The necessity of forgiveness #2: ditching the superiority complex

God has used a recent situation where someone I know and love very much wronged me to show me how much of a superiority complex I have. Let me explain.

When someone hurts or wrongs you, and you're the 'victim', the innocent party, it's easy to slip in to a proud, Pharisaical mindset. You know you have to forgive them, and you do so out of a condescending 'I would never have done that' spirit.

But that's not the kind of love and forgiveness Christ has shown to us, and it's not the kind we should show to others either.

The story Jesus told of the unforgiving servant is particularly chilling in the cold way that the forgiven man demands such a small amount of money from the one in his debt who begs to be released (Matt 18:21-35). Had he learnt nothing from the grace he had been shown? And yet that's exactly what I'm like if I look down upon a fellow human being, a fellow sinner, and secretly desire 'justice' for them rather than mercy.

In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), I am the elder brother. I'm the one who feels has 'got it right' and why should I celebrate that the rebel is restored?

I miss, then, how much of a sinner I really am too.

For me, you read the Scriptures and the question is raised clearly: How can we withhold forgiveness when God has shown so much grace towards us?

'Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.' Col 3:12-13

If we refuse to forgive, it's because we see ourselves as superior. And that's a superiority complex we have to ditch otherwise we haven't truly understood the gospel.

As Paul writes in Romans 3: 'all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;no one understands; no one seeks for God..." For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 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'.

This passage reminds me, you think you're good enough for God? You want to stand before Him with your own righteousness? NO WAY!!! I need Jesus' blood as much as anyone else. That's why I have to forgive; because I am just as much in need of forgiveness as those who wrong me.

An analogy... old covenant vs new covenant, law vs grace

Thinking here about the old covenant and the new covenant.

We give kids toy cars to play with. They can look pretty realistic -obviously smaller than the real thing. Ultimately, toy cars are hollow; they have no engine. The best you're going to get is a battery remote control one.

The law of the old covenant is like a toy car. It represents the life God wants His people to live but in miniature. We know from Jesus' ministry that the law was not meant to be used as an excuse for divorce, or for people to be self-congratulatory because they had tithed the correct amount of mint. And when your relationship with God is nothing more than law-keeping, it's not really a relationship. It's legalism.

When you get your license and you start driving a real car, those toy cars soon get put into perspective. They were right for a time, but nothing is like the real thing. The immense feeling of freedom you get behind the wheel - that's like life with God, not under law but grace. Immensely liberating.

The toy car resembles the real thing, but cannot power itself. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we have the power to say no to fleshly dsires and live a life of godliness (see 2 Peter 1). We're not needing all the ritual that came with the law - Jesus fulfilled it. We don't need anymore sacrifice. But in our desire to be godly, our quest for holiness, we should have even more zeal than the Pharisees, and hopefully more evidence of sanctification as we seek to grow by grace.

'For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.' John 1:17

The phrase here 'grace and truth' reflects the language of Exodus 34:6, which speaks of the steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness ('emet) of God in His covenant faithfulness to His people. John is therefore saying that Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's covenant faithfulness (ESV study notes).

In the new covenant, our relationship with God is brought to life, from the stone tablets of law to the heartbeat of grace.

'For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.' Rom 10:4

'a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ' Gal 2:16

'But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.' Gal 5:18

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!

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.

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.

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!

Old and New Covenant: What's the Difference?

It's always a danger that we, as Christians, use complicated terms from the Bible without really understanding what they mean, as well as being totally unintelligible for the world outside. The trap of Christian jargon is sometimes really difficult to escape from. Salvation, atonement, penal substitution... All these words mean wonderful things and yet can also be very confusing.

As I study for my Moore College Christian Worship module, I have been looking at the Old and New Covenants of the Bible. And 'covenant' is one such jargon-word. It basically means 'promise', but it does have more weight than that. In Bible times, an oral culture where the spoken word was much more meaningful and binding than in today's world, a covenant was serious business. It involved conditions. It was not easily broken.

The Old Testament relates to us how God called the people of Israel into covenant with Him (having made a covenant with Abraham, and they were his descendants). On Mount Sinai He gave them the Law, and the essence of the covenant was this:

'Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.' Deuteronomy 11:1

The conditions were that if Israel followed God's commands and stayed faithful to Him, He would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, and rest from all their enemies. But if they failed, then He would send famine and drought, routers, and eventually send them into exile. And sadly, this is what actually happened. After the exile, a remnant returned, but it was clear that Israel had problems with keeping the covenant because the post-exilic prophets (such as Malachi) spoke of their continued corruption and failure to obey God.

It is into this situation -a crushed people under the Roman empire, a disobedient people who had failed to keep God's law- that Jesus came. And with Him, He brought what is known as the New Covenant: a new way of relating to God.

Jesus changed:
The PLACE of worship
The MEANS of worship

Let's unpack that.

In the Old Testament, there were two important central places of worship. First, there was the Tabernacle (built under Moses in the time of being in the wilderness). This was a sort of tent, a central meeting place, where the Ark of the Covenant (a box containing the 10 Commandments and the Law) was kept. It was where God's presence dwelled- this is why Exodus ends climactically with the cloud of God's presence filling the place (Ex 40).

Once Israel had claimed the Promised Land and achieved rest from their enemies, the Temple was built (under the direction of Solomon, David's son). This was a much more permanent building, lavishly constructed, and provided the central place of worship where sacrifices were offered.

Jesus changed all of this by REPLACING the temple (place of worship), along with the sacrifices (means of worship). By offering Himself, dying an innocent death on the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins, once for all. His blood justifies the guilty (Rom 5:8-9). There is no need now for any more sacrifices to be made. Jesus' sacrifice was enough to pay for all sins: past, present and future.

'He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him.' (Heb 7:25)

So Jesus IS the sacrifice, but Jesus is also the TEMPLE itself. The Temple represented God's rule, and God's will to bless Israel and other nations through them. In Jesus 'one greater than the temple' arrived (Mt 12:6). He embodied God's presence and authority, because He was the Son of God. In Him we find salvation and through Him all nations can be blessed (this is how God fulfilled His promise to Abraham from Genesis 12). We don't need a temple now to access God, because we have Jesus. This is why the Temple curtain was torn from top to bottom when Christ died on the cross (Mt 27:51).

True Christianity is all about presenting ourselves to God IN JESUS CHRIST. It's about coming to God, knowing you have NOTHING TO OFFER Him except a sinful soul, and asking for His forgiveness which is available to you THROUGH JESUS' SACRIFICE.

But once we have done that, we CAN offer God our lives. Romans 12:1 teaches that we are to become 'living sacrifices'- not trying to win our own salvation or our place in heaven by doing good things, but demonstrating in our LIFESTYLE that our relationship with God has been restored, and we are RIGHTEOUS in His sight (absolutely pure). Every sphere of our lives as Christians gives us the opportunity to glorify and serve God, in grateful response to the work of Jesus.

Therefore we "worship" not only in times of singing songs and reading the Bible and praying, but in obedience, loving others, showing hospitality, being faithful in marriage, witnessing to others (see Hebrews and Romans 12-15). Our worship is much more than what we do in church on a Sunday, or in our daily "quiet time" or personal devotions to God. It is our whole life.

That is not necessarily ABSENT from the Old covenant. God made it clear that He wanted His people to love Him all of the time, not just on a Sabbath day. He made it clear through the prophets that sacrifices were worthless unless they were accompanied by true repentance (1 Sam 15:22). But Jesus brought a whole new experience of worship for us, because He revealed to us in His very person the TRUTH about God, and He sent us His SPIRIT to aid us in crying out to God in our hearts (Rom 8:15). This is what Jesus meant when He said:

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24

In Jesus we see a full revelation of who God is, because Jesus is 'the exact representation of his being' (Heb 1:3). In Jesus we not only receive a new PLACE of worship (ie. in Himself, not in a physical building), and a new MEANS of worship (through His sacrifice), but we also receive a full picture of the GOD we worship. We can worship Jesus because He is God; He is part of the Trinity, the three-person God who is Father, Son and Spirit. And as Christians, our aim is to bring others to worship Christ and make Him their own Lord and Saviour.

Unashamed- the London Women's Convention

Yesterday I went to the London Women's Convention at ExCel in the Docklands. The theme of the day was 'Unashamed'- how we, as Christians, can overcome our fear of sharing the gospel with others.

Di Warren spoke very engagingly on why we can sometimes feel ashamed of the gospel. Showing the famous X-Factor clip of Susan Boyle, she drew the lesson that looks can be deceiving! The gospel looks powerless to the world. It looks irrelevant- God seems a million miles away. It looks weird- Jesus is not the modern idea of a hero. It's offensive- the gospel tells us we are wrong. It doesn't make people feel good about themselves. And the gospel is intolerant- it says boldly that only Jesus can make us right with God.

However, Di then encouraged us wonderfully that the gospel is dynamite! (This is the Greek word for 'power' used in Romans 1:16 when Paul describes the gospel as the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes). The gospel, simply put, is that Jesus died for you so that God would not be ashamed of you. It's not irrelevant- it shows us God's purpose throughout history- to redeem men and women- and it opens our eyes to the perspective of eternity. It's not weird- Jesus is a shameful hero because He takes OUR shame upon Himself. It's not offensive, it gives a message of hope. It's not intolerant, because there is no discrimination: the gospel is relevant for everyone.

As Christians, we are like the manager of Susan Boyle: we need to create opportunities for the gospel to sing! We mustn't lose our nerve, thinking that our friend is a 'lost cause' or that the message needs to be made more palatable. The problem is not with the message, but with people's hearts.

Di reminded us that the gospel will be rejected. WE will be rejected. This makes evangelism the hardest task in the world. And yet the gospel will be ACCEPTED, too. Not who we choose, not in our timing, but God is at work all around us.

The third session at the conference showed inspiring testimonies from women who had taken the initiative to start up a discussion group with their friends, and seen them come to Christ. Then finally, Rico Tice addressed us with Colossians 4 and told us to devote ourselves to prayer, serve others, and cross the 'pain line'- in other words, get out there and do it! He challenged us to carry around a short passage (eg. Psalm 103) and ask people 'Would you like to look at the Bible with me?'

The conference was very well run with long breaks to chat and look at the bookstore. I was particularly chuffed with buying 'A Taste for Life'- an evangelistic recipe book with gorgeous pictures and very well presented- for a dear friend of mine. They were selling like hotcakes!

If there's one thing that I felt the day missed, it was an emphasis upon community. I don't think the New Testament gives us any warrant for church being a once/twice-a-week meeting, and then we all disperse and live out our lives individually or as families doing our evangelism separately. The picture of the early church is one of community (Acts 4:32). We don't have to live in a commune, but there is a sense of the church being local. Christians who live in the same area, coming together regularly- not just for a formal Sunday service, but in and out of each other's lives. In 1 Thessalonians 2:8 Paul writes:

'We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.'

If we as Christians live as a community, transformed by the Holy Spirit, then our 'evangelism' simply becomes introducing outsiders into that community. It is less about setting up a formal course (which is quite middle-class), and more about integrating the different spheres of our life: work, church, family etc. Evangelism wasn't really meant to be a solo pursuit- Jesus sent out His disciples in pairs in Luke 10, and that was for a special mission. Most of the time Jesus and His followers lived in community, eating together with outsiders (often the outcasts of their society like the tax collectors and prostitutes), and those outsiders were drawn in because they saw Jesus, they heard the gospel, and they saw it lived out in all its power and attraction.

There is nothing more attractive to people today than the idea of a community where they can be accepted whoever they are. Why do you think people are drawn to the local pub? Or the golf club? Or the boules network? Yes, they may enjoy drinking, golfing, etc, but it offers them community. It is unfortunate that church today makes many outsiders think of judgmental people, cold people, unwelcoming people, rather than a warm community infused with the love of Jesus.

So what can we do? Well, there's one simple suggestion that isn't a very popular one:
Move to live in the surrounding area of your church!
So many people 'commute' to church, which is incredibly destructive to the outreach of that church into the local community. If the Christians are not naturally a part of that local community, why should the people pay any attention to leaflets or posters or even those who come door-to-door? Having recently moved into the estate of our local church, my husband and I can testify of the incredible difference it has made to live in the community which, as a church, we are trying to reach. People know us. People trust us. We are able to show that we care for people on a daily basis, and we are able to live out our Christian lives in front of them.

It involves sacrifice. It involves being ready to have an open door and for people to see you when you're not on top form. But it involves the amazing privilege of sharing the gospel with people- through words and actions as well.

I'm not promoting a social gospel- that we should just love people and not bother with speaking the gospel to them- because Romans 10 makes it clear that people aren't saved by simply seeing actions. They need to hear the gospel and understand it! But as James argues, if we do not accompany our gospel-sharing with gospel-living, then our witness is often weakened if not totally ineffective. You could be a very sincere Christian in all aspects of your life, but if Mrs X never sees you in any other context than when you are witnessing to her door-to-door, she has no reason to believe in what you tell her.

I want to recommend Joshua Harris' 'Stop Dating the Church'. In it, he points out that we are so often willing to move house for a new job, or for a new school for our children. Why are we not willing to move for our church, which is so much more important in terms of eternity???

Avoiding the spiritual barometer (Review of Terry Virgo's 'God's Lavish Grace')

Ever had a week like this:
Sunday- go to church, sing joyful songs of praise, hear an encouraging and challenging sermon about fighting sin, leave with renewed resolution to obey God and beat temptation.
Monday- make time to read the Bible and pray, fight with sin going well, feel close to God.
Tuesday- managed to scan over a Bible passage before running for the bus, feel flustered but still trying to live whole-heartedly for God.
Wednesday- busy day, no time to pray, feeling weak.
Thursday- give in to temptation, feel like a rubbish Christian.

And so it goes on.

In this commentary, the person constantly measures their spiritual success by their own achievements or failures. If they made time to pray, they feel good about where they stand with God. If they mess up, they feel ashamed. To them, the way God sees them fluctuates like a spiritual barometer. When they're doing well, He's smiling. When they're not, He's angry.

Terry Virgo's book 'God's Lavish Grace' is a fantastic smash-down to this way of thinking, which ensnares so many Christians today.

Virgo's main point is that Jesus has obtained a place for us to stand in grace, a place of total acceptance and security. He goes through the book of Romans to demonstrate that
'they which receive abundance of grace... shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.' Rom 5:17

Therefore your daily walk with God is not about your spirituality or performance, but about your position in Christ.

Christ's unchanging righteousness is yours every day and is not in the least dependent on your feelings or your performance!

God has not called us to a life of slavery but one of overcoming. We need to KNOW that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse us from every sin (past, present and future); the cross is ENOUGH for us to be forgiven. We can't earn God's approval by our 'good deeds'. On the cross, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' (John 19:30) He dealt with our sin completely. All that is left for us to do is to rejoice in the fact that we are totally accepted by God through Jesus, and then live a life liberated to serve Him, with the empowering help of the Spirit to fight sin.

Virgo's conversational style is engaging and uplifting as he opens up the life-changing truth of God's Word in this book. He shows us how susceptible we are to rely on our own amazingness rather than God's amazingness. He calls us to stop making excuses about human nature and start beating sin out of our lives, because Jesus has given us the freedom NOT to sin. As Christians, we have to believe in that freedom. We can't be fatalistic. We need to sort out sin so that we can properly live up to our status as God's children, and get out there to spread the message of God's lavish grace to a world that desperately needs to hear it.