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The wages of sin is death

By on November 18th, 2011

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Driving across my wife’s home town of Belfast, it’s difficult not to come across this verse emblazoned on some billboard or other:

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23)

And it’s usually in the King James Version too!

It serves as a succinct summary of the gospel as it outlines three contrasting pairs.  There is wages versus gift; sin versus God and death versus eternal life.

On one side of the divide we have sin as a slave-master.  This is how Paul has been portraying sin throughout Romans 6.  It is not so much an action that we choose but a power that masters us.  We’re not in charge of sin, sin is in charge of us.  But it’s a law-abiding slave-master – it pays a wage.  The whole realm in which sin operates is the realm of working and earning.  This pay-master always gives his workers what’s coming to them.  And what is the payment?  Death.

There’s something very organic here.  Sin is anti-life.  It is shutting down from the life-giving Lord and trying to work things out from our own resources.  When we serve this master we get what’s coming to us – death.

But there’s another way.  What’s the other way?  Should we just choose not to sin?  Impossible.  We are like Israel in Egypt – we’re in slavery to a dark power that we can’t overthrow.  We need another Master to redeem us.  But thankfully the second half of the verse gives us one:  God!  He is a very different Master.  You see in contrast to how we naturally think, sin is the kill-joy, God is the life-giver.  Sin is the legalist, God is the gracious One.  Sin demands that I work for a wage. God offers a gift by His grace – the Lord Jesus Christ.  Sin is death-dealing.  God is life-giving.

And again the outcome of serving this Master is organically related to who this master is.  Since God is a Life-giving Fountain, pouring forth Himself in His Son and Spirit, therefore receiving His gift means receiving eternal life.  It’s just natural that His realm means receiving.  And receiving God’s kind of life is receiving eternal life.

So next time you are tempted to sin, remember it’s bigger than you.  Remember it’s a master you have no power to overthrow.  It’s not your servant, it’s a slave-master.  It’s not offering anything, it’s taking.  It’s not bringing you into a realm of grace but only into the realm of works.  And no matter what it promises, it’s not giving you life but only death.  On the other hand, God is offering you redemption, freedom, grace and eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today spend a moment to re-orient your thinking according to the gospel.  Take a moment to see yourself, to see sin and to see God again in light of Jesus Christ.

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God forbid

By on November 18th, 2011

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It’s a far from literal translation, but it traces all the way back to Tyndale and even to Wycliffe before him. “May it never be” would be a stricter rendering of the Greek, but “God forbid” has endured as a statement of indignant resolve. It occurs 26 times in the Bible, the majority of the uses are from Paul.

It was a common rhetorical device of Paul’s to voice a possible objection to his teaching and then to reject it firmly:

“Is the law sin? God forbid.”  (Romans 7:7)

“Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” (Romans 9:14)

“Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.”  (Romans 11:1)

“Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.”  (Galatians 2:17)

In today’s phrase, both the question and the emphatic answer are vital to understand:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. (Romans 6:1-2)

Paul expects an objection to his teaching.  It’s an objection for which every gospel preacher must be prepared.  If a preacher is not faced by this objection, we may question whether they are really preaching the gospel.

The objection is this: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

If we preach Paul’s gospel, people will ask us this question.  Because it might sound to them as though God’s free gift of salvation is magnified if we commit more and more sins.  If Jesus ‘picks up the tab’ for our bad behaviour and if His payment on the cross is His glory, then we can make Christ look more glorious can’t we?  We can rack up an even bigger debt for Him to cover.  Thus we might continue in sin so that His grace may abound.

Paul’s answer to this is emphatic: God forbid!  He rules such thinking out of court.  But notice why such thinking is rejected.  He continues…

How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.  (Romans 6:2-7)

So often we think of salvation individualistically and impersonally.  We think that God gives each of us a “thing” called “grace” or “salvation” or “forgiveness.”  It’s like a blank cheque handed from heaven, underwritten by the infinite worth of Christ’s blood.  And so we run off to spend God’s grace on our sinful pleasures.  But no, God gives us a Person called Christ – a Person with whom we have been united.  We have been baptized into Him, planted together with Him, crucified with Him, buried with Him and raised again to newness of life.  We are not individuals with a “get out of hell card”, we are members of Christ Himself, in Whom our sin and its consequences have been dealt with once and for all.  We have been brought through sin and death out into new life.

We have not been saved to sin, we have been saved from sin – freed to live a new life.  And not as individuals.  We are in Christ, united to Him like a bride to a Bridegroom.  And our heavenly Husband loves us to death.  In that context sin is unthinkable!

Imagine two couples.  Both of them have husbands who travel for business.  Wife A says to her husband, “I know what happens on business trips.  Your clients will take you to the restaurant and then the bar and who knows where from there.  I’ve heard about these things, and you need to know that if you even look at another woman, this marriage is finished.  Don’t bother coming back.  I’ll change the locks, it’s over mister!”

Wife B says “I know what happens on business trips.  And if you stray I would be truly devastated.  But when I said “Till death us do part” I meant it. And whatever happens I want you to come home and be honest and I want you to know I love you always and we’ll work it out.”

Question: Which husband is more likely to cheat?  Husband A every time.

We imagine that the way to make people good is to add conditions to the love of God.  “God loves you a lot.  But if you sin, the love cools and you’ll have to mope around on the outskirts of His presence.”  Actually conditional love does not “keep us honest.”  Conditional love turns our hearts away from the Lover and towards other things.  It’s unconditional love that captures the heart.  Christ grips us with a love that says “No matter where you go or what you do, I am with you and I am for you.  We have an unbreakable marriage-bond and I love you come what may.”

More than this, Christ has taken us through sin and its consequences and out into freedom.  However we might muck around in the pit, Christ has lifted us to the throne.  And whatever promises which sin makes – they are lies.  The desires we seek to satisfy are truly met in our Loving Bridegroom.  And He will never leave us or forsake us.

Therefore, shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid!

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Hope against hope

By on November 16th, 2011

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It’s the hope you have when there is no hope.

Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah 90 when they were promised a miracle child (Isaac).  As Genesis 18:11 put it: “Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” Nonetheless, the promise came from the LORD: “Sarah thy wife shall have a son.”

That’s not just difficult, it’s impossible.  So what do you do when faced with the LORD’s word on one hand and human impossibility on the other?  You hope against hope:

“18 Abraham, against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.”  (Romans 4:18-22)

What does saving faith look like?  Abraham’s “hope against hope” is Paul’s example.  He is in the middle of a magisterial study of the gospel, showing how salvation comes not through our goodness but God’s grace, not through our faithfulness but Christ’s, not through our power but the Spirit’s.  Salvation is God’s thing.  It’s not our thing.  We simply receive a salvation that we could never earn.

And so Paul chooses an example of faith which is a true case of ‘hope against hope.’  Abraham is completely ‘out of the driver’s seat’ when the Lord comes to him.  He not only does not meet the Lord half way, he cannot.  All he can do is rest in the Lord’s promise and say, “Amen, let it be so.”

This is faith: the promise of new life comes and faith says “Nothing in my circumstances and nothing in my power can make this happen but, Lord, I know You can!”  The promised seed is held out and faith says “I cannot produce the Messiah, indeed I am incapable of even receiving the Messiah, yet Lord, you say He is given to me, so I will trust You.”

The context for faith is a dark and barren space.  There is no possibility for life and yet exactly here the Lord promises it.  Whether it’s Sarah’s barren womb, Mary’s virgin womb, or Christ’s virgin tomb – we’re confronted with the deepest human weakness and the greatest divine strength.  Faith here is a ‘hope against hope’, because faith is the opposite of sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  The circumstances look hopeless, yet faith is trusting the Lord’s word and not our capacities. And actually, when we despair of our earthly hopes, that’s when a true hope can arise.

If our hope was only as good as our own resources, we would be on shaky ground indeed.  Imagine a faith in human power to triumph over the dark and barren space of the tomb!  No, we trust God’s power to do the impossible.  That is far more solid ground.  We thank God that He makes our hope more certain than any earthly possibilities.  He wants our faith to rest on His power not ours.

It’s a hope against hope that is a truly hopeful hope.  At that point we rest our faith not in ourselves but in Christ, the God of Resurrection and the Lord of the Impossible.

No-one sums up this up better than John Calvin:

“Everything by which we are surrounded conflicts with the promise of God.  He promises us immortality, but we are encompassed with mortality and corruption.  He pronounces that we are righteous in His sight, but we are engulfed in sin.  He declares His favour and goodwill towards us, but we are threatened by the tokens of his wrath.  What can we do?  It is His will that we should shut our eyes to what we are and have, in order that nothing may impede or even check our faith in Him.”

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A law unto themselves

By on November 16th, 2011

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He’s his own man.  A ‘loose canon’, a ‘live wire’, ‘off the radar’.  Or in other words “a law unto himself.”  That’s the way we tend to use the phrase nowadays.

Question: What would God prefer us to be?  Would He rather we lived ‘under the law’ or would He rather we be ‘a law unto ourselves’?

The surprising answer is that God wants us all to stop being under the law and instead to be a law unto ourselves!  But we need to understand what the Bible means by these phrases.

Early in his letter to the Romans Paul declares the substance of his teaching:

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

Salvation comes from the Jews, so said Jesus said in John 4.  They were the chosen people through whom the Messiah would come.  But once He came, the nations (the Gentiles) would put their hope in Him.  First the Jews, then the Gentiles.  That’s the way the gospel works.

But it is the gospel of Christ that saves the world and nothing else.  That’s why Paul immediately goes on to rule out any other way of salvation.  From chapter 1:18 all the way until chapter 3:20 Paul demolishes our confidence in any human identity or ability or performance.  No nationality, no religion, no moral code, no deeds can avert the judgement that has rested upon our race since Adam.  And every attempt to lift ourselves above condemnation through the law of God is like Baron Munchhausen trying to lift himself out of the swamp by his hair.  It is futile and a denial of the seriousness of our predicament.

In Romans 2, Paul addresses the Jew who uses the law to feel superior to those without it.  But their claim to special treatment is void.  Having the law is one thing.  Doing what it says is entirely another:

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts.  (Romans 2:12-15)

So who are these Gentiles who are “a law unto themselves”?  Well verse 15 uses the language of Jeremiah 31 to describe them: they are those with the law written on their hearts.  In other words, these are the Gentiles who are cottoning onto salvation in Christ.  They are coming into that global salvation which the Jewish Scriptures prophesied.  The whole purpose of the law was to testify to Christ, and they were following the true intention of the law by trusting Him.  Even though they never had the law of Moses (the old covenant), they are now enjoying the new covenant reality.

And the difference between the covenants is this: in the old, God’s life stood above, judging you for how far short you fell.  In the new, the law is fulfilled and God’s life is put within you.  Law is not over you.  You are a law unto yourself.  You don’t have a godly limit imposed on you, you have a godly impulse driving you.

According to Paul, if someone is “a law unto themselves” they are not unpredictable or unruly.  Certainly they have escaped from being “under the law”.  But that has liberated them to be truly good.  Not good so as to tick some boxes.  Not good, so as to make some grade.  But good from the heart.

God doesn’t want anyone to be “under the law.”  He desires Jews and Gentiles – the whole world – to become a “law unto themselves.”  Christ didn’t come to create “live wires” and rebels, that’s not what the phrase means.  To be a law unto yourself is to be liberated by Jesus from the external code and freed into the life of love which the law describes but can never produce.  The gospel is the power of God to save us from petty legalisms and bring us into Christ’s life, ruled from within not constrained from without.  In short, the difference between ‘under the law’ and ‘law unto yourself’ is the difference between God on your back, and God on your side.

I know which I’d rather, and so does God!

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Saints

By on November 15th, 2011

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“You’re a saint!” they exclaim.  And it feels nice to be called that. Though obviously we bat away the compliment.  Because we know it’s  mock praise for a minor act of kindness.  We know they don’t really think of us as a saint.  You see in most people’s understanding saints are unapproachable, austere and long-dead individuals.  They’re not real people, not down-to-earth folk.

But the Apostle Paul thought of saints very differently.  When he wrote his letters to the churches he commonly called whole congregations “saints” (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians).

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Romans 1:7)

The italics you can see in this verse are original to the KJV.  They convey that the translators have added words which are not based on any underlying Greek words.  They have supplied the verb “to be” here, even though there is no such verb in Paul’s original statement.  More literally Paul says that the Romans are “called saints.”  That is their status.  That is a declaration that stands over them.  God calls them saints – not in the future but right now.

See how Paul puts it more straightforwardly in Ephesians:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus.  (Ephesians 1:1)

Here were ordinary Christians, some of them well-bred, but most of them not (1 Corinthians 1:26).  Some of them cultured, some of them not (Romans 1:14).  Some of them Jews, some of them Gentiles (Romans 1:16).  All of them were sinners (Romans 3:23).  Nonetheless, all of them, through faith in Jesus, are called “saints.”  And we, if we have trusted Christ, can call ourselves “saints.”  I’m well within my rights to introduce myself as “St Glen.”  My business card can read “Glen Scrivener: Saint.”   And so can yours if you’re a Christian.

But what does it mean?  Well the word literally means “holy ones.”  Saints are special ones, devoted ones, set apart ones. And yet, there’s nothing in our natural circumstance that would warrant the label.  There’s nothing in our genes, nothing in our grooming, nothing even in our behaviour that makes us saintly.  But, here is the central message of Saint Paul: unholy ones like you and me are declared to be holy, not because of our saintly deeds, but purely through the work of the Holy One, Jesus.  As Paul says in his letter to the Colossians:

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, 22 yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.  (Colossians 1:21-22)

Let me ask you a question: How does God see you?

We tend to think the answer to that lies on a sliding scale.  Sometimes we imagine that God views us as relatively good and sometimes as relatively bad.  We think of our status with God as something like a dimmer switch, always fluctuating according to our performance.

Yet Paul says differently.  He says our status with God is like an ordinary light switch.  It’s either on or off.  In verse 21 we see the off position.  Three descriptions: alienated, enemies and wicked.  Nothing saintly about us!

What changes?  Us?  Do we embark on a little holiness project to turn things around?  No.  Here’s what changes things.  Christ works a reconciliation between us and God.  He comes as peacemaker.  He takes our side, takes our flesh and puts our unholy humanity to death.  Rising up by the power of the Holy Spirit, He is presented to the Father in a glorified humanity.  When we, by that same Holy Spirit, are united to Jesus by faith, we too are presented to the Father in Christ.  And now, how does God see us?  Well Paul gives us another three descriptions, and how different they are: “holy, unblameable and unreproveable.”

Not just blameless but unblameable.  Not just without reproof, but unreproveable.  God does not see us according to our unholiness.  He sees us in Jesus and says to us – “you are holy.”

Sainthood is not conferred by the church but by God.  Sainthood is not earned by us, but worked on our behalf by Christ.  And sainthood is not the preserve of monks and nuns.  Sainthood is the status of the Christian – every Christian.

Forget dimmer-switch Christianity, if you belong to Jesus the light has been switched on.  The decisive change has happened.  You are not climbing a saintliness ladder.  You are not walking a holiness tightrope.  Whatever the world calls you, God calls you “holy, unblameable and unreproveable.”

You’re not just saintly.  You might not even be saintly.  But here’s God’s verdict, without a hint of irony or reserve, He says: “You’re a saint!”

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An enjoyable rant

By on November 14th, 2011

From Rev Dr Peter Mullen writing in the Telegraph:

…For centuries, people of all walks of life have carried around with them echoes of the King James Version. So to throw it out as the church hierarchy has done amounts to a savage act of deprivation and, as this deprivation is of the Word of God in English, it is vicious iconoclasm. Sidelining the King James Version especially deprives our children and is therefore a notable case of child abuse….

…How hypocritical and sordid of the church authorities relentlessly to suppress the KJV, only to take it out and gawp at it in an anniversary year, as if it were a museum piece and we were all blundering tourists. The proper place for the KJV is on the lectern in every parish church – to be read, marked, learnt and inwardly digested, week in, week out.

Read the whole thing

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It is more blessed to give than to receive

By on November 13th, 2011

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Jesus’ version of it is probably the most famous – but everyone says “it’s better to give than receive.”  All the religions say it.  Even the atheists say it.

Last week, UCLA life scientists released a study showing the health benefits of providing support to others.  There are many such studies around.  They generally find that altruistic behaviour is beneficial, not simply for the recipient but for the giver.

Why might that be?  Well evolutionary psychologists proffer explanations like “reciprocal altruism” – when we perform a good deed we might reasonably expect them to return the favour.  Simply our anticipation of their pay-back feels good.

Evolutionary psychology, for all of its fascinating findings, reminds me of that old adage: “If all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  Basic selfishness is a brilliant explanation for so much of human life.  But it doesn’t capture everything, and trying to make it capture everything leads to unconvincing explanations, like this one.

If “reciprocal altruism” explained our “blessedness” in giving, Jesus should have said “It is more blessed to receive than to give, but, hey, giving’s a great way of getting!”

Or how about this for an explanation.  One of the UCLA scientists said:

“Because of the importance of support-giving for the survival of our species, it is possible that over the course of our evolutionary history, support-giving may have become psychologically rewarding to ensure that this behavior persisted.”

If this were the case, Jesus should have said “It is more blessed to receive than to give, but remember to factor in the survival of the species over several millenia when you make your self-interested calculations.”

Once again, we’ve avoided the blessedness of true self-giving.  Self-giving is affirmed close-up, but denied when we zoom back to get the big picture.

Yet in Acts 20:35 Paul recounts a saying of Jesus that was not recorded by the four Evangelists but which was clearly remembered and circulated by the early church: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Such a sentiment is expressed in virtually every other world-view imaginable.   There’s only one difference with Christ’s saying… the Speaker.  You see “Evolutionary Psychology” may tell you it’s better to give, but Evolution itself is selfishness writ large. Other gods may urge you to be selfless – but they themselves are self-interested takers.  The difference with Christ’s saying is Christ.

He is ultimate reality and He Himself is self-giving love, the cross proves it.  The universe with Christ at the centre is the one universe in which grace reigns.  He is the one Lord who does not come to be served but to serve and to give His life for us (Mark 10:45).

There are many exemplars of self-giving, but they operate contrary to the selfish universe they claim to inhabit.  There are many that claim to be ultimate powers who tell you to give – but these powers are themselves self-interested.  Christ is the one Power who a) tells you to give, b) is Giver and c) determines ultimate reality.  Jesus tells you to give because He is grace poured out beyond all limits.  And because the Lord is grace, so self-giving is not a means towards ultimate selfishness.  Grace is the essence of the blessed life.  There’s nothing higher, or deeper, or more real.  This is Christ’s universe.  So give.

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In Him we live and move and have our being

By on November 13th, 2011

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How do we proclaim the gospel to a world that thinks so differently?

“Contextualisation” is a buzz word in some Christian circles to describe the way our message needs to be fitted to our surroundings.  Today’s phrase is often used as a prime example of how Paul drew on the truths already present in the culture to build up a credible gospel presentation.  You see “In Him we live and move and have our being” was originally a line from an ancient Greek poet.  Yet Paul uses the phrase to further his gospel proclamation.

So how do we relate the gospel word to an unbelieving world?

Well last time we learnt the truth that the Christian message “turns the world upside down“.  It is the subversion of all our natural thinking.  Therefore when this message meets the philosophers of Athens, we expect to see quite a clash.  Which is exactly how Acts 17 continues…

16 Now while Paul waited for [Silas and Timothy] at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

Other visitors to Athens may have marvelled at the temples and statues, Paul was incensed.  He did not see these other gods as stepping stones to Jesus but as idols, pure and simple.  In contrast, Paul proclaimed “strange gods.”  In fact the Athenians seem to have thought that Paul was preaching two gods: Jesus and Anastasia (the Greek for ‘resurrection’)!  Paul was not seeking common ground on the basis of ‘some notion of deity’, he dives straight in with the Lord Jesus and His resurrection.  And this, in spite of the unpopularity of “resurrection” to the Greek mind (v32!).  It all just seemed like so much “babble” to the cultured Athenians.

But why?  We know that Paul was a wonderful communicator, millions still read his letters.  We know that these philosophers were experienced at comprehending new ideas (v21), yet the gospel sounds to them like ‘gobble-di-gook’. Paul would explain it in 1 Corinthians:

The preaching of the cross is, to them that perish, foolishness.  (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Yet Paul persists (as should we all).  And when he has another opportunity, he sets out his message once again.

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Some see this opening as Paul’s establishment of common ground.  Yet if there’s anything which Paul concedes to the Athenians it is their ignorance.  The one thing they seem to know is that they don’t know God.  But Paul will simply declare Him:

24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

We don’t make houses for the gods, God makes a home for us.  We don’t serve Him, He serves us.  He doesn’t need us, we need Him.  It’s all so blatantly obvious, and yet the very foundations of human religion are founded on folly.  And it’s folly which Paul is keen to point out.

He continues by presenting the Gospel of the Two Men.  This is something he also does in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15.  He tells the story of the world as the story of Adam and Christ.  First he tells us of the original man, from whom all nations of men have come…

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

In verse 28 Paul quotes from Epimenides (the original source of today’s saying) and from Phaenomena.  It’s the equivalent of a preacher citing the latest pop song.  Of course he uses these Greek quotes to speak against Greek culture.  He’s saying “If you really believed what you sing about, how could you live how you live?”  Paul is not vindicating the latent wisdom of the Greeks, he is exposing their foolish inconsistencies.  Epimenides spoke far better than he knew and far better than the Greeks lived.  On the preacher’s lips the truth is commandeered and pressed into gospel service.  Yet on the poet’s lips it stands only to reveal their folly.  But such folly must end…

30 The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Here is the second man in Paul’s sermon.  The Man Jesus Christ answers the man Adam.  Jesus passed through the door marked ‘death’ – the door through which we all must pass – and He came out the other side.  When we pass through that door we are assured that He is the One to meet us.  He is the Judge.

Therefore we must repent.  We must completely change our thinking – that’s how Paul unpacks the meaning of “repentance.”  Our minds must be reconfigured by this gospel story.

The gospel does not confront us as one truth among many.  It sets a question mark over all ‘truths’.  It does not build on our nascent religious or philosophical intuitions, it supplants them.  In short, it shows us what should be so obvious and yet it strikes the fallen mind as revolutionary – God does not live in the intellectual worlds that we build for Him.  No – we live in His world.  For in Him we live and move and have our being.

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Turned the world upside down

By on November 12th, 2011

"Look at that! Brilliant! You kill the leader and you nip the whole movement in the bud." (Click for source)

On Good Friday, Christianity was “down and out.”  The Christ was dead and buried.  His followers were despondent and scattered.  And that should have been that.

Yet, within a very short period of time, Christ’s people were said to be ‘turning the world upside down.’  How did such an extraordinary revolution happen?  Not through the sword, not through political machinations, not even through grass-roots activism.  The world was turned upside-down in the first century (and continues to be turned upside-down today) through the preaching of a message.

Just look at the context for this phrase…  In Acts 17 Paul and his associates go to the Greek city of Thessalonica.

“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them [at the synagogue], and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.”  (Acts 17:2-3)

Here’s what was so volatile –  the preaching of a ‘reasoned’, ‘scriptural’ message.   The message concerns a King – the Christ.  But this King is unlike all our expectations for kings.  He suffers and dies before rising again.  Yet it’s this upside-down message that unleashes an upside-down revolution.

You see some Thessalonians believed Paul’s message.  The Jews that didn’t, ‘moved with envy’, stirred up trouble for the apostles.  And this was their report to the powers that be:

These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.  (Acts 17:7)

Perhaps we think it’s counter-intuitive that a message “turns the world upside down.”  But let’s consider the impact of this message over the last 20 centuries in the areas of politics, science and economics.  The gospel of the suffering and rising Christ has made all the difference…

When people believe that the Lord of all became a servant (or, as Mark 10:45 calls Him, “a minister”) then our understanding of earthly power is transformed.  The most powerful needs to be the prime minister – the chief servant.

When people believe that the Ruler of heaven reigns as Man and even because He is now Man, then we start to believe that government should be “of the people, for the people and by the people.”

When people believe that the Logic of all creation took flesh (John 1:14) and was seen, handled, tested and known (1 John 1:1-4), then we start to study the world in a new way.  The Word who became flesh leads us to expect both Laws and empirical testing to discover those laws.  If we only believe in “laws” we will create philosophers.  If we only believe in “empirical testing” we will create technology.  But for the modern scientific method you need both.  Without the Biblical worldview it is inconceivable that science as we know it could have arisen.

When people believe that God’s riches – His grace – should not be paid back to God (as though He needs anything) but freely paid forwards to our fellow man, then we begin having a different view of earthly riches.  Freed by God’s grace we stop hoarding or displaying our wealth and start paying it forwards, re-investing it.  And we begin to realize the truth of Christ’s words “freely you have received, freely give.”

These are just some of the macro-effects of the gospel message on our culture.  None of them are, strictly, part of the message.  They are simply outworkings of the gospel in a culture where this message is taken seriously.  In addition to these fringe benefits, people are brought to an intimate knowledge of the living God, set free from the powers that enslave them, cleansed from guilt and shame, and given the status, power and indeed life of Christ.  What’s more, in Christ they are bonded together into a community of grace – witnesses in the world to God’s reconciling love.  They are salt and light and the world cannot help but be changed.

What changes the world?  Not our doings, but the proclamation of His doing.  That’s the power to turn the world upside down.

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Damascus Road Experience

By on November 11th, 2011

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It’s shorthand for any dramatic conversion.  People have often said to me that they’re Christians but they’re still waiting for their “Damascus Road Experience.”

But they will have to wait for Christ’s return for anything like what Paul experienced.  You see the Damascus Road was not just the conversion of a man, it was the creation of an Apostle.  And Apostles needed to have met the risen Christ – both the 11 and Paul himself acknowledge that (Acts 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11).  Therefore something extraordinary was needed to turn Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle.  The risen Christ had to personally appear.  But He didn’t have to appear to a man like Saul!  This conversion would model the sheer grace of the Lord.

For a start, Saul was a Pharisee.  He describes his past like this:

Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;  (Philippians 3:5)

When Jesus chose the original twelve he chose a tax-collector, Matthew. He also chose a Zealot, Simon.  These two were hated and feared members of the establishment and anti-establishment respectively.  Nonetheless, there was place in Christ’s kingdom for all manner of publicans and sinners.  Yet all the while the Pharisees remained firmly on the outside, muttering (Luke 15:1-2).

Now Christ steps in with compelling force and claims a Pharisee for His own.  And not just any Pharisee – the chief persecutor of the early church.  Saul oversaw the killing of Stephen in Acts 7 and was known to believers everywhere as “he that destroyed” Christians. (Acts 9:21)

So how was Saul prepared for this religious experience?  Was he particularly soft-hearted and receptive to the grace of Jesus that day?  No.  The grace of Jesus is not attracted to soft-heartedness, the grace of Jesus creates soft-heartedness where before there was stony opposition.  Here is the context of Saul’s conversion:

1And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 3And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Saul is not ready for Jesus.  Saul is breathing out slaughter against Christ and His people.  And notice how personally Jesus takes it.  According to Jesus, Saul has been persecuting Himself.  The risen Christ is not above and beyond the struggles of this world.  He feels His people’s suffering keenly.  He is the Head and His body is hurting – therefore Christ Himself is hurting.

Persecuted Christians need to know that.  Christ feels this pain and knows how to confront the perpetrators, in His own time and in His own way.  But be prepared for Christ to approach the wrong-doers with mercy.  This is how He comes to Saul.  He even pities his enemy:  “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”   “Pricks” are the sharp goads at the end of a shepherd’s crook.  Sheep going astray harm themselves on the sharpened points and then harm themselves further by kicking against them.  That has been Saul’s life.  Brought up in the Scriptures, confronted by Christ on every page yet twisting and turning from Him at every opportunity.  Conversion for Saul means the end of that kind of suffering.  But it will mean a very different kind of suffering from now on.

You see he is blinded by his vision and healed by a Christian called Ananias.  Ananias is told by the Lord:

[Paul] is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.  (Acts 9:15-16)

Saul is converted from one kind of suffering – a swimming against the stream of his existence – to another kind of suffering – a swimming against the stream of the world.  We can go with the world’s flow and run up against the Lord, or we can walk with the Lord and go against the world’s flow.  Paul is summoned to live for Christ’s name’s sake.

And here is the effect.  Jesus says to him:

But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:15-18)

This is exactly what happens.  Paul goes on to live one of the most influential lives the world has ever seen.  He writes half of the New Testament and plants churches all around the eastern half of the Mediterranean.  Thus the church’s greatest enemy is converted to its greatest asset.  That’s what the grace of God does – turns calamity into even greater blessing.  And it does so not because of any goodness in us, but despite our deepest evil.  You see the witness of Paul to the grace of Jesus is not diminished by his terrible past, but magnified by it.  This murderous blasphemer is able to say:

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)

The conversion of Paul is not meant to make us despair – as though we could never experience such a change.  The conversion of Paul gives us hope.  The grace of Jesus extends even to His greatest enemies.  It most definitely extends to me.