Incarnation and the Gospel

“This one person was, therefore, able to suffer and bear the penalty of man’s transgression, because, being of man’s nature, he could become man’s representative, and could also endure such suffering as could be inflicted upon man; yet, being God, he could give a value to such suffering, which would make it equivalent, not to one man’s penalty, but to that of the whole race.” [James P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology (Charleston: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1887), 291.]

The Virgin Birth

“…the virgin birth is a sign of God’s judgment on human nature. The race needs a redeemer, but cannot produce one: not by its own decision or desire, not by the processes of education and civilization, not as a precipitate of its own evolution. The redeemer must come from outside. Here, as elsewhere, ‘all things are of God.’ He provides the lamb (Gen 22:8).” [Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998), 37.]

Powlison on the Gospel

The Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, “God accepts you just as Christ is. God has ‘contra-conditional’ love for you.” Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father’s child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically de-centers people to look outside themselves.

–David Powlison

Wisdom

"Wisdom in Scripture means choosing the best and noblest end at which to aim, along with the most appropriate and effective means to it."

— J.I. Packer, Concise Theology, 48

A Good Question

A thought-provoking question from Piper:

"If you could have heaven, with not sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?"

The follow-up question for Christian leaders (and anyone that shepherds another):

"Do we preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding No?"

— John Piper, God Is the Gospel, 15

Beholding God's Gift of Himself

I'm slowly working my way through Piper's God Is the Gospel. He is arguing that we often perceive (and describe and preach) the gospel as being centered on us (ie "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life...") and offering us some other gift (a happy life, the American dream, a better marriage, purpose and meaning, etc.). Piper's thesis is that at the heart of the Gospel is God's greatest gift: Himself.

"The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love permeates our culture and our churches. From the time they can toddle we teach our children that feeling loved means being made much of..."

"There are clues in every human heart even before conversion to Christ. One of those clues is that no one goes to the Grand Canyon or the Alps to increase his self-esteem. That is not what happens in front of massive deeps and majestic heights. But we do go there, and we go for joy... In wonderful moments of illumination there is a witness in our hearts: soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."

John Piper, God Is the Gospel, 12-13

Questions to Shepherd Kids (and Others)

"Piper mentioned how helped he was by the kinds of questions that Rick Gamache (senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Fellowship) regularly asks his kids. Rick gave me permission to post them here:

• How are your devotions?
• What is God teaching you?
• In your own words, what is the gospel?
• Is there a specific sin you’re aware of that you need my help defeating?
• Are you more aware of my encouragement or my criticism?
• What’s daddy most passionate about?
• Do I act the same at church as I do when I’m at home?
• Are you aware of my love for you?
• Is there any way I’ve sinned against you that I’ve not repented of?
• Do you have any observations for me?
• How am I doing as a dad?
• How have Sunday’s sermons impacted you?
• Does my relationship with mom make you excited to be married?
• (On top of these things, with my older kids, I’m always inquiring about their relationship with their friends and making sure God and his gospel are the center of those relationships. And I look for every opportunity to praise their mother and increase their appreciation and love for her.)"

— ht: Justin Taylor

Gospel-Centered Endurance

John Piper writes of the centrality of the cross in perseverance, the fact that the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone (the Gospel) is what fuels and sustains (and begins) us in the call to endure to the end:

"This is what we pray for, and this is what we trust in as we take up the biblical command to endure to the end. We trust in the New Covenant promises of sustaining, enabling grace that were obtained for us infallibly and irrevocably by Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. Therefore our fight and our race and endurance is radically God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-dependent, promise-supported life. It is not a 'just do it' ethic. It is not a moral self-improvement program. It is not a 'Judeo-Christian ethic' shared by a vaguely spiritual culture with a fading biblical memory. it is a deeply cross-enabling life that knows the Christ of the Bible as the Son of God who was crucified first as our substitute and then as our model of endurance."

— John Piper, The Roots of Endurance, 29

In other words, our prior understanding of the Gospel (which is itself the result of God's prior activity in us) fuels our obedience. We don't do good things and strive to endure in order to become justified in God's sight. Quite the opposite: because we are justified by faith in the finished work of Christ, we naturally grow in grace and are sustained to the end in good works.

Penetrating Holiness

"God is inescapeable. There is no place we can hide from Him. Not only does He penetrate every aspect of our lives, but He penetrates it in his majestic holiness."
— RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p25

I was immediately reminded of Psalm 139:

5You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

Piper's IOUS Prayer

I think the following prayer outline is helpful. I got it from a message John Piper delivered at the New Attitude Conference that is available on the Sovereign Grace website for free download. It presents a way to pray (using Psalms) as you approach the Scriptures:

I — Incline my heart to Your testimonies (Psalm 119:36)
O — Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things in Your Word (Psalm 119:8)
U — Unite my heart to fear Your name (Psalm 86:11)
S — Satisfy me in the morning... (Psalm 90:14)

Spurgeon Quotes

A few Spurgeon quotes on the peace of God from a recent sermon:

Whenever I have suffered a grievous wrong, it has been a satisfaction to me that, if my Lord Jesus Christ made atonement for my offenses and my wrongs, I can look at His atonement for the wrong done to me as well as to God, for He satisfied all parties in that quarrel. Gladly do I say, “Surely this poor should may well be forgiven by me, for you have died as the sinner’s Substitute. In comparison with my own offenses against God, I may well look upon this man’s offense as nothing.”
----

"O Lord, put down this riot. I am tossed to and fro in my heart about my circumstance. I do not like them and I quarrel with You about them. Come, peace of God! Come and put down my murmuring! Come and calm my wicked, discontented spirit."

----

"We ought to be resolved to judge all things by the peace of God. What ought I to do in this case? Must I humble myself? I do not like it, but how ought I to act? Shall I yield? Pride says, Never! No, no! Play the man. Never give in. But what does the peace of God say? It says, Yield, submit. Christ says, I say unto you, that you resist not evil: but whoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also."

Spurgeon on the Centrality of the Cross

Are you content to follow Jesus from a distance? O, let me affectionately warn you for it is a grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the Savior’s face. Let us work to feel what an evil thing this is – little love to our own dying Savior, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with the Beloved! Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Don’t stop at sorrow. Remember where you first received salvation. (Simon the Leper) Go at once to the cross. There, and there only can you get your spirit aroused. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have become, let’s go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our natural condition. Let’s clasp that cross, let’s look into those languid eyes, let’s bathe in that fountain filled with blood – this will bring us back to our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart….The more we dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard the more noble our lives become. Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior.—C. H. Spurgeon, http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/606_cdg_conference_session_4/

Old Books and Communal Interpretation of Scripture

In writing about the importance of reading old books and the joy that awaits us in them, John Piper quotes Michael Horton, who says:

"The best way to guard a true interpretation of Scripture, the Reformers insisted, was neither to naively embrace the infallibility of tradition, or the infallibility of the individual, but to recognize the communal interpretation of Scripture. The best way to ensure faithfulness to the text is to read it together, not only with the churches of our own time and place, but with the wider 'communion of saints' down through the age."

John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, 128

Reformation & Revival

"At times men think of the two words, reformation and revival, as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore.

Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian's life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit.

The great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival.

Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day - revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well."

-- Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City, 12

Tozer on the "new cross"

“The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in the Lord." To the thrill- seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.”

-AW Tozer

Os Guiness on Desire

"The very fact that we humans experience desire is proof that we are creatures. Incomplete in ourselves, we desire whatever we think is beckoning to complete us. God alone needs nothing outside of himself, because he himself is the highest and the only lasting good. So all objects we desire short of God are as finite and incomplete as we ourselves are and, therefore, disappointing if we make them the objects of ultimate desire."

-- The Call, 13

Os Guiness on Purpose

"Have you concluded that your desire for purpose is an illusion? Then follow the Eastern masters to their various states of detachment. Have you determined that your purpose is something that you must figure out yourself and accomplish all on your own? There are many secularist thinkers to cheer you on in the attempt. Or are you open to the possibility that there is one who created you to be who you are and calls you to be who he alone knows you can be? Then listen to Jesus of Nazareth and his two words that changed the world - 'Follow me.'"

-- Os Guiness, The Call, ix

Is Aslan Safe?

I'm reading CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before I watch the movie adaptation. Upon first hearing about Aslan (the original Lion King), one of the children asks if Aslan is safe. The reply (p75-76) is well worth considering:

'If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than me or else just silly.'

'Then he isn't safe?' asked Lucy.

'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver. 'Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'

Rookmaaker on Films

HR Rookmaaker was a Dutch art historian and critic and a close friend and colleague of Francis Schaeffer. In his work Modern Art and the Death of Culture he offers an interesting critique of popular films:

"Many of the films people see, for instance, are good entertainment, and often have a little moral point. Yet they are bad. For they depict as true a world which is limited and superficial, one without God, without the deeper questions in man's heart, without real matters of life and death, for life and death are reduced to sentiment, or adventures, or crime and violence or cruelty, without any sort of judgment expressed. Most films of this type are good in the bourgeois sense, and they are certainly not meant to be anti-Christian. But they help to close the sky. They leave God out of the picture."

"The strange belief in innate (rather than learned) human goodness that animates much so-called 'liberal' thought seems to me a delusion that even a cursory familiarity with human history and human nature should expose."

-- Bruce Thornton, Plagues of the Mind