A Roadmap for a Pilgrim - Part I

One metaphor - among many possible ones - that may be used to describe my faith journey is that of a pilgrimage.  One day I will die, and I will have done something with the days between my birth and death.  What path will I have walked?  No one can walk it for me.  Will I have gone somewhere that mattered, seen and done things that mattered?  What guidance is there for this journey?  I hope that describing my journey will help you on yours.

On my journey I have discovered some things, become convinced of some things, and they guide my steps.  I am convinced that God is real.  I am convinced that he created the world and us in it.  Therefore, we are not an accident and there is real purpose and meaning beyond what we would just make up for ourselves.  In other words, there is a real destination in this journey, and I am not left to walking aimlessly.  While I stop and enjoy the sights and sounds and smells of real life, I can do that just as well and meaningfully while I am actually on my way somewhere.

The ultimate destination is heaven and it also is not heaven.  The ultimate destination in life is God himself, which is the real reason for wanting to get to heaven.  He is both our companion on our journey, the one who sets and guides our steps, and he is the destination.  The question is often asked, which is more important - the journey or the destination?  I think, in life, this is a false dichotomy because at the heart of all reality is knowing, loving, and therefore glorifying God, and the journey and destination are both shaped by this.  God is both the means and the end of all things.  We get to know him progressively, and in his wisdom he has chosen for us to know him now in part, to learn to trust him on this journey, and eventually to dwell with him and enjoy him in far greater measure in his New Creation forever.

Who is God?  Such a big question.  In humility we realize that even if we are able to say true things about him, our minds are so finite and may only scratch the surface of this question.  Though we may be able to say some true things - and that is better than saying nothing at all - we yet realize that this is a question we may never exhaust, even if we have forever to try.

Who is God?  I give the Christian answer of which I have become convinced.  It is also with humility that we recognize that we are not the first people to ask and answer these questions with wisdom, and so I turn to the Westminster Shorter Catechism for help with the answer.  "Question 4:  What is God?  Answer:   God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."  All that is good flows from God and is an expression of an attribute that he already holds in perfect fullness.  God alone holds them all in perfect balance so that in his justice he is loving, in his eternality he is fully present, in his grace he is truthful.   

Technically I have just answered the question, "What is God?" and the prior question, "Who is God?" presupposes some things and leads us into deep Christian mystery.  God, as he reveals himself in his Word, is a person, a "who" and not an "it".  We are told that humans were created in his image, which means that in some important ways we are like him, even if he is on a whole other level.  God has thoughts, feelings, and a will.  He is a rational, moral, intelligent being.  He makes plans and he enters into relationship with other persons.  God, though deeply mysterious, is much more like another person than he is like some invisible cosmic soup or like the Force from Star Wars.  (In some ways we might prefer a cosmic soup because that makes God impersonal and robotic, and we wouldn't worry much about offending a robot, but I for sure worry about doing things to offend my wife - another person that I am in relationship with and to whom I am accountable.)

But the mystery only begins there.  God also reveals himself as three-in-one.  We use the word Trinity to describe this mystery.  The Trinity is a doctrine that seeks to sum up these revealed realities, upholding each without denying any of them:  1.  There is one God.  There is no one like God.  2.  The Father is God.  3.  The Son is God.  This is Jesus.  4.  The Holy Spirit is God.  5.  The Father is not the Son.  6.  The Father is not the Spirit.  7.  The Son is not the Spirit.  This is enough to explode our heads. 

The Nicene Creed is an orthodox consensus historically, and from the earliest expressions of Christianity we see a grappling with this mystery. 

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

There is more to deal with in the creed than I have gotten to yet, but before we move on, what practical effect does it have on our belief that God is a Trinity instead of just one person alone?   Before anything else existed, God existed.  There was nothing outside of himself to which he had to conform because everything that is not God was brought into existence by God.  All notions of justice, love, mercy, gravity, beauty come from God himself.  So before he created the world, was God bored and lonely?  No!  God, from eternity past, has been in relationship with himself.  The love that we feel for each other is a shadow and an echo of the great, unsearchable, infinite, boundless love that the persons of the Trinity have had for each other from before time began.  The doctrine of the Trinity means that love is at the heart of reality.  Love has always existed.  The story of our world is a story of created people being drawn into an eternal love story.  God was not lonely.  God was not needy.  God does not depend on us.  But he loves us.  The doctrine of the Trinity has massive implications for the purpose of our world and our own individual lives. 

So God chose to create man.  But man, when given the choice, chose rebellion.  We did not want God to run our lives.  We wanted to run our lives.  We did not want to be told what to do, what to think, how to live.  The tragic irony is that God loves us, is wise, and always gives us what is best for us.  But we rebel anyway, thinking we know better. 

The Bible describes sin as a falling short of the glory of God.  God is glorious.  He is worthy.  He is holy, holy, holy.  He is absolute, in control, Creator.  All things were made by him and for him.  Things work right when they are giving him the glory.  Sin is a declaring, knowingly or unknowingly, that God is not all-glorious, that he is not really good or satisfying or ultimate. 

Sin also is not just a bad mark or a tally in the wrong category.  Sin is a hurt against another person because God is a person.  It is possible for us to grieve the Spirit.  What are the consequences of sin?  The first and worst is that our fellowship with God is broken.  Sin is bad because everything is about knowing and loving God, and sin takes us away from that.  The second is that sin requires a punishment.  We have broken the moral law.  The third is the subjection of creation to futility.  Everything now groans as if broken.  Death has entered the world, and things decay.  People get cancer.  Earthquakes happen.  Our world needs to be fixed. 

What sin does is put us in the position of needing a Savior.  The Old Testament is the story of God providing hope for a Savior, prophesying his coming, calling and leading a wayward people through whom the Savior would come.  The New Testament is the completion of the story in which Jesus comes.  Jesus is God incarnate, the eternal Son become man - fully God and fully man.  Jesus has a brilliant but short career as a teacher, preacher, prophet, and healer because ultimately all those roles were subordinate to his ultimate purpose.  Jesus came to die for the forgiveness of sins.  Again from the Nicene Creed: 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe that in Jesus forgiveness of sins is possible.  More than that, I believe that the good news is not simply that I am forgiven but that I am restored to relationship with God, that I am adopted in the family of God, that my destination is restored, that I have purpose, that God walks with me on this journey, that he is restoring this broken world, that I get to be a part of that, that eventually we will have a new creation that no longer buckles under the burdens of death and decay.  Anyone may believe in Jesus and receive this.  No matter how horrible your sins, you may be forgiven.  We must simply repent and believe.  This is grace.  It is free.  Jesus, on the cross, became and took your sin, swallowing the cup of wrath that you and I deserved so that we wouldn't have to.  He allowed his fellowship with the Father to be broken so that we might enter into it.  Our debt has been paid and erased.  That is the Good News. 

I have attempted to sketch out a brief roadmap of historic Christianity, perhaps emphasizing some things that have seemed especially important to me lately.  I could have turned - and maybe should have turned - each of those paragraphs, or even each of those sentences, into its own blog entry.  There is so much here to explore, so many stones unturned.  The length of this forces me into multiple entries.  Oh well. 

I write with pilgrims in mind - questioning and probing pilgrims.  My next entry will deal with why I believe and what my story basically is.  So it will be more autobiographical.  Finally, I plan a third entry detailing different resources and ideas that I think would be helpful for someone wanting to learn more about Christianity.

Thank you for your time and consideration!  May God bless you.

The Meaning of Marriage - Chapter 1 Notes

Nicole and I have started up a discipleship group for the late summer and early fall with our friends from Tech, Chris and Sam Cassidy.  (And my brother and his fiance will hopefully be joining us.)   We wanted to do something on marriage.  I have never done such a d-group.  Therefore, we talked over some prospective books, and we landed on "The Meaning of Marriage" by Tim Keller.  If you have followed my blog, you will know that Keller is one of the number that I trust because I believe he has a heart to be Gospel-centered, and he is quick to point people to Jesus in ways that help us fall more deeply in love with him on the spot.  He also, as a disciple of CS Lewis, is a keen observer of the human heart and situation.  I look forward to hearing his wisdom on marriage, and I pray we will be able to digest it well and apply it, and your prayers would be appreciated toward this end.  


I have used this blog for different purposes at different times.  I started out wanting to write down things that Nicole and close friends and family might read.  Then, I enjoyed writing, so I have used at as an outlet simply to glorify God through learning the craft of writing.   And having my readers in mind, I also have tried to point people to books and videos that I think are good.  My purpose over the coming months is to digest this book publicly and give a sort of Spark Notes of the chapters.  Specifically, I think this will be helpful to members of my d-group as a quick review of past material, but as always, I want to make it public to you in case God might be pleased to use it in your life, too.  So let us begin....


Chapter 1 - The Secret of Marriage

"Marriage is glorious but hard."  Talks on marriage tend to be sentimental, but the reality shows it to be at times very confusing and difficult.  No real marriage is simply a fairy tell come true.  But marriage is important to God, since he created it.  Knowing another in marriage is like knowing God - it is difficult but rewarding.  It is worth it.

Statistics show "an increasing wariness and pessimism about marriage in our culture", especially in young adults.  Chris Rock captures this generation's perceived predicament: "Do you want to be single and lonely or married and bored?"  This predicament lead many to the poor solution of cohabitation with a sexual partner.  Why?  Society assumes that 1) most marriages are unhappy, and 2) living together improves the chance of making a good marriage choice.  We must find someone we have chemistry with.  Keller wants to challenge these assumptions and point to a better and Biblical view of marriage.

Research runs counter to some commonly held assumptions.  Cohabitation prior to marriage actually increases the likelihood of divorce - it does not seem to be the solution.  Though the divorce rate is high for our society, it is quite low for well-educated, religious people coming from intact families who marry after 25 without first having a baby.  Marriage also helps people financially in the long run.  It provides stability through life's obstacles and accountability to be wiser and less selfish with money and other things.  Marriage matures character.  The research agrees with the Bible that marriage is good, even very good.

In spite of this evidence, young adults believe most married people are unhappy.  Filmmaker Dana Alan Shapiro created a film about couples who had broken up and understandably reached a grim view of relationships: "it is extraordinarily hard though not completely impossible for two modern persons to love each other without stifling one another's individuality and freedom." This pessimistic feeling is pervasive. 

Nevertheless "... surveys tell us that the number of married people who say they are 'very happy' in their marriages is high - about 61-62 percent - and there has been little decrease in this figure during the last decade... two thirds of those unhappy marriages out there will become happy within five years if people stay married and do not get divorced."  In our society the benefits of divorce have been oversold and the benefits of marriage undervalued.

To sum up everything so far: modern society has a low view of marriage and its ability to bring happiness, though evidence shows it to be good, even if it is hard. 
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Where does our pessimism about marriage, in spite of the evidence, come from?  Keller answers... "from a new kind of unrealistic idealism about marriage, born of significant shift in our culture's understanding of the purpose of marriage."  The first two views about marriage's purpose were the Catholic and Protestant views.  "Though different in many particulars, they both taught that the purpose of marriage was to create a framework for lifelong devotion and love between a husband and wife.  It was a solemn bond, designed to help each party subordinate individual impulses and interests in favor of the relationship, to be a sacrament of God's love (the Catholic emphasis) and serve the common good (the Protestant emphasis)."  Marriage creates character, creates social stability, and creates the best environment for raising children.  How, then, does modern society's view of marriage differ from these original emphases?

The Enlightenment brought a shift from finding meaning in duty to finding meaning in personal fulfillment through freedom.  It was a shift from self-denial for the sake of loving another to the maximization of emotional and sexual fulfillment.  "In this view, married persons married for themselves, not to fulfill responsibilities to God or society."  Again, "the Enlightenment privatized marriage, taking it out of the public sphere, and redefined its purpose as individual gratification, not any 'broader good' such as reflecting God's nature, producing character, or raising children."  What was a public institution for the common good became a private arrangement for individual satisfaction.  "Marriage used to be about us, but now it is about me."

With this more self-actualized view of marriage's purpose, the search for the perfect "soul-mate" has arisen.  Men have generally been seen as commitment-phobic, and a 2002 studied confirmed this and listed reasons for why men delay marriage.  The most important reason according to the study is that men are waiting to find the perfect soul mate, someone who is "compatible".  There are different definitions of compatible.  For instance, Keller would say that he and his wife share many common threads and passions and feel like "kindred spirits" - they are friends.  But this is not exactly all that compatible means today. 

Physical attractiveness and sexual chemistry are very important.  First, we want a spouse who is hot and will meet our sexual needs and wants.  But surprisingly, compatibility was even more important than this for guys, and it is basically defined as a "willingness to take them as they are and not change them."  Guys want someone who will easily fit into their life.  We do not want to be asked to change for someone.

In contrast to this definition of compatibility, traditionally marriage has helped to "civilize" men.  It is the place where boys become men.  This entails change.  (I can attest to this.)  Today, men would rather cohabit to have access to sex and retain the freedom to look for a better partner; there is generally less pressure to change.  While the idea is popular that the most "masculine" men do not do well when hemmed in by marriage, traditionally marriage has been the place where men become truly masculine, where it is defined more along the lines of self-mastery.  "Sexual restraint rather than sexual prowess was once the measure of a man." 

It is not only men who have moved from their traditional view of marriage.  Keller sums up the situation like so: "Both men and women today want a marriage in which they can recieve emotional and sexual satisfaction from someone who will simply let them 'be themselves'.  They want a spouse who is fun, intellectually stimulating, sexually attractive, with many common interests, and who, on top of it all, is supportive of their personal goals and of the way they are living now."  Yup. We want someone who is low maintenance, pulled together, and will supplement us quite nicely.  We are idealistic.

Let's sum up where we are:  Though marriage was traditionally about loving another, honoring God, and benefiting society, it has become an idealistic search for a basically perfect someone who will help us to find our own self-fulfillment with the least call to change.

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Keller points out the irony of how this idealism about finding our perfect soul mate has contributed significantly to the pervasive pessimism we see.  Unrealistic expectations frustrate the searchers and the searched for.  How can we hope to find such a person?  and, How can I ever become such a person?  Pornography and popular media contribute to the problem.  Many guys delay marriage because they are looking for the combination "soul mate/ babe".

"Older views of marriage are considered to be traditional and oppressive, while the newer view of the "Me-Marriage" seems so liberating.  And yet it is the newer view that has led to a steep decline in marriage and to an oppressive sense of hopelessness with regard to it."

Some people have become so adept at spotting flaws in their potential spouses that they continually delay marriage.  John Tierney concludes that these people may have turned up their "flaw-o-matic"s in order to stay alone and therefore safe.  We want too much out of a marriage partner, including someone who will demand basically nothing of us.  Many are afraid of love; it means the loss of individual freedom, autonomy, and fulfillment my own way.  But to love is better than to not love.  In the end we are pessimistic about love because we are too idealistic (because we are basically selfish).

....  Okay, so I have shared several thoughts now into what has become a long post.  I am skipping some stuff before the end of the chapter, but I wanted to end here.  Suffice it to say, Ephesians 5 and the creation accounts give a strong Biblical view of marriage in contrast to what it has been made into by our society, and the rest of the book will spend time drawing out the implications of the Gospel for marriage.  Marriage is an analogy of Christ and the Church, so the more we understand the Gospel we will understand marriage.  The better we understand marriage, the better we will understand the Gospel.

Soli Deo gloria!

Journey Through Proverbs - #1

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

To know wisdom and instruction,
  to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
  in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
  knowledge and discretion to the youth -
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
  and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
  the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
  fools despise wisdom and instruction.

I have chosen as one of my projects for the summer to sink myself deeply into the book of Proverbs.  I do not think I am wise, but I want to be.  My heart has a vision of a life steered rightly by God's insight into the way things really work.  The earlier I get a book like Proverbs into my bones, the better for the outcome of my life.  My life will be more eternally useful for having so invested it.

Additionally, I want to benefit readers of this blog.  I know that I am given to writing lengthy posts, so one of my goals is to cut down the length and increase the frequency.  I plan on taking chunks of 4-8 verses at a time and giving thoughts.  This should take me through the summer and maybe into the Fall.  Please join me in pursuing wisdom.

Above in bold I have written Proverbs 1:1-7.  These seven verses serve as an introduction to the book.  They give clues as to the genre and how the book should be read.  Solomon is the primary author; Solomon preferred wisdom to riches, and God abundantly rewarded him with both.  Therefore, in addition to the fact that this is the Word of God, we know we are listening to the voice of a man that God had made truly wise as well.

What are the purposes of this book?  What does it mean to accomplish?  The hearer is meant to grow in wisdom, which may be defined as skill in the art of godly living.  This wisdom goes hand-in-hand with and grows from increasing knowledge, which might be defined as seeing God's world increasingly from God's perspective.  This wisdom and knowledge is meant to be intensely practical (instruction in wise dealing), but also intellectual (increase in learning, understand proverbs, sayings, riddles).  The results in a person's life should be the formation of a lived-out character and virtue (righteousness, justice, equity, prudence); therefore, growth in these things will be good for the individual, but those around the individual will also be blessed through him as he grows in wisdom.

Who should hear and read these words of Solomon?  A variety of types of people are explicitly named here, but we might also reach beyond those explicitly named to conclude its universal usefulness for everyone if they come willing to really listen.  First, we have the simple; these are people who are not particularly wise or intelligent, but they are not yet identified with the wicked or foolish.  These are people who simply need guidance.  Second, we have the youth.  We may view the book of Proverbs as the sayings of an older man to a younger man.  I see myself here, still young, hoping to set my course along a sure path of God's wisdom.  Third, we see the wise and understanding.  Those who have wisdom are in the good position of realizing there is still more to learn.  Indeed, as we will see over and over again, teachability is one of the primary virtues given by this book, even for those who already have some measure of wisdom.

The first verse having given the author and title, the next five verses giving the purpose and audience, we turn now to verse 7, which may be taken as the theme and overriding principle of the entire book. 
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Knowledge apart from fear of the LORD is but a shell and a shadow of the real thing.  This sets the tone and the attitude for reading Scripture and seeking wisdom in the book of Proverbs.  We do not seek a knowledge of good and evil and wisdom apart from God, but we see everything in light of the God who is big enough and holy enough to warrant our fear.  Knowledge does not rest independently in us.  We are not our final authority.  Fear of the LORD frees us to seek truth in humility, and it is fear of the LORD that guarantees the application and not mere assimilation of knowledge; for the proper end of wisdom and knowledge is godly application, or else it is useless and a means of pride and intellectual self-justification.  There is no such thing as neutral knowledge.

We also see the fool introduced here as the one who despises wisdom, and he is set up against the one who fears the LORD.  It is the fool who has no fear before God.  My prayer for myself and for you is that we would be brought back by God's Spirit to a holy and proper fear of him for the sake of his glory and for our good in the seeking and application of wisdom.

Piper on Bible Memorization

Luke 24:44-53

 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.
(Luke 24:44-53 ESV)

Let me run through this with some of my thoughts.  Pardon my rambling; I pray you are blessed.

“Every word of God proves true” (Proverbs 30:4).  Everything promised either has been fulfilled, or God is bringing it to fulfillment according to his wise and sovereign plan.  God is trustworthy in what he speaks, and he is powerful enough to accomplish his promises.  The word “must” in verse 44 carries weight and speaks of God’s covenant-keeping character.

The Old Testament scriptures – like the New - are ultimately about Jesus.  He is the interpretive key.  These scriptures were written hundreds of years earlier, but Jesus is bold enough to claim that the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms speak primarily of him.  Look back to the previous parts of this chapter or back the Sermon on the Mount.  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)  It is also instructive that in John’s Gospel our Lord is referred to as the incarnate Word – not that he is the Bible, but that his very presence is the ultimate revelation of God to man, and in him all truth and all reality and all that has been previously promised is summed up.  “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17) 

This truth helps to ground me by helping me to realize that ultimately the Bible is not about me, but about Jesus with me as a background player in his bigger Drama.  Knowing that the Bible does not revolve around me gives me a breath of fresh air in my interpretive method; I do not read the Bible as a glorified self-help book.  No!  The meaning of the text is determined by the Author, not by me.  I agree with postmodernists that all truth is interpreted, and we must account for the influence of the reader in that interpretation.  Nevertheless, we affirm that if God is real, his interpretation is the correct one and is the one we are really after if possible.  We trust that if God did not even spare his own Son, he will not leave us in the dark as to the truth if we seek it with humility.  God does not mean to be misunderstood by those who would seek him in true faith.

The disciples’ minds were opened by Jesus to understand the Scriptures.  Therefore, previously they did not understand the Scriptures.  Certainly this does not mean that they had no knowledge or familiarity with them, but they lacked understanding.  The conclusion here is that there are wrong interpretations of Scripture.  In the case of the Pharisees, there can be careful and detailed interpretations of Scripture, which include a strict obedience, that are still damning in the end; their adherence to the Scriptures did not open their eyes to the One the Scriptures pointed to, and indeed, they ended up conspiring to kill him!

 Today, we do not need to content ourselves with mere familiarity with the Scriptures or with vacuous talk of them, but we desire the sort of understanding that the disciples were given.  We want truth and meaning, not merely misinterpreted fact.  We must interpret the whole Bible, not merely the New Testament, in terms of Jesus.  And we must interpret our whole lives, not merely the Bible, in terms of Jesus as well.  There is not a square inch of existence that does not ultimately belong to him.

“…he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”  They did not open their own minds.  They needed the help of another.  Jesus was pleased to perform this opening of their minds.  Humility requires that we see ourselves in a similar position of inability apart from Christ.  If we are to see anything aright, we need to see it through eyes opened by him and for him.    

 Jesus summarized the Gospel concerning himself to his disciples in verses 46 through 49.  What is this Gospel?  Christ, the Messiah, suffered and died.  He rose from the dead.  Again, this is not a program for self-improvement or enlightenment; it is a declaration of news, very good news!  It is a declaration of something that has been done for us that we could not do, but that we desperately needed done.  If this dying and rising is relegated to a corner, or if it is taken as a mere symbol and not an objective historical reality, it is no longer news.  It becomes a sort of symbolic juice to rev up our emotions to improve ourselves or the world or something else.  This, I believe, is one of the distinguishing factors of Christianity - that it is rooted in a history of God’s acts consistent with his character, and it is not first a sort of philosophy of life, though it has much to say about how we should live. 

Jesus gives his Gospel a missionary emphasis.  Repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be proclaimed everywhere.  That means that everyone needs this message.  Salvation is found in the name of Christ alone.  As Christians, we are God’s primary means of that vital proclamation, and we should take that responsibility as seriously as Christ did, which involved his own dying.  Indeed, verse 48 says that the disciples are witnesses of these things.  This is a new and fundamental part of their identity.  And it is a fundamental part of ours, too.  If what we carry to the world is news, rooted in historical events that have radical implications for our present and future condition, our posture must be that of joyful herald.  News is meant to be heralded!  That is what preaching is.  That is what evangelism is.  Repentance is not a popular message, but it is the one we must carry.  While salvation in Christ’s name is counter to the pluralistic spirit of our age, let us yet declare with Paul that we are unashamed of the Gospel which is the power to save. (Romans 1:16)

Jesus sends the promise of the Father and power from on high, which we realize is the Holy Spirit.  Christ goes away so that another may come.  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)  The disciples are instructed to stay in the city to wait.  It is our inclination to plan and act in our own power and self-sufficiency.  But the glory belongs to God, and the work belongs to his Spirit working in us and through us.  We are in a hurry, but God in his sovereignty is not.  Sometimes God places his people in the desert for forty years.  It is clear that God’s mission is dependent on his Spirit’s power to accomplish it and not our ingenuity or urgency.

Just as Jesus died and rose, he also ascended after blessing his disciples.  What should our response to these things be?  I think we should join with the disciples in worship.  The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are not mainly doctrines to be picked apart and analyzed.  First, they are bare historical facts about the actions of a God who loves us and acts on our behalf, and the upshot of all of this is worship.  We should be inspired to worship our glorious God.  And the aroma of that worship should be infused with great joy (verse 52).  We should be the most serious and most joyful people in the world.  Others may see that as an oxymoron, but we know that it is not!  It is one of the most beautiful truths in the world.  Jesus walked the path to the cross for the joy that was set before him, and we walk this life with all its difficulties for the joy set before us.  Our joy is God himself, and he is greater than any sorrow.  With the ascension, we know that he is alive and waiting for us, and more than any other thing that we wait for, we await his presence as our true reward.

To God alone be all the glory!

Bible Memorization

What are the things that we will not regret when we come to the end of our lives?  I don't think I will regret...

... quality time spent with friends,
time spent with family,
service to the poor and hurting,
sharing the Gospel,
praying,
laughing a lot,
dying to sin,
taking time to watch the sunset,
writing poetry for my wife,
standing up for the underdog,
holding my tongue in the midst of controversy,
giving compliments,
giving love,
receiving love with grace and thanks,
thinking before acting,
visiting my grandparents,
pursuing excellence in my work,
submitting to godly authority,
serving in a local church...

I want my life to be full of these things.  A life well lived will include them.  But we only have so much time in the day.  Therefore, I want to get rid of the things that I will regret to make room for the things I won't.  What are some of the things I will regret?

... spending too much money on myself,
spending too little money in service to the poor,
orienting my life around entertainment,
watching too much meaningless television,
reading books more often than I make friends,
getting angry over not getting my way,
sulking over perceived slights,
gossiping,
lusting,
speaking out of bitterness,
ignoring God,
living on facebook,
giving up on all my dreams,
arguing for the sake of being right,
reading merely for the sake of knowing more,
not really being present for people and just acting like I'm listening,
working all the time,
being lazy...

These lists could go on.  I write them to challenge you to live intentionally.  What would be on your lists?  I think there are some things that should universally be on these lists no matter who you are, and I also believe that God grants some freedom here because we are all unique.  But no matter what, it is better to live intentionally than to let life pass you by.  Don't waste your life.  Patiently, persistently, passionately give your life to the things that matter most. 

I write this as a preface to a challenge.  Memorize scripture!!!  I commend this to you as a simple but powerful spiritual discipline that will most certainly yield fruit in your life down the road.  I have never once regretted having memorized a verse that I have memorized.  If we take God seriously, we will take his Word seriously.  If we take God seriously, we will take our sin seriously, and Scripture used by the Spirit in our lives is the primary means by which we put to death our sin.  We don't want or need a surfacy-shallow knowledge of Scripture.  We want a weighty, true, helpful, deep knowledge of Scripture to build on for when the storms inevitably come.  This deep knowledge comes over time as we intake it in different ways - reading each day, reading with others, hearing the Word preached, singing the Word through hymns, praying the Word, reading books by wise people on the Word.  Memorization, too, is one of the best ways to work it into your heart, and I commend it to you.  Figure out what works for you, and get someone to help you.  But, for the sake of God's glory through your life, do not settle for a shallow knowledge of Scripture.  Hide the whole counsel in your heart. 

... call insight your intimate friend... (Proverbs 7:4)

Is the Bible Reliable?

I recently found a link to this website and have been perusing the material.  I definitely recommend it.  Many of today's skeptics about the reliability of the Bible will rest on the authority of skeptics with degrees like Bart Ehrman.  He casts doubts on whether we can get back to what the original writers of the Bible actually said since we do not have the original manuscripts.  Are we able to reliably reconstruct what they said?  Before you can really get into the website, there is a lengthy two hour debate between Ehrman and Dan Wallace, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.  It is interesting, but I actually really like the website once you get into it. 

Spanning the course of Dr. Ehrman's more popular written works, the website asks pertinent questions and then gives short 3-7 minute videos of other more conservative Biblical scholars and theologians to give answers to Ehrman's doubts.  I find this to be just highly interesting first of all, but it is also strengthening to my faith.  I think I sometimes feel doubts just because of how far removed we are from the first century, and they are doubts that I don't always take the time to address head-on.  And I think that this is good seed for future conversations that you may get into with people who doubt the Bible.  We should be able to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and insofar as that hope rests on the Bible, we should be able to give good reasons for why we trust the Bible. 

I hope that this resource may be used profitably by you.  Let us thank God for speaking to us through his Word; we can trust his Word because He is trustworthy.  Soli Deo gloria!

http://ehrmanproject.com/

Carson/Zaspel on Sanctification

This is a video of a discussion on sanctification by Carson and Zaspel.  Hopefully you enjoy and are edified in this break from my multi-part blog on humility.

An Inquiry into the Nature of Humility - Part III

Having given a thorough and Biblical apologetic for the goodness and necessity of humility in the previous two posts about the nature of humility, I return to the original question of whether humility means thinking less of myself or of myself less.


For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)



I think the original question can be separated into two different ideas, both of which can be examined. The first is this: How should I think about myself? The second is this: How often should I think about myself?

Concerning the first question, Romans 12:3 makes it clear that we should not think of ourselves too highly. It is best to err on the side of caution. I ought never to brag to others, but I also ought not to brag on myself to myself. We should examine ourselves with sober judgment. I think this means taking a clear look at ourselves in light of Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to search us, and opening ourselves up to the input of other believers. Sober judgment probably grows with maturity. Only faith can really take an honest look inside because only faith is willing to see indwelling sin in light of God's reality. All other inward looks are inevitably deluded or misguided.



What are some errors that we might fall into as we think with sober judgment about ourselves? The first error would be to underestimate our sin, its power, its pervasiveness, its deadliness. We might underestimate our condition apart from God. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) We must admit that we are sinners. What does that mean? How deep is the problem? Let us look at what Scripture says with sober judgment and be willing to turn the Sword of Scripture on ourselves:



None is righteous, no, not one; no one understand; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:11-18) That is a bleak picture, and it is clear that no one is righteous. We are depraved, and we need a Savior.



For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18) Our hearts have evil desires, and our minds are happy to accomodate. Our minds become twisted as we systematically suppress truths that would call us to repent. One of the primary ways that we will suppress the truth is in our assessment of ourselves as we will think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Untangling this mess we only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit through the Word dealing with both mind and heart as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to help us begin to think with sober judgment.



Scripture obviously provides correctives when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, especially in regards to our moral standing before God, or if we think we are especially good. No one is good but God.



But I think there is also a way to think of ourselves more lowly than we ought to think. This is a subtle temptation, but I think it is also pretty pervasive. This is also what I would take to be one of the more controversial points in this blog entry. What do I mean?



I really believe the Gospel takes us radically further in two seemingly different directions than we ever would have gone without it. It definitely brings us low. It tears us down before delivering any good news, and Romans 3 above is a good example of its gritty forthrightness about how hopeless and depraved man is in his natural state after the Fall. Paul pummels out of us the idea that we are good. Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes decimates the idea that we can achieve any sort of meaning on our own. Moses gives us the creation account and heads off the idea that we came from nothing and are therefore unnacountable. John in the book of Revelation thrusts before us the coming judgment of God, and we know that we will not pass the test on our own record. Jesus, like no other, penetrates our outer facade of righteousness and exposes the deepest motives of our hearts as only our Creator and Savior can. We ought to have no illusions about these things. The Gospel and the Word bring us low.



But the Gospel also radically builds us up. We have so much in Christ. We are so much in Christ. This is a message we are slow to hear, often because it does not yet resonate as well as the first, and we are justifiably wary of veering off into prosperity theology, and we really do not want to commit the sin of pride. But where Scripture speaks to us here, we ought not listen to it any less than we do about the lowering part. So what does Scripture say to build us up?



So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) Though the Fall has twisted the image, it is still there. Because every human is created in the image of God, we believe that they all have dignity and worth before God and should be treated impartially. God's put his stamp on us.



For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Sinless Jesus became sin for us to be the righteousness of God. What does that even mean?!



The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17) We are childen of God. He is our Father now that we are in his family. Adoption! And we are heirs of the Kingdom. Again, what does that even mean?!



Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) I now have peace with God, and there is no condemnation. Because I am in the family (see above), God disciplines me as he disciplines a son, but his wrath is removed. I am freed. There is radical freedom from condemnation in the Gospel. I can take Romans 8:1 and shove it in Satan's face when he tries to attack me and tell me I am not good enough. I am not good enough is only half the Gospel.



For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:5-7) We are set free from sin! And we are united with Christ. If we are in Christ, we have freedom from sin, whether or not it feels like it.



Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world... In love he predestined us for adoption. (Ephesians 1:3-5) I am loved from before the world began, chosen in Christ. Before the stars were there, and before I existed, I was loved. What can shake that kind of love? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)



... and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) I know with certainty there is a day coming when I will be glorified. I believe God will be glorified in my glorification, or else it wouldn't happen; perhaps my glorification means receiving greater capacities to enjoy God. Who knows exactly, but I am on my way.



Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own... (1 Corinthians 6:19) We are God's dwelling place. He lives in me.



Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her... This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:25,33) God's love for me, for us is a covenant love. God has set his heart and affection on his bride so greatly that a comparison to any human marriage is poor and paltry.



A good ending of this survey of the ways God lifts us up is found in Psalm 8 in which we see the juxtaposition of humility and subsequent exaltation: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.



The practical effect on our lives as we trust God is that we are humbled, yet we walk in a new freedom and boldness. The Gospel makes us humbly bold and takes away our fear. We care less and less about how great we look and more about pleasing God. When I am prideful and walking with a swagger, I desperately need the gut-punch Romans 3. When I am broken and contrite over my sin, I desperately need the glorious reassurance of Romans 8. I probably should spend my life walking in that tension, living in Psalm 8. There needs to be a balance, but I think that only comes through really hearing both sides, both tendencies, both truths... not through a premature averaging of the two so that I am never really brought low or high.



Back to the question at hand. How should I think about myself? My answer is that we should think about ourselves accurately. According to John 8:32, the truth will set us free. Therefore, when we aim to think about ourselves, we should not think about ourselves lowly just for the sake of the thing, but rather, we should think about ourselves soberly in light of the truths that Scripture tell us. Most certainly our tendency will be to overestimate how good we are, but God is not glorified by error in either direction.



Am I allowed ever to think highly of myself, and in what way? The answer to that should be a qualified "yes". I think in some ways we ought to think highly of ourselves - not more highly than we ought - but in such a way that the thinking highly of ourselves is really a thinking highly of God. For instance, God gives different gifts and abilities. In fact the section after Romans 12:3 talks about different gifts given to people in the Body. Would God be particularly glorified if I said I was bad at math? I don't think so. It simply isn't true, and God would not be made to look any better with me trying to think that I am bad at math. But how do I affirm that I am good at math in a way that actually does glorify God?



For me, math ability becomes a source of pride when I let it move me toward a point of self-sufficiency from God. I ought to attribute my math ability to God's sovereign grace and give deep thanks to him for it. A lot of my ability to do math was due the circumstances of my birth and environment, things outside of my control, and even for the part that isin my control, it is only in my control as a stewardship. My time is not my own, my body is not my own, my abilities are not my own. The part that seems to be under my own control, I also must attribute to God at work in me. Everything I do, I ought to do with the continual acknowledgement of thanks to God. I must never put down or attribute the good things about me as I something that I just accomplished on my own. God has blessed me with gifts, and this is balanced by an acknowledgement that I am not good at other things, like arts and crafts.



Jesus is our definition of humility. I do not think his humility was at all thinking of himself as less. I think he thought of himself with sober judgment in accordance with the truth about himself. His humility consisted mainly in action, taking the lower seat, stooping down, refusing to avail himself of all his attributes in order to save sinners. Jesus' humility is about loving action, not putting himself down. Practically, it is impossible to operate if we refuse to acknowledge what we're good at. God gives us gifts to use, but we should give him all the glory with them.



We should say something like... God, I believe that you have given me the ability to do math, you have blessed me with a supportive family, and by your sustaining power you have given me life and even the will to pursue math. Lord, I thank you. Help me not to count myself higher than those who are not as good at math. Give me the eyes to see others' gifts and to encourage them in sincerity. Keep me from judgment and from sinful comparisons with others. God, you know so much more math than I do - what I know is like a tiny drop in an infinite ocean compared to your knowledge. Above all, God, I pray that you would help me to glorify you in my gifting, that you would help me to find ways to serve you and help others, and that I would give you all credit, all glory, and all thanks.

An Inquiry Into the Nature of Humility - Part II

Do we have any help towards becoming truly humble? Do we have any example? What will aid us in this thing that Scripture puts forth as a most necessary attribute? What is the nature of true humility? I want to take a look at what it means to grow in holiness, while looking at humility as a specific part of that.

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14) Though we believe we are saved by grace and not works, it is very obvious here that we are told to strive for holiness. There is a type of true holiness that marks out believers. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18) Being saved and born again will inevitably result in sin-killing fruit. One of the marks of the child of God is that he is at war and knows it.

We have some gloriously Good News in the pursuit of this holiness and in the pursuit of true humility before God. We have a uniquely triune God who, for his name's sake, has chosen to be for us in these things. Praise be to the God who is three-in-one! And let's look at some reasons why, taking the Trinity one person at a time.

First, God the Father. Though all the persons of the Trinity are fully God and bear all of the same attributes, we do see a willing submission and headship within the Trinity. Jesus prays to the Father and teaches us to do so as well. He submits to the Father's will. We see this in the Garden of Gethsemane: Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. (Mark 14:36) Also, concerning the hour of Christ's return... no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

The Father is sovereign. He reigns. He rules. The Holy Spirit proceeds from him. He is the Author of all life and all history. He is supremely good, supremely powerful, supremely loving. He planned our salvation from eternity past, and he delights himself in his Son. Another way that we can look at our salvation is this: From eternity past, the Father loved his Son and designed to give him a Bride. Let us look at how the design of God the Father in our salvation is calculated to make us holy and humble.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-14)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8: 29-32)

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)

Observations: 1) The Father planned history to be summed up in Christ, of which our salvation is a part. 2) We were predestined, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. 3) We were not chosen for our works. We were not chosen because we were inherently good. God chose us first. 4) Therefore, being saved by God's unexplainable loving grace towards me, a dead rebel, I have absolutely nothing to boast about. This indeed is deepest ground of humility. 5) God's grace is central to the point of history because we will spend eternity praising him for the glory of that grace. Thankfulness and praise for God's grace, the apex of which is the substitutionary death of the Lamb on the Cross, will drive out pride and provide humility. Therefore, we ought to keep ourselves before the Cross, bringing ourselves low in order to get the best view of God's glory.

We are also not just saved from something, but we are saved to something. Salvation in Christ is far from mere fire insurance. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places! And what seems pervasive to me about these passages is that we are very clearly saved to a holiness, which is completely consistent with God the Father's loving and good design. We are saved to be holy and blameless, saved for good works that we should walk in, and we are predestined to be made like Christ. We are saved unto abiding humility.

For me, the Gospel is so beautifully present in these passages, and I derive great comfort from God's sovereignty and grace. Romans 8 shows such a powerful chain from foreknowledge to glorification, and the Gospel is that I am not the one who guarantees that chain, but rather it is guaranteed by the One who bought that chain with his blood! And while I must strive for sanctification, it is not ultimately in my hands - it is in the hands of the Potter... For we are his workmanship. From eternity past God planned our holiness and humility. May the beauty and greatness of this salvation floor us! May the majesty and dominion and sovereignty of our God floor us. May God floor us! Here lies true humility.

Second, God the Son. The most obvious way in which Jesus makes us holy is that without new birth no real holiness is possible. Without Jesus' substitutionary death and resurrection, we would not be able to be born again. We would not be able to exercise true faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17) But Christ is raised, and our faith is not futile, and payment has been made for our sins. We were born into Adam, and by faith we are found now in Christ, his life becoming ours, his death becoming ours, his resurrection becoming ours.
For all have sinned and all 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. (Romans 3:23-25)

If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

The grace that we have received in Jesus Christ is unsurpassed. Christ Jesus, God the Son, worthy of all worship and praise, becoming a curse on our behalf in order to absorb the full wrath of God against all our sins, past, present, and future. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) I rejoice with John Bunyan who received unspeakable comfort when he realized that the Gospel meant that Jesus was his righteousness, in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and nothing we ever do can mess up that righteousness (Jesus) or improve upon that righteousness (Jesus). And is this demotivating to holiness since our holiness is not what saves us? No! What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15) So what do we do in light of all of this grace and mercy? I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. (Romans 12:1) God's mercy is the ground for our exhortation to holiness.

Here we find in Christ our greatest teacher. Jesus is the incarnate Word who is eternal and is the very embodiment of the wisdom of God. Christ teaches us to pray to God the Father. He teaches about who he is. He teaches us about how great God is. He warns. He exhorts. He encourages. He gives a wisdom and guidance for living well in his Kingdom. See the Sermon on the Mount. Dallas Willard has written about how we rarely view Jesus as brilliant, as a giver of insider knowledge on the way the world works. But who better to know than the one through whom it was all created and in whom it all will be summed up?! The Great Commission keeps the teachings and commandments (and obedience to the teachings) of Jesus central. We make obedient disciples, not just converts.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

And we also find in Jesus the only person who has ever lived and truly backed up what he taught. He was and is the only man who was not a hypocrite. There is no disjunction between the Word and his words. Jesus, God-become-man, is the only person who has ever lived in complete humility. He is our standard for humility. He is our teacher of humility. He defines it! While I have gone a long way around to get back to the original question, I think this is perhaps the most essential place to look in order to actually answer it. Philippians 2:1-11 sets the stage for a correct interpretation of Christ's humility:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This passage defines humility and seats it in the actions flowing from the heart and mind of Jesus. And then we are told to have that mind in us. We will return to this passage at the end of the blog entry, but for now, let us soak ourselves in the wonder of what Jesus has done! Jesus, who could claim any right, who is sovereign, who is LORD, who has all freedom, whom angels worship... this God for a time chose not to avail himself of all his rights for the sake of others. He willingly lowered himself to be among those who were on that level. He took on our aches and pains and temptations and sorrows and griefs. He did not grasp at worldly dignity in his birth as he became a real human baby, born in a manger, first worshipped by shepherds. He chose to became a servant and even stooped to wash the feet of his betrayer. In his life and death, Jesus experienced abandonment, betrayal, mockery, and crucifixion. To save others, he gave himself. By his blood, he proved his love. This is humility. True exaltation and honor for us must be sought in this mold. As Jesus lowered himself and allowed the Father to give him the name above every name, so we must lower ourselves and not worry about when and how God might lift us up.

Jesus frees from our guilt to pursue holiness and humility. He commands and teaches to be humble. Finally, he shows us how to do it. Thank you, Jesus.

Finally, God the Holy Spirit. I need more than just an example because I know from experience that I can never emulate Jesus in my own strength, and frankly, that would be exhausting. I need more than just a role model to look up to from afar. We all do. We need help! I think every honest Christian feels this. We will not make it a single step in the Christian life without divine help. Let's look at some things the Holy Spirit does according to Jesus:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26)

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. (John 15:26)

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do no go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:7-8)

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:14)

All of these passages come from the same section where Jesus is teaching his disciples in the last week before the crucifixion. At this point in time, he knows it will not be long before he must go, and he has the concern of a Shepherd for his sheep, and he does not mean to leave them alone. How amazing is his gift to the Church! He gives his very Spirit. God himself lives in the believer, and as counterintuitive as it may seem, it is better this way than if Christ was bodily here with us. The Spirit of Christ is in far more places than his Jesus' physical body could be. We learn that the Spirit helps, loves truth and brings it to mind, and gives us the presence of God.

The Holy Spirit is our great ally in the search for humility. Humility is learned as we lean on him. His very identity is as Helper. Therefore, we only relate to him as we ought to as we are accepting help. This is completely a one way relationship. God never needs our help. The Holy Spirit is never improved by the shabby living quarters of my heart. His help is completely a grace, and it is in the Spirit that I will grow, as I train myself into a posture of dependency.

The Holy Spirit also teaches me humility before the Word. My natural reaction is to trust in myself. It is not my natural reaction to trust Scripture. My own sin blinds me to Scripture and would keep me from it. But it is the Holy Spirit, the one who breathed Scripture, that brings me in humility before Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is God. Our sin can grieve the Holy Spirit. Our bodies really do become the temple of God, and by our sin, we defile the temple of God. The Holy Spirit works humility in us through conviction of sin. We need godly sorrow over sin. We do not naturally gravitate towards repentance, and our consciences are easily seared and misshapen. But God remains God, and no matter how far gone our conscience is, if we belong to God, he will not let us go. He will bring us back to conviction and repentance through the Holy Spirit, praying from the heart prayers like Psalm 51.

The Holy Spirit as God also has perfect humility. The way that we see him relate to Jesus and the Father attests to this. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father to do his will in the world and bring about his purposes, and the Holy Spirit loves to make much of Jesus. He delights to glorify Jesus in our hearts. The Holy Spirit loves to use the Gospel to open our eyes to the glory of God. The Holy Spirit is exceedingly happy when we are happy in Jesus, when we exercise faith, when we lean on the Father in prayer. He helps us in all these things. Let us declare our need before him and thereby grow in true humility.

Thank you, Holy Spirit! How amazing to see that God, all three persons working in perfect harmony, is so incredibly for us and for our sanctification because his pursuit of our conformity to Christ is simultaneously a pursuit of his glory. If we question whether he is for us, we need only to look at the cross. And if we question whether he can pull us through to holiness and humility, we need only to look at the power of the resurrection and realize that the Spirit who made that happen now lives in us.

What can I say, but soli Deo gloria?!

An Inquiry into the Nature of Humility - Part I

While my blog entries are often the result of whatever happens to be on my mind, it is a happy day when one of my brothers or sisters has a legitimate question that I can help to answer.  Today happens to be such a day.  Immediately upon thinking about the question, multiple thoughts and shades of meaning presented themselves to me, and I realized that a proper answering of the question would require something like this blog entry.  Then I thought, why write merely in private when others might be edified through a public writing?  So here it is... (in parts because my writing started getting too long.)


What is the question?  I will quote the email I received earlier...


"Humbleness is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."
I've been seeing it on facebook a lot lately. I think it makes sense from a worldly perspective, but looking through the lens of Jesus Christ it doesn't. Thoughts? ... I am curious to hear what your response would be. 



First, I want to commend my brother on desiring a Biblical perspective.  In googling the quote, it looks like Rick Warren has said it, and maybe Tim Keller, too.  Both are pretty legit guys.  I'm not sure if they're quoting some more original source.  Either way, we ought to care far more about what Scripture says than in a pithy quote or in a saying from one of our favorite preachers.  Indeed what does the Bible say about humility?  (And the flip side of that - what does it say about pride?)  Getting an informed perspective from Scripture is a good prerequisite for directly addressing the question of the above quote, even if that takes a little time and seems roundabout to some.  Indeed, there is no great prohibition on skipping to the end of this entry, though the good stuff is certainly in the bolded words of God in the middle.


My selections of verses on humility and pride are simply a few of the many.   The overwhelming consensus of the Bible is that God is against pride and in favor of humility.  Pride is manifestly a sin, putting ourselves in the place of God, and humility would be its opposite virtue.    Let's examine some verses and let the Word of God speak. 


He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?   (Micah 6:8)


Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  (Proverbs 16:8)

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (James 4:10)


For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  (Luke 14:11)


All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.     (Isaiah 66:2)


And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."    (Matthew 18:3-4)


In these verses we see that we must walk humbly with God.  We see that pride's destination is a fall and that humility's destination is exaltation by God.  We see that when God looks for a servant, he finds and uses those who are humbled before his Word.  Indeed, child-like humility is necessary to enter the Kingdom.  Moreover, the following verses from Isaiah 2 about the day of the Lord show powerfully God's preference for humility and commitment to flatten the prideful.


⁶ For you have rejected your people,
      the house of Jacob,
      because they are full of things from the east
      and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
      and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
⁷ Their land is filled with silver and gold,
      and there is no end to their treasures;
      their land is filled with horses,
      and there is no end to their chariots.
⁸ Their land is filled with idols;
      they bow down to the work of their hands,
      to what their own fingers have made.
⁹ So man is humbled,
      and each one is brought low—
      do not forgive them!
¹⁰ Enter into the rock
      and hide in the dust
      from before the terror of the Lord,
      and from the splendor of his majesty.
¹¹ The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
      and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
      and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

¹² For the Lord of hosts has a day
      against all that is proud and lofty,
      against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
¹³ against all the cedars of Lebanon,
      lofty and lifted up;
      and against all the oaks of Bashan;
¹⁴ against all the lofty mountains,
      and against all the uplifted hills;
¹⁵ against every high tower,
      and against every fortified wall;
¹⁶ against all the ships of Tarshish,
      and against all the beautiful craft.
¹⁷ And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
      and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
      and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away.
¹⁹ And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
      and the holes of the ground,

        from before the terror of the Lord,

      and from the splendor of his majesty,
      when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰ In that day mankind will cast away
      their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

      which they made for themselves to worship,
      to the moles and to the bats,
²¹ to enter the caverns of the rocks
      and the clefts of the cliffs,

      from before the terror of the Lord,
      and from the splendor of his majesty,
      when he rises to terrify the earth.
²² Stop regarding man
      in whose nostrils is breath,
      for of what account is he?

We see here a huge, majestic, and - quite frankly - terrifying picture of a God who promises and vows to destroy idolatry, of a LORD who hates pride and will one day destroy and flatten anything or anyone that would rise as a competitor for his glory.  Mankind will shake and hide in the presence of such blisteringly bright holiness.  What would our lives look like if we could only get a glimpse of that day?  (And what is this Scripture, but God graciously giving us that glimpse so that we might repent!) 


A central verse that ties this passage together is verse 17.  In this verse we see the very point of humility - the exaltation of the LORD.  The point of humility is the glory of God, that God would be seen and treasured and worshipped among his creation for all the he is.  In Romans 3:23 Paul declares the universality of sin among the human race and also reinforces this truth - that at its root sin is a belittling and a falling short of the glory of God:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

The universe is all about the glory of God.  Following a long, deep explanation of God's breathtaking design in our salvation through Jesus, Paul bursts forth into instructive praise in Romans 11: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  ...For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever.  Amen.  That is why we exist, why we were created, why we continue exist.  All the stars in the heavens, all the fish in the sea, every created thing exists to bring glory to its Maker.  I could run to dozens of verses there as well, but that would take my blog into book-length proportions, and I will spare you.  Trust me - it's all about God.  It's all about his glory and not our own. 


But I can't resist just one...  It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declared the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  (Ezekiel 36:22-23)


I argue that no one can be truly humble at the point of sinning, and that by its very nature, sin is a grab for self-exalting preference and power.  You cannot be simultaneously treasuring God in your heart and bowing before him while also sinning.  Pride, therefore, is at the heart of sin.  Sin in its very essence is a belittling of God's glory.  Therefore, humility is an essential ingredient to the very point of our existence - glorifying God - while pride is rebellion against that.  Humility is something like the soil in which all of our other virtues grow, just as pride is the soil in which all of our vices grow.  We glorify God by being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and all of our progress towards that end will be seen to not really be much progress at all if we are growing in pride all along the way.


The conclusion: we should be humble.