Happy Reformationstag II

The Swiss Reformer John Calvin would like a say as well this Reformation Day. (Or at least I would like to give him voice.) The following is from his renowned Institutes of Christian Religion on the subject of faith and works:

"13. But since a great part of mankind imagine a righteousness compounded of faith and works let us here show that there is so wide a difference between justification by faith and by works, that the establishment of the one necessarily overthrows the other. The Apostle says, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,” (Phil. 3:8, 9). You here see a comparison of contraries, and an intimation that every one who would obtain the righteousness of Christ must renounce his own. Hence he elsewhere declares the cause of the rejection of the Jews to have been, that “they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,” (Rom. 10:3). If we destroy the righteousness of God by establishing our own righteousness, then, in order to obtain his righteousness, our own must be entirely abandoned. This also he shows, when he declares that boasting is not excluded by the Law, but by faith (Rom. 3:27). Hence it follows, that so long as the minutes portion of our own righteousness remains, we have still some ground for boasting. Now if faith utterly excludes boasting, the righteousness of works cannot in any way be associated with the righteousness of faith. This meaning is so clearly expressed in the fourth chapter to the Romans as to leave no room for cavil or evasion. “If Abraham were justified by works he has whereof to glory;” and then it is added, “but not before God,” (Rom. 4:2). The conclusion, therefore, is, that he was not justified by works. He then employs another argument from contraries—viz. when reward is paid to works, it is done of debt, not of grace; but the righteousness of faith is of grace: therefore it is not of the merit of works. Away, then, with the dream of those who invent a righteousness compounded of faith and works."

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Happy Reformationstag I

Happy Reformationstag.

We must not forget that issues in regards to the nature of the human will was one of the key issues of the Protestant Reformation. For those who think Biblical conclusions over the nature of the human will are unimportant and simply speculative: stand corrected from Mr. Martin Luther. The following quote is from his Bondage of the Will:

"Therefore, it is not irreligious, curious, or superfluous, but essentially wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know, whether or not the will does any thing in those things which pertain unto Salvation. Nay, let me tell you, this is the very hinge upon which our discussion turns. It is the very heart of our subject. For our object is this: to inquire what “Free-will” can do, in what it is passive, and how it stands with reference to the grace of God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatever of Christian matters, and shall be far behind all People upon the earth. He that does not feel this, let him confess that he is no Christian. And he that despises and laughs at it, let him know that he is the Christian’s greatest enemy. For, if I know not how much I can do myself, how far my ability extends, and what I can do God-wards; I shall be equally uncertain and ignorant how much God is to do, how far His ability is to extend, and what He is to do toward me: whereas it is “God that worketh all in all.” (1 Cor. xii. 6.) But if I know not the distinction between our working and the power of God, I know not God Himself. And if I know not God, I cannot worship Him, praise Him, give Him thanks, nor serve Him; for I shall not know how much I ought to ascribe unto myself, and how much unto God. It is necessary, therefore, to hold the most certain distinction, between the power of God and our power, the working of God and our working, if we would live in His fear."

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The Mall in Me

A few months ago I found this particular passage about a trip to a mall from Don Delillo's fictional work, White Noise, particularly captivating in all its disturbing truth for America--for me.

"...The encounter put me in the mood to shop. I found the others and we walked across two parking lots to the main structure in the Mid Village Mall, a ten-story building arranged around a center court of waterfalls, promenades and gardens. Babette and the kids followed me into the elevator, into the shops set along the tiers, through the emporiums and department stores, puzzled but excited by my desire to buy. When I could not decide between two shirts, they encouraged me to buy both. When I said I was hungry, they fed me pretzels, beer, souvlaki The two girls scouted ahead, spotting things they thought I might want or need, running back to get me, to clutch my arms, plead with me to follow They were my guides to endless well-being...My family gloried in the event. I was one of them, shopping, at last. They gave me advice, badgered clerks on my behalf. I kept seeing myself unexpectedly in some reflecting surface. We moved from store to store, rejecting not only items in certain departments, not only entire departments but whole stores, mammoth corporations that did not strike our fancy for one reason or another. There was always another store, three floors, eight floors, basement full of cheese graters and paring knives. I shopped with reckless abandon. I shopped for immediate needs and distant contingencies. I shopped for its own sake, looking and touching, inspecting merchandise I had no intention of buying, then buying it. I sent clerks into their fabric books and pattern books to search for elusive designs. I began to grow in value and self-regard. I filled myself out, found new aspects of myself, located a person I'd forgotten existed. Brightness settled around me. We crossed from furniture to men's wear, walking through cosmetics...I traded money for goods. The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was bigger than these sums. These sums poured off my skin like so much rain. These sums in fact became back to me in the form of existential credit. I felt expansive, inclined to be sweepingly generous...We ate another meal. A band played live Muzak. Voices rose ten stories from the gardens and promenades, a roar that echoed and swirled through the vast gallery, mixing with noises from the tiers, with shuffling feet and chiming bells, the hum of escalators, the sound of people eating, the human buzz of some vivid and happy transaction.

We drove home in silence. We went to our respective rooms, wishing to be alone. A little later I watched Steffie in front of the TV set. She moved her lips, attempting to match the words as they were spoken." (p. 83, 84)

Faith and Mount Moriah - Eugene Peterson

This chapter from Eugene Peterson's The Jesus Way is a wonderfully piercing picture of the Abraham testing, the Abraham faith, and the God of Abraham:

"We need testing. God tests us. The test results will show whether we are choosing the way of awe and worship and obedience (which is to say, God), or whether, without being aware of it, we are reducing God to our understanding of him so that we can use him. Have we slipped into the habit of insisting that God do what we ask or want or need him to do, treating him as an idol designed for our satisfaction? Does God serve us or do we serve God? Do we require a God that we can fully understand and control or are we willing to be obedient to what we do not understand and could never control? Is God a mystery of goodness whom we embrace and trust, or is God a formula for getting the most out of life on our terms? The test results will show whether we have been blithely assuming that God is pledged to give us whatever we want whenever we ask. Have we thought all along that God is there to serve us? The test will tell us. Do we want God in our own image or do we want the God who is beyond us and over us, who we trust will do for us what only God can do in the way that only God can do it--no strings attached...no reservations...no caveats...the whole hog? The test will tell us.

And we will be glad enough to have the test results so that we can get on with the resurrection-shaped life God has for us. This does not always happen without some pain, for we can get very attached to our little projects of self-deification, but it doesn't take us long to be glad to have gotten rid of them.

Nothing in our Scriptures is as demanding on our faith as the Akedah, this Binding of Isaac, narrated in such bare but excruciating detail as to leave no doubt that the stakes are eternally high. We ask, 'Why this quite unimaginable severity at Moriah?' Isn't there another way?...Soren Kierkegaard in his passionate search for an authentic life of faith probed the Moriah test relentlessly and left no room for an easy detour, a comfortable alternative. He warns against every attempt to trivialize faith into a vacation getaway in the mountains, or a place of influence in the city, or an entertainment park in the suburbs. The way of faith does not serve our fantasies, our illusions, or our ambitions. Faith is not the way to God on our terms, it is the way of God to us on his terms.

A three-day walk to Mount Moriah exposes the banality of all such bogus faith. At Mount Moriah we accept and worship a God beyond our understanding. At Mount Moriah we embrace a mystery that is light-filled, but no less a mystery for all that.

Abraham and the Akedah: the Christian way cannot be programmed, cannot be guaranteed: faith means that we put our trust in God--and we don't know how he will work out our salvation, only that it is our salvation that he is working out. Which frees us for anything. We must be the ones tied down, so that we can be the one's set free..." (p. 54-55)

How to Weaken Pride and Cultivate Humility - CJ Mahaney

As I walked out of the office today my colleague, friend, and brother in Christ, Nate, peaked in my car, glanced at the book on the passenger seat and said "How's humility going for you?" I responded with, "The book is good." He chuckled and said, "Good response." He probably chuckled because he knows I need some serious humility in my life. Don't we all! Well, here are some suggestions for the weakening of pride and the cultivating of humility that CJ Mahaney provides in his book Humility: True Greatness:

Always:
1. Reflect on the wonder of the cross of Christ.

As each day begins:
2. Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.
3. Begin your day expressing gratefulness to God.
4. Practice the spiritual disciplines--prayer, study of God's Word, worship. Do this consistently each day and at the day's outset, if possible.
5. Seize your commute time to memorize and meditate on Scripture.
6. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.

As each day ends:
7. At the end of the day, transfer the glory to God.
8. Before going to sleep, receive this gift of sleep from God and acknowledge His purpose for sleep.

For special focus:
9. Study the attributes of God.
10. Study the doctrines of grace.
11. Study the doctrine of sin.
12. Play as much golf as possible.
13. Laugh often, and laugh often at yourself.

Throughout your days and weeks:
14. Identify evidences of grace in others.
15. Encourage and serve others each and every day.
16. Invite and pursue correction.
17. Respond humbly to trials.

(p. 171-172)

Jesus Died for God's Glory

I've heard it said by one preacher that one of the main reasons Jesus died was to preserve the freedom of man. Wrong. Jesus died for God's glory. John Piper, in his classic, The Pleasures of God, writes,

"...God would not just sweep the sins of his chosen people under the rug of the universe. If God was simply going to acquit guilty, God-belittling sinners by faith, then something terrible and awesome had to happen to vindicate his allegiance to the worth of his glory. And that something was the death of his Son. This death demonstrated the inexpressible passion God has for the worth of his glory and for the vindication of righteousness...We know that everything Jesus did in life and death he did for the glory of his Father...The very purpose for which Jesus came to the hour of his death was to glorify the Father. Jesus wants us to see that his willingness to lose his life is because of his love for the glory of the Father. This is how the worth of God's glory is magnified in the death of Jesus." (p. 165, 2000 edition)

The Cure for the Christian's Past Sin

Feeling depressed about your past. Here is some "medication", rather, the cure from the Doctor through Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones:

"Let me sum it up in this way, therefore. You and I--and to me this is one of the great discoveries of the Christian life; I shall never forget the release which realizing this for the first time brought to me--you and I must never look at our past lives; we must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in christ Jesus. I challenge you to do that. If you look at your past and are depressed by it, if as a result you are feeling miserable as a Christian, you must do what Paul did. 'I was a blasphemer,' he said, but he did not stop at that. Does he then say: 'I am unworthy to be a preacher of the gospel?' In fact he says the exact opposite: 'I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry, etc.'....That is the way to look at your past. So if, you look at your past and are depressed, it means that you are listening to the devil...Why believe the devil instead of believing God? Rise up and realize the truth about yourself that all the past has gone, and you are one with Christ, and your sins have been blotted out once and for ever."

Spiritual Depression, p. 75-76

Living for the Glory of God - Owen & Peterson

"Living for the glory of God" is so easily assumed, so easily said, in the Christian life. John Owen, Puritan of old, knew this, and in his work on sin and temptation reminds us that "the glory of God" is not simply in generalities but its in the specifics.

And men may persuade themselves that they have a general design for the glory of God, when they have no active principle in particular duties tending at all that way. But if, instead of fixing the mind by faith on the peculiar advancing the glory of God in a duty, the soul contents itself with a general notion of doing so, the mind is already diverted and drawn off from its charge by the deceitfulness of sin. If a man be traveling in a journey, it is not only required of him that he bend his course that way, and so go on; but if he attend not unto every turning, and other occurrences in his way, he may wander and neve4r come to his journey's end. And if we suppose that in general we aim at the glory of God, as we all profess to do, yet if we attend not unto it distinctly upon every duty that occurs in our way, we shall never attain the end aimed at. Ed. Justin Taylor..., Overcoming Sin & Temptation, p. 319

Eugene Peterson, a living author, speaks to the same issue, in his recent The Jesus Way:

The relation between ends (where we are going) and means (how we get there) is a basic distinction in science, technology, philosophy, morality, and spirituality. Fitting the right means to the desired ends is required in virtually everything we do, from things as simple as getting across the street and frying an egg to the complexities involved in a mission to the moon or writing a novel. But here's the thing: the means have to be both adequate to and congruent with the end. Means have to fit ends. Otherwise everything falls apart.

It is far easier to decide on a desired end, a goal, than it is to acquire adequate means...But finding the means for reaching the goal, achieving that identity, is a matter of diligent concentration, responsible perseverance, and keen discernment.

Discernment of means adequate for living to the glory of God and congruent with our identity as baptized Christians has always been demanding, which is why the biblical writers use the metaphor of way so frequently. But with the unprecedented proliferation of technology, discernment makes demands on us in a way not anticipated by our biblical writers. For us technology has taken over the business of means. Technology has a monopoly, at least in the minds of most, on answering questions regarding means. But technology for the most part restricts the term to matters visible: the means for making cars, getting to London, amassing a fortune, winning a game, killing the enemy. It is a very impressive monopoly. In our awed admiration we hardly notice that there is little skill or wisdom or concern given to the way we actually live. A technologized world knows how to make things, knows how to get places, but is not conspicuous for living well.

My concern is that the prominence of the way in our Scriptures and traditions, showing us how to glorify God and realize our baptismal identity, has been transferred in contemporary life into way of getting money, getting jobs, and getting power. The authority of Scripture and Jesus in discerning and employing means has been taken over by technology, the god Technology. And this proliferation of technology obscures the vital organic connections between means and ends in everything that permeates our ordinary living. When technology calls the shots in matters of means, 'standard of living' has nothing to do with how well we live, only with how much money we spend annually.

The way in which Jesus is the Way is not a matter of style or expedience. Nor is it a generality, a vague pointing in an upward direction. Prayerfully and scripturally attentive, Jesus deliberately chose the ways he would live. If we choose to follow him, we must be just as prayerful, scripturally attentive, and deliberate. The other ways are no ways...

So. Jesus the Way, the ways of Jesus. He shows the way. He also is the way...

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the way we come to God. Jesus is the way God comes to us. And not first one and then the other but both at the same time. Not God's way to us on Sundays and our way to God on weekdays. It is a two-lane road. Much mischief has been perpetrated in the Christian community by not keeping both lanes open. The road up and the road down are the same road. (p. 27-28, 38.)

Radiohead Rainbows

Radiohead, probably one of the greatest bands of all time and definitely of our time, is releasing it's long awaited new album on Wednesday in a unique way: you get to pick the price of the album.

The Chicago Tribune puts it this way:

"How much is a CD worth to you, and, bigger picture, how much is the effort musicians put into making a CD worth? Those provocative questions -- a direct challenge to the evolving Internet and cultural norm of treating music as a free commodity -- are posed by Radiohead, the critically-acclaimed English band, in making its new disc, "In Rainbows," available for download Oct. 10 at whatever price you want to pay."

Radiohead, on their website, puts it in their typical minimalist way:

"Radiohead have made a record. So far, it is only available from this website. You can pre-order it in these formats: Discbox and download. Continue."

You can purchase it now, but won't get the link for the download until Oct. 10th via email.

So get things in order, put "everything in its right place", and pre-order it.

Celebrate the Steps

The following quotation contains a wonderful analogy from Matt Chandler pastor of the Village Church in Texas:

I've used this illustration 14 times since I've been a pastor here. I make no apologies for using it again tonight. It is the best word picture I know.

When my daughter first walked I don't think it was her intention to do so. I think she had a gigantic head. I think she let go of the coffee table, her fat head fell forward, in order to save her own life as the head fell, she put her foot out. That created what's known in physics as momentum. All right? So that step led to that step led to that step and she fell on the ground and we celebrated. An epic celebration of all things good. We're making cupcakes, we are partying because why? She's walking! I mean my kid is walking and for the next 3 or 4 months she can only take 6,7,8, 10 steps tops before she falls over and every time we giggle and laugh and celebrate. And not only that, but the poor kids becomes like show and tell thing every time somebody new comes over. "Watch this…..ye, yea….YEAH!!!!! And we celebrate the kid's walking even though I don't think she decided to. I think it just progressed…right? And here's the thing, never, ever, ever, did I even think about the falls. I just loved that she was walking. I mean we just, I mean never did I go "When's this kid going to learn! I mean it's been 5-6 months. I can do it. Her mom can. For a milk dud I can get the dog on his back legs walking around the kitchen. No, no, you celebrate the steps. You celebrate the steps. And when she falls, look at me, as often as she falls, never have we ever been frustrated by the falls. If anything, see she's 3 now, she's running about an 8 240, which we're trying to get that down but that's all we got right now. There's flip-flops involved now and man, sometimes the falls are bad. In fact, sometimes the falls bring blood and tears, and I still never find myself frustrated by the falls. But I do find myself when those falls occur kissing booboos, putting Band-Aids on bloody knees, holding and kissing until the tears are gone and she feels safe to run again. And then put her down and let her run again.

So it is with our Father, who rejoices in the steps and heals the falls. So it is with our Father who loves to see us run and doesn't tire of picking us up when we've fallen. See, that's the good news in all this. The good news is for the man or woman who's running towards Him. That the falls do not appoint us to suffer wrath but mercy. Mercy towards iniquity, in fact, He says, "I've forgotten all about the fall. In fact, I was so excited about you running that I forgot that you even fell. I was so excited about the fact that you were moving and you were running and you were healthy that I don't even remember that you fell." While most of us beat ourselves up over the fall. Jesus is going "What fall? I just saw you running!"

Source: Sermon text and audio.