• It's biblical
• It humbles sinners and glorifies God
• It preserves the church from slipping towards false philosophies of life
• It is good news of salvation that is not just offered but effected
• It enables us to own up to the demands for holiness in the Scripture and yet have assurance of salvation
• It gives us the overwhelming experience of being loved personally with the unbreakable electing love of God
• It gives hope for effective evangelism and guarantees the triumph of Christ's mission in the end

Rather than making us apathetic when it comes to preaching the gospel, predestination gives us a reason to do it!!! Look at the example of Paul in Corinth (Acts 18)- he was told by God that He had many people in this city. Paul stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. God's election did not exclude Paul teaching and preaching the gospel; rather, that was His chosen means of saving the elect!

God chooses to use us, in all our weakness, to spread the message of life in Christ all over the world, so that His church grows. That is something to rejoice in!

Tiger Woods' "Confession"

I find the British media coverage of Tiger Woods' public confession of his unfaithfulness, and his apology to the world, really interesting. In 'The Guardian', Owen Gibson's straightforward account of events was relegated to p3, whereas Zoe Williams' 'sketch' version was on the front page. It seems that many Brits just can't understand why Woods did this. Firstly, it insults our notions of being reserved and private about such matters. Secondly, we have so divorced sexual morality from the public sphere that many people are thinking: 'Why did he need to apologise?'

Gibson quotes Woods:

"I knew my actions were wrong but I convinced myself normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead I thought only about myself. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me... I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules."

In many ways, I'm sure we can all relate to what he said. There are times when we know something is wrong, but we go ahead and do it anyway. Our motives are purely selfish. But sometime or other, there are consequences for our actions. For Tiger Woods, those consequences erupted unpleasantly when he crashed his car. Soon evidence for a string of affairs was uncovered by the media. But there are other times when our wrong actions go undiscovered.

The Bible tells us plainly that all of us will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives (Matthew 12:36). God sees everything we do, say and even all that we think as well (Gen 6:5, 1 Chron 28:9, Psalm 139:2, Mt 12:25). It's not our place to make the rules about what's right and wrong. That was Adam and Eve's mistake in Eden: God declared that taking the fruit was wrong, and they decided otherwise. But the result of this was that sin and death came into the world. The existence of death, suffering and pain points us towards the fact that we stand under God's judgement. Why? Because we've pushed God out of His rightful place. We've snatched His crown and tried to put it on our own heads. We've rejected His right to rule in our lives.

But even if we go through life rejecting God's rules, they will still apply to us in the end. We don't get to play by different rules. There will be a Judgement Day, and if we've rejected God, then we face an eternity of being rejected by Him (Matthew 7:23).

There is punishment for those who reject God. But when Jesus died on the cross, He made a way for us to be set free. We have two choices:

1. Take God's punishment on ourselves
2. Let Jesus take God's punishment for us

If we truly believe and trust that Jesus has died for our wrong attitude towards God, then we can be reconciled to God through Him. Although we have rejected God in the past, we can become friends with God... even more than that, we can become children of God. (Eph1, 1 John 5)

The main criticism of Woods made by Williams' sketch was that many doubt the sincerity of his apology: 'He sounded as though he had zoned out a bit, as if he was reading out the rules of a sport.' And God doesn't want a sham-apology from us. God wants real faith and real repentance, and He Himself gives us His Spirit so that, supernaturally, we are given the ability to believe and to please God by living radically different lives. This is why living as a Christian is not like life in black-and-white. It's not a boring, textbook life. It's full blown technicolour! It's life when you finally see things as they truly are. You not only see the truth, but you live it as well. You are given power to live it through God's Spirit, working in you. (2 Peter 1:3)

Living life by your own rules isn't real life. You're playing a game, and a dangerous one at that.
Living life with God at the centre is where you find true joy and fulfilment (John 10:10).

Why were the Israelites exiled out of the Promised Land?

I've been putting together my notes for OT2 and this is such a huge question, covering all of the Former Prophets.

1. Rebellion against the Lord.

This began even as Moses led them out of Egypt: 'the whole community grumbled' (Ex 16:2). They spent 40 years in the wilderness because of this!

At the end of the book of Joshua, he gives the people a strong reminder that they need to obey the Law (Josh 23:6). If they fail, the consequence will be exile:
'If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods... the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land He has given you.' (Josh 23:16).

During the time of the Judges, as Joshua's generation dies, 'another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.' (Judges 2:10-11). Consequently, they were routed by their enemies and God raised up Judges to save them. 'Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them.' (Judges 2:17)

Even the Judges themselves were dubious heroes; Gideon lacked decisive faith and made a golden ephod which became a snare to Israel, Jephthah made a rash vow which resulted in him killing his own daughter, and Samson's life was full of compromise instead of being a true Nazirite.

The ending of the book shows moral chaos in the gruesome story of the Levite and his concubine, which threatens to destroy the unity of Israel by causing civil war and the near cutting-off of the Benjaminites.

2. Lack of godly leadership.

The chaos in Judges is attributed to the fact there is no king; 'everyone did as they saw fit' (Judges 21:25).
The people in 1 Samuel demand a king. As Samuel presents Saul to them, he gives them a solemn warning:
'if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God- good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you.' (1 Sam 12:14-15)

No sooner is Saul declared king than he goes against God's Word and offers up the burnt offering himself instead of waiting for Samuel, the priest. Samuel tells him that because of this his kingdom will not ensure and God has sought out 'a man after his own heart' (1 Sam 13:14). Saul repeatedly tries to do things his own way, instead of obeying God. In the rest of 1 Samuel, we see his deterioration into madness, paranoia and murderous thoughts towards David, despite David's righteous conduct and refusal to touch the Lord's anointed (see 1 Sam 24).

When David finally becomes king, and he is the best of the kings, he commits adultery and murder in a terrible sequence of events (2 Sam 11).

The majority of the kings in 1 & 2 Kings commit terrible acts in the eyes of the Lord, and lead the whole nation into apostasy. Ahab, king of Israel, did more evil than all before him (1 Kings 16:30). He and his wife Jezebel persecute Elijah and install Baal worship as the norm. Even after the glorious display of God's power at Mt Carmel, they remain unchanged.

3. Ignoring the Prophets.

Not only does the dramatic revelation of the reality of God as Lord leave Ahab unmoved, but repeatedly he is shown to ignore and despise God's prophets.

In one incident, a prophet comes to tell him that God will give him victory over Ben-Hadad (King of Aram), and Ahab decides to let the king go. In another incident, Ahab desires Naboth's vineyard (which, according to the distribution of the land and to the inheritance laws, he had no right to claim), and allows Jezebel to have Naboth killed so that he can seize it. Elijah comes to rebuke him for this dreadful action, and Ahab greets the prophet by calling him his 'enemy' (1 Kings 21:20). God says through Elijah 'you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin' (1 Kings 21:22), and the incredible thing is that Ahab does then humble himself. In great mercy, God decides to bring disaster upon Ahab's son instead of Ahab himself.

And yet how much has Ahab really changed? Not much it seems, because when the godly king Jehoshaphat of Judah comes to help him against the king of Aram, Jehoshaphat insists upon seeking counsel from a 'prophet of the Lord', not just a phoney prophet who says whatever the king wants to hear. Ahab acknowledges that there is a true prophet, but he hates him because he never prophesies anything good about him (1 Kings 22:8). Jehoshaphat's reply 'The king should not say such a thing' highlights how wrong Ahab's attitude is towards the prophets and thus towards God, as the prophets speak God's Word to him.

4. Forgetting the Law.

In Josiah king of Judah's day, the Book of the Law is found as they repair the temple. This is a sad indication of how God's Word has been forgotten over the reigns of so many godless kings. Josiah is a great reformer, but he recognises that it is too late: they stand under God's wrath for disobeying His commands (2 Kings 22:13), which the prophet Huldah confirms.

5. Lack of godly parenting.

'Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen... Teach them to your children and to their children after them.' Deut 4:9

Closely linked to the people forgetting the Law is the fact that parents were not training their children in the ways of the Lord, and this is why there was so much moral chaos and apostasy.

Even the God-fearing men were at fault here: Eli was challenged by God ('why do you honour your sons more than Me?' 1 Sam 2:29) and David did not have effective control of his family- the incident of Amnon raping his half-sister Tamar, and David's lack of decisive action to intervene which causes Absalom to act in bloody vengeance, is a prime example of this (2 Sam 13).

6. God keeps His covenant promise.

God had made it clear that if Israel were not obedient, He would send them into exile. That is why the exile happened.

'Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence.' 2 Kings 17:20


And yet, in all of this, there is hope in God's grace. Not all the kings were bad (Josiah and Hezekiah stand out as really godly leaders), and Isaiah prophesies the future fall of Sennacherib (king of Assyria) in 2 Kings 19, and reminds the people that God is in control:
'Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass.' v25