Grace & Truth

American musician John Mellencamp once said, “I know there’s a balance in life. I see it every time I swing by it.” There is perhaps no more profound realization in the entire Christian experience than grasping the necessary balance and tension between GRACE and TRUTH.

Most individuals, churches, denominations, pastors, teachers, and movements tend to choose one over the other — or at least emphasize one at the expense of the other. My own journey has been one of sliding back and forth from one extreme to the other. I think I’m learning how to keep both held in an appropriate tension these days….but it’s always a fragile balance with many necessary “reality checks.”

I went through a TRUTH season where I was banging people over the head with my Bible trying to get them to understand the truth — but I was missing grace in the process.

Before that I had gone through a GRACE season where it was all about love, acceptance, and singing cumbaya — but I lacked a conviction for the truth about sin, judgment, the urgency of reaching lost people, living according to God’s standard as revealed in scripture, etc.

One thing that has helped me keep this balance is to broaden the theological and church circles I run in and learn from. I read Brian McLaren and Francis Chan; I listen to sermons by John Piper and Greg Boyd; I have pastoral mentors who are both evangelical and more moderate mainline; I’ve served in a Methodist church and evangelical churches; I’m inspired by the lives of Shane Claiborne and Chuck Colson, Mother Teresa and Billy Graham. And so on.

Andy Stanley sums it up extremely well…

N.T. Wright: The Gospel of John & Second Genesis

The following post is worth reading. I found it during my Easter sermon study and preparation as I prepare to trace the New Creation theme through the Gospel of John. I have read the book he’s referring to by N.T. Wright. I, too, am a huge fan and student of Wright. Get the book!  Enjoy! -JB

The Gospel of John, the Creation Story in Genesis, and Discipleship by Danny DaVinci

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 14)

It’s official: I’m an N. T. Wright fan.

I think every Christian should at least read one book by N. T. Wright.  You may or may not agree with everything he writes (for instance, I’m not quite sure if I agree with his take on justification), but he’s one of the most top-notch and accessible biblical scholars today.  Go to any major bookstore and you’ll find several of his works in the Christian/religion sections.

Basically all of the thoughts here on this post are from the 4^th chapter of his book Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship titled “The Glory of God: John.”  His brief, yet profound insights into the meanings and nuances of the gospel of John really opened my eyes to not only the text itself, but more importantly, how everything in it connects (eschatologically) with the message of the whole Bible and how it ties to what it means to be a Christian, or more specifically, a disciple of Jesus Christ today.

So let’s get right to it.

The gospel of Matthew takes us into the synagogue if you will, where the people of God are learning to recognize Jesus as their King.

In Mark, we’re given a handbook on discipleship and how to be a follower of the Servant King.

Luke presents Jesus to the cultured Greek world and is presented to a predominantly Gentile audience.

With the letters of Paul, we feel as if we’re in a seminar room: we argue things out, look up references, take notes, think deeply about things, reflect, and analyze what the gospel means and then we’re sent out to preach the gospel to the nations.

But then we get to the gospel of John and we’re not even given a chance to breathe or to even take a moment to catch a breather.  Almost immediately we’re thrust up to the mountain top.  He invites us to be still and peer deeply into the human face and eyes of Jesus of Nazareth.  As we read his text, he leads the reader to be inundated with the awesome reality that we’re not just looking into the face of a great prophet, teacher, or revolutionary, but rather, we’re brought face to face with the living God as we look at the face of Jesus of Nazareth.

Carl Olof Rosenius on a Living Faith

I’ve been studying the history and founding fathers of the Covenant the past several months. Perhaps the greatest influential figure of the 19th century revivals that swept through Sweden was C.O. Rosenius (1816-1868). He became one of Sweden’s most widely read religious writers of his time as the editor of Pietisten used heavily by the Mission Friends who later became the Covenant Church in America. Here’s a taste of Rosenius — note the strong “pietist” flavor that emphasizes a “heart faith” that leads to a changed life and the warning against a dead orthodoxy that is merely an intellectual exercise void of the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit.

“We are richer in words than in power. We are, praise God, quite rich in spiritual erudition, in word and understanding. We have more religious knowledge than the great saints formerly had. One can truthfully say with Bishop Pontoppidan, ‘As I look at our forefathers, I think that they did more than they knew; we, on the other hand, know more than we do. They were like the fruitful Leah whose eyes were weak, but we like Rachel who was beautiful and lovely.’ What is, therefore, now most necessary is practice, implementation, because the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

But be this thought far from us which some have had…that we have had enough of the preaching of faith. What is lacking, they say, is the preaching of sanctification; the former is enough and sufficiently preached. What we need now, if the deficiencies in Christendom are to be healed, is primarily the preaching of law and sanctification. No, the fact still stands firm that only the despised ‘foolishness of preaching,’ the preaching of faith, gives the spirit. Gal. 3:2. This gives life and power and truth in sanctification.

Where the power of godliness and evidence is absent, there faith and life in Christ is absent. The fault consists in this that we do not lay the Word on our hearts and immediately apply, use, and implement it in our lives. We only gather it in our reason to order our concepts and clarify doctrine. In other words, the time is used to hammer weapons, to polish and arrange, and still let the enemy possess the land without using the weapons against him. The attention is turned only to doctrine and concepts, whereas the actual business urged by the word, repentance of the heart, faith and sanctification flows, these are forgotten. And note, in this way we never get doctrine really clear or pure. In this way we are in danger of losing even doctrine, the genuine true doctrine. At least in this way we miss the real matter, God’s kingdom in us, which does not consist in words but in power.”

C.O. Rosenius, “For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power,” Missions-Vannen, May, 1878, pp. 131-132

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‘One Body, Many Parts’ – Do you know your roots?

Are Calvinists Right?

Scot McKnight is sharing his own journey of wrestling with Calvinism at Jesus Creed.  Here’s  a snippet, and I recommend you read the rest of the forthcoming series.

I found two major weaknesses in Calvinism’s theology (and also a disorientation in its architecture): first, the emphasis of its architecture is not the emphasis of the Bible. Its focus on God’s Sovereignty, which very quickly becomes much less a doctrine of grace than a doctrine of control and theodicy etc, and its overemphasis on human depravity are not the emphases I found in the Bible. The overemphasis I see of these two in high Calvinism comes more from Augustine and later Calvinists than from the rhetoric of the biblical authors. I do not dispute the presence of these themes; I dispute their narratival centrality and they are where the gravity of emphasis is found in the Bible. Yes, I know we all have metanarratives that put things together, and Calvinism is one such metanarrative. It works for some; it simply didn’t work for me.

‘A Great Cloud of Witnesses’: All Saints Day Reflection

Today is All Saints Day.  More familiar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians, this is a day we pause both to remember and celebrate all those brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us.

The church universal is made up of those believers both on this earth, and those who have passed on to the other side.  Notice I didn’t say “saints both dead and alive” — for we believe all who are in Christ, “though they die, yet shall they live” (John 11:25) eternally in the presence of God.

I have a small bone to pick with fellow protestants on this topic. While I have many profound disagreements with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church, I believe they have a much richer understanding of the ‘Communion of the Saints’ (a clear part of the Apostles’ Creed) and protestants have a far too diminished view.

Down through the centuries the church of true believers has been divided into “Church militant” and “Church triumphant.”  The “church militant” describes those who are, in the words of St. Paul, still “fighting the good fight” and have yet to receive their eternal reward. Those saints who have died and passed to the “other side” are called the “church triumphant”, for they have “kept the faith” and now stand victorious in the presence of their conquering King, Jesus the Crucified One.

So, if our departed brothers and sisters, grandmothers and grandfathers in the faith, now abide in eternal glory with Jesus, and are not therefore “dead” in the usual sense (i.e., unconscious), then what kind of relationship do they share with us who are alive in Christ on this side of the curtain?  Is it more than mere wishful thinking or childish speculation to tell a grieving child who’s lost his father at a young age that “Daddy is looking down from Heaven and watching over you”? 

Parchman Lectures on Evangelicalism by Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight recently delivered 4 watershed lectures for many of us misplaced Evangelicals who want to take back the big tent Evangelicalism of the Billy Graham and John Stott era from those trying to narrow down Evangelicalism into their much narrower theological categories.  I’m speaking primarily of the so-called “young, restless Reformed”, the Gospel Coalition, John Piper and his massive following, Albert Mohler, Jr., Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and many others giving shape to the movement Scot McKnight is now calling the Neo-Puritans.

I commend the following four lectures to these brothers and sisters especially, not asking them to agree with them, but hoping they will give a broader perspective on the movement we call Evangelicalism, and plunge them deeper into Scripture with a fresh openness to actually apply the Reformation principle of ‘sola Scriptura.’

I commend these lectures as well to those who may have concluded that the Neo-Puritans (Piper, Driscoll, Chandler, DeYoung, etc.) are the only thoughtful, biblically rigorous evangelical alternative to a shallow, superficial seeker brand of Evangelicalism on the one hand, and the trendy, postmodern, theologically muddled Emergent movement on the other.  Scot McKnight walks this lonely road, a voice in the evangelical wilderness speaking out for many of us non-Calvinist Evangelicals.  I hope these lectures are spread broadly, and awaken many to the beautifully rich heritage that is (or was?) Evangelicalism.

Please check out the Parchman Lectures by Scot McKnight here.

God vs. Satan: The Warfare Worldview (G. Boyd)

Every year around Halloween, I like to explore the topic of spiritual warfare — you know, angels, demons and the cosmic forces of evil. Here are some of the posts on this topic from the past.

Today I want to share Greg Boyd’s basic articulation of what he calls a “Warfare Worldview” — that is, how can Christians affirm that God is all-powerful and still believe that other evil forces (human and angelic) are working to thwart God’s will?  If created beings have genuine free will, then how can we be certain that God is really in control of this broken world? Here’s how Greg approaches these questions.

The warfare worldview is based on the conviction that our world is engaged in a cosmic war between a myriad of agents, both human and angelic, that have aligned themselves with either God or Satan. This is the view that is presupposed throughout the entire Bible, and it’s especially evident in the New Testament. For example, Jesus unequivocally opposed evils such as disease, demonization, and even natural disaster (i.e. when Jesus rebuked a storm) and saw them as originating in the wills of Satan, fallen angels, and sinful people, rather than in the will of God.

Cultivating an Apostolic Imagination

What if our faith was as real and powerful as the faith of the Apostle Paul, Peter, James and John, Mary and Lydia, Priscilla and Aquilla?  What if our experience of church today was as exciting as those in the upper room at Pentecost, as action-packed as Barnabas and Silas’s missionary journeys throughout Asia Minor, as faith-stretching as Peter stepping out onto the water, or as jolting as Paul being knocked flat on his back and blinded by the light of Christ? What if the Spirit’s guidance was as real and direct in our lives as when Paul was led to Macedonia by a vision in the night?  What if our message today was bold enough to “turn the world upside down” as we pledge allegiance to a different King and Kingdom than the rest of those around us (Acts 17:7)?

We are accustomed to approaching the New Testament as detached observers feeling far removed from the original events, or as students picking apart the text as an academic exercise.  We study the Bible to learn about God, about Jesus, about the church and about the power of Holy Spirit. But many of us will never enter into the story, become real participants in the activity of God, and let our imaginations be reshaped by the Apostolic life we read about in the New Testament.

This year I have the privilege of leading our MainStreet college group through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. As I prepared for our first evening together, these thoughts were swimming through my head. All of these students grew up in church and now attend a Christian college where they are constantly discussing the Bible, taking classes on it, hearing it preached in chapel, and reading it in their personal devotions. As with all Christian colleges, the Bible is their primary textbook.

But I want to approach Paul’s letter to the Ephesians differently.  I wan’t to recapture the exciting situation into which this epistle was written.  I want us to remember that these were personal letters sent by a real missionary-pastor to real people living in a real place facing real challenges.  I want to let these powerful words be heard afresh, wrapping our minds around the potent message contained within.  I want us to cultivate an Apostolic Imagination as we dig into Ephesians.

I briefly unpacked 4 aspects of an Apostolic Imagination with our group tonight: apostolic purpose, power, passion and participation. 

“Get Out of the Way” Theology

When I meet Christians who are infatuated with their own depravity because it supposedly puts God on display, I often wonder what they do with certain Bible passages.  You’ve met them often enough.  They have a “Get out of the Way” theology.  They appropriately fear self-righteousness and pride in their faith. They rightly want to be humble, deny themselves and give God all the glory.  They mistakingly conclude, however, that they need to get out of the way in order for God to be seen in their lives.

The obvious problem with “Get out of the Way” theology is that God himself has placed us “in the way” on purpose to be his living, breathing signposts pointing others to Him.  As God’s “image bearers” we are intended to reflect and display God’s glory in our lives. And, what do we do with Jesus’ little lesson about letting our light shine before men?